How to select a Medical Billing Company: Reference Checking
Posted by: Brad Ferth in Education, tags: EducationInsuring that you utilize a systematic and well designed process for reference checking will dramatically improve your success in selecting a medical billing services company. Using an interview guide is a key element of successful reference checking.
Reference checking is certainly not the only element that must be properly executed in your medical billing company selection. It is, however, one of the more critical and it has several sub-steps that must be properly considered.
Although today’s write-up is geared towards creating an effective interview guide, this is far from the only ingredient of a successful medical billing services company selection. Other critical ingredients include outlining the minimum requirements of an acceptable reference (e.g., does it need to be in your state, what specialties are acceptable, etc), deciding if you want to speak with a former client, outlining the roles of the people with whom your wish to speak (e.g., lead partner, practice administrator, day-to-day billing contact, etc), creating the interview guide, call the references, and making the final go/no-go decision.
Without a good interview guide you could easily finish your reference check process and not have gathered the right information for your final decision. So, before you start the reference calls make a list of your top hopes and fears concerning your new medical billing company. Next create a few questions that will allow you to come away from the reference check with the information you need to assess how your potential medical billing company has performed in these areas for their current clients.
It is critical to ensure that your questions are specific enough that you can come away with real facts from the reference calls. You do not want to ask broad questions like “Are you happy with this company’s performance?” Such questions are open to much interpretation and are driven by the individual’s previous experiences.
To insure you have the information you need at the end of the interview process use narrow questions such as “What were you days in AR before you outsourced and how did they change 3 months after you outsourced?” This gives you specific and actionable data.
With your list of questions completed you need to put them in an easy to use form. The best approach is to print them out with about four questions spaced out on a page. This allows you to easily write the answers nest to the questions. Do not make any calls until you do a final read through of your questions and ask yourself, “will I have what I need to make a final decision if I get these answers?” If the answer is “yes”, then pick up the phone and start dialing.
It is your job to make sure you get specific answers to all of all your questions. Think of yourself as a reporter and do not let the call end until you have all of your questions specifically answered. You will need to practice good time management to make sure this happens in the period the person is allowing for the reference call. If you do not get all of your questions answered, then ask to schedule a second call.
One final tip: If during the reference check one of the references brings up a key issue you had not considered, add it to your interview guide and call back any references to which you have already spoken to get the missing data you need from them.
With your well planned and structured reference checks complete you will be in a position to make an informed medical billing service decision.
Copyright 2008 by Medical Billing Services Buying Guide.

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