Two departments, one goal

Billers, front desk collaborate to improve patient collections

by Susan Genrich, CMM

The financial success of any practice depends upon a balanced operation between the billing department and the front desk. Each department is important to the overall fiscal goals of the practice, and they must work together to achieve those goals.

In order to keep the cost of employee benefits down in today’s healthcare market, companies have chosen health plans for their employees with higher out-of-pocket expenses in the form of deductibles, copays, and coinsurance. Copays for office visits can be as high as $50.

What many patients, and even office personnel, don’t realize is that these copays are deducted from any expected reimbursement from the insurance companies and have a huge effect on the bottom line of the practice.