The healthcare revenue cycle doesn’t begin and end with services rendered. Services are just the point of entry for revenue. In reality, however, revenue streams are intrinsically tied to patient experience, operational efficiency, and an organization’s ability to identify and capture new opportunities. We partner with medical practices to do just that via our industry-leading medical answering services.
The best way for a modern practice to leverage medical answering services is to choose a full-coverage package. A full-coverage answering service handles the phones 24 hours per day, every day of the week. Practices get more than just forwarded calls and recorded messages. They get a HIPAA-compliant partner whose services become a strategic investment in practice growth.
Direct Revenue Through Billable Opportunities
To better understand how a medical answering service can drive practice revenue, it is best to break down revenue into direct and indirect sources. Beginning with direct sources, it’s all about taking advantage of billable opportunities.
1. Patient Acquisition
New patients are likely to make a call to the office before choosing to make that first appointment. Though plenty of information is available online, people prefer to speak to the office before committing. More importantly, their inquiries are not confined to typical office hours. Therefore, a practice must be prepared to handle patient acquisition 24/7.
2. Booking Appointments
While younger patients tend to be fairly comfortable booking appointments online, older patients would rather call the office. Not only that, but outgoing phone calls to confirm appointments are vital in the effort to reduce no-shows.
3. Missed Calls During Office Hours
After-hours coverage is an obvious must in the modern on-demand economy. But practices cannot afford to miss calls during regular business hours either. When the office gets extremely busy, a full-coverage answering service can provide supplemental coverage or take over the phones entirely.
4. After-Hours Triage
After-hours triage is a clear priority from a patient health and safety standpoint. From the practice standpoint, there are additional considerations, including documentation relating to billable telephone consultation codes. There is also the matter of directing patients to the appropriate care settings, thereby reducing liability.
Indirect Revenue Through Patient Satisfaction
Direct revenue is all about seizing billable opportunities. Meanwhile, indirect revenue is intrinsically tied to patient satisfaction. Higher revenues are realized by building a sustainable, high value practice that patients ultimately trust.
1. Patient Impressions Are Everything
Patient impressions are the number one factor determining satisfaction and loyalty. If a patient has a positive impression after interacting with a practice, they will also be satisfied. And of course, first impressions are critical to new patient acquisition.
2. Patient Loyalty
Even the best impressions can go to waste if a patient feels as though a practice does not care about them as a person. Forcing patients to voicemail, not returning calls, or being dismissive of patient concerns all contribute to a lack of loyalty.
3. Operational Efficiency
Patients are not impacted just through phone interactions. They are also paying attention to operational efficiency in the office. If office staff are so bogged down by phone calls that they cannot provide quality service to visitors, patient loyalty is damaged.
Full-Coverage Takes It All
Every concern mentioned in this post is directly addressed with full-coverage medical answering services. By partnering with a provider like Apello, a practice doesn’t have to worry about missed calls. There are no worries about poor triage, poor patient impressions, patient dissatisfaction, and so forth.
A capable medical answering service becomes a critical partner in driving revenue. As calls are handled and patient needs are met, growth ensues and revenues follow.
