The people running your front desk require different qualities than in the past, including greater intelligence and attention to detail. Because your front desk staff can make or break a managed care program, consider the benefits of assigning a special Patient Account Representative (PAR) to work at or near the front desk.
To help your PAR capture all the necessary managed care information on a patient’s first visit, develop a “cheat sheet” with the items to be asked. There’s virtually no other way even a very good PAR can remember all the questions about copays, deductibles, carve-outs, and preauthorizations every time.
Be sure your staffer calls the payer for each patient whenever the copay, deductible, etc. isn’t entirely clear.
