4 Ways Office Managers Can Organize Clinic Finances
Clinic office managers have an endless amount of tasks to juggle, and sometimes it seems all of them are urgent. This can be the case especially when tax deadlines or 401(k) filings sneak up on you, or when you are trying to find a document in an unorganized stack of papers. The best way to avoid surprises is to set policies and streamline processes when possible. Here are four tips office managers can use to keep clinic finances in order.
Go Paperless Where You Can
Many clinics are converting patient records to a digital format. Electronic records enable you to receive and send information efficiently, and often more quickly when time is of the essence. Digital records eliminate paper files, so you may be able to save space as well. If you’re setting up a digital accounting system, many options are available online, such as medical accounting, medical billing, a pay stub template and patient scheduling software.
Establish Clear Financial Policies
Creating policies that everyone understands, from patient to provider to office, is essential to staying organized. One of the first steps is checking a patient’s insurance eligibility before each appointment. Rather than reviewing once a quarter or even less frequently, the short time it takes to review insurance each time will help in the long run. While you may have an insurance card on file, the patient’s employment status or eligibility may have changed since the last appointment.
Be sure patients understand they need to bring a form of payment with them to the appointment, and that they will need to pay their portion of financial responsibility when they arrive. Taking care of financial business at the beginning of the visit will eliminate the chance that they could inadvertently leave without paying.
Keeping your patients informed of your financial policy ahead of time will avoid any surprises at the front desk. Forms that require a signature should include information about interest charged on overdue payments, or extra expenses if the bill goes to a collection agency.
Streamline Payment Processes
If your office is able to take cash, check, credit or debit payments, it will help your patients take care of their financial responsibilities in a timely manner, thus keeping your finances organized.
While it may seem like the percentage collected by credit card companies is a drain, accepting cards might actually help in the long run. If the patient cannot offer cash or a check, you will still be able to collect your money in a timely manner. Many patients have a healthcare reimbursement account that they access with a debit card, and having the ability to accept debit or credit cards will let them make a seamless transaction without waiting for reimbursement.
Keeping patient credit cards on file can also streamline the payment process. With prior authorization, you will be able to bill the amount not covered by insurance.
Create an Emergency Plan
An organized office is also prepared for the unexpected. Plans for security breaches and fire, storm or other building disasters should be implemented and reviewed on a regular basis. While you will hopefully never use them, emergency plans should be fresh in the minds of everyone who works in the clinic so they can be put into action without delay. A grab-and-go bag with insurance contacts, up-to-date employee cell phone numbers, facility information and other important materials can be part of your critical office supplies.
The Medical Group Management Association recommends a secure backup system for patient and financial records in the event of a power outage or service interruption. Time is the one resource that clinic managers never seem to have enough of. While it may seem at first that planning takes away valuable time, it actually lets you get organized so you don’t miss important events or deadlines. Organized finances will help your clinic run more efficiently and accomplish the most important goal: helping your patients.
