Handling insurance begins at the front desk

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.