patient calling

Steps to follow while on conversation with a patient Call the patient’s phone number. 1. If the patient couldn’t be reached at the home phone number, try calling the work phone number. If both are unreachable, make a note of it. 2. If the number is busy, try sometime later and if it’s still busy, make a note of it. 3. If you reach a voice mail, leave a message just asking the patient to call us back. For example : "My name is Kevin calling from Dr XYZ’s billing office and would like to talk to __________ (Patient). Please call us back with your insurance information at ____________ (Our given phone #). 4. a. If someone other than the patient comes on the line, ask for the patient and if the person says that there is no one by the patient’s name, make a note of it. b. If the person says that the patient lives there, but is not available at that time, ask the person when the pt will be available and leave a message with that person asking the pt to call us back at our given ph#. Also verify the patient’s residential address. Never tell the outstanding amount to a person other than the patient or leave a message on the voicemail with that detail. Reveal this detail only to the patient, if the patient asks for it. 5. If the patient is available, inform him/her that this is regarding the treatment rendered to him/her on the specific DOS and that the bill is still outstanding.

a. If the patient says that he/she had insurance coverage during the time period, he/she was given treatment, get the insurance details such as the Insurance company name, policy ID#, effective date and termination date (if applicable), group# or plan#.

b. If the patient didn’t have any insurance coverage at that time of service, inform him/her that she would be responsible for the outstanding bills. In such a case, ask if the patient has received any statement from our side and if he/she needs another statement to make the payment.

If you talk to the patient, always verify the patient’s details like SSN, complete name, residential address etc. 6. If the patient says that he/she will make the payment, ask for the mode of payment the patient wishes to use.

a. If the patient is paying by a Credit Card, then get the credit card details like

Card#, Card Type, Expiration Date, Card holder’ s name etc. b. If the patient is paying by check, then the check should be sent to our given pay to

address, in the name of the Dr or the provider group, for the outstanding amount. Ask him/her, when the payment is likely to be made.

c. If the patient is paying by cash, then request him/her to drop by and make arrangement to pay at the Dr’ s office.

d. If the patient says that he/she is not in a position to pay the whole amount, then ask him/her to call our Client’ s office at the given phone# and discuss how the payment can be made.

e. If the patient says that he/she has not received any statement, then verify once again the patient’ s residential address and inform him/her that you would make the arrangement for the statement to be sent as soon as possible, however request the patient to make arrangements for the payment.

f. If the insurance has already made the payment and the patient owes the responsibility for the co-insurance, explain the guarantor that the insurance has paid its portion and it is now his/her responsibility.

g. If the insurance has applied the claim to the patient’ s deductible or if had denied the claim stating that the services are not covered as per the patient’ s plan, explain this to the patient and convince the patient that he/she has to pay for that.