Outsourcing can improve patient care and maximize the efficiency of your staff. That alone should make medical practitioners want to invest in outsourcing. But what can you outsource, and can you make sure these outsourced services will benefit your practice, staff, and patients? Health care happens to be one of the biggest—if not the biggest—industries in the world today. Especially with what happened to the coronavirus pandemic, health care is now the core of everything we do. But it was never at the forefront of adopting outsourcing and digitalization.
The past decade forced the industry to take a long, hard look at what it is missing in terms of technology. Not that they don’t use medical equipment and tools. Most practitioners have the latest diagnostic tools and equipment. What they seem to be forgetting is digitizing other areas of their practice. Special care should be put on reception, marketing, billing, payments, inventory, and logistics.
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Billing
Do you know that the health care industry loses around 20% to 30% of its usual revenues because of improper billing? Health care insurance companies are missing payments without the medical clinics and hospitals realizing the loss in revenue. This is a major cause for concern because medical practitioners have to shoulder the costs of those missed payments. The solution is to outsource doctor billing services. This is the most convenient way of reminding suppliers, insurance companies, and others of their payables.
Doctors will also receive a regular report from the billing service company. Here, they can figure out which providers are not paying on time and which owe them more money than the last month. Some billing services will also integrate with your scheduling software and front office tools. This will allow you to collect payments from patients on time.
Staff
Access to better-skilled staff is the most important advantage of outsourcing. Medical practices are now outsourcing workers from other countries instead of hiring regular ones. This method reduces overhead costs because companies will no longer have to pay for added compensation, though there’s no reason not to provide more if your practice can afford it.
But this is not the only advantage of outsourcing the recruitment and hiring of staff, as well as their retention. Outsourced recruitment will provide the training of the employees. This means that medical practices no longer have to worry about upskilling and reskilling their staff. This will be part of the outsourcing services you will avail from recruitment agencies.
Marketing
In the past, receptionists have to call patients to remind them of their appointments. It’s a form of marketing and customer care. They are trying to stop these patients from transferring to another physician. That’s what marketing is like in medical practices—it’s trying to attract new patients and keep old ones. Some medical practices also post on local bulletin boards and give out flyers.
However, as technology took hold of many aspects of the industry, medical practitioners started turning toward social media, the internet, and digital culture for their marketing needs. Today, you will know about a medical practice via a simple Google search. You can also check the reviews and feedback about a physician via social media. Medical practitioners take great pain in making sure their internet marketing efforts don’t go to waste. They invest in content, social media, and pay-per-click marketing.
Patient Care
Administrative tasks are the boon of medical practices. They take so much of your staff’s time. Instead of addressing your patients, they spend their time on staff development, scheduling, placements, and budgets. Some medical clinics might not feel comfortable outsourcing these tasks because it means allowing a third-party company to look into your records. Still, it’s the most practical way to provide the best patient care.
With these administrative tasks out of the way, your people can focus on the more important things, such as answering the inquiries from your patients. They can organize the reception area, so it is more inviting to your patients. Hospital and clinic staff will focus more on caring for the patients and providing them with the best experience rather than on tasks that could easily be outsourced to a company specializing in them.
Outsourcing has gone a long way from where it started. Companies before were wary about what it means for them to let another company handle their data and services. But look at where these companies are now. Those who embraced outsourcing more than survived the pandemic. They even thrived in it. Harnessing the power of technology and turning to digitization means embracing outsourcing and all the benefits it provides.