In today’s fast-paced healthcare landscape, offering top-notch patient experience is vital. Healthcare practices are adopting innovative approaches to streamline operations and improve patient care. One such initiative is using virtual assistants for your medical practice to man its diverse day-to-day administrative tasks. From effective communication and personalized coordination to accurate data collection and eligibility verification, they provide crucial patient support in several ways.
Here is all you need to know about how healthcare virtual assistants can improve patients’ experience and your relationship with them.
Flexible Availability
Virtual assistants can make themselves available in any time zone based on the operation timings of your practice. Thus, they can ensure to receive all your patient calls and coordinate with them timely. This can prevent losing any patient due to unanswered calls or unaddressed queries.
Moreover, VAs keep multiple lines of communication open for better accessibility. These include phone calls, email, and more. They also have strong verbal and written communication skills to effectively interact with patients on any mode. This makes it convenient for patients to reach out anytime for any inquiries or concerns.
Streamlined Appointment Scheduling
Virtual medical assistants provide 360° appointment management support to patients. They not only schedule sessions but also reschedule them in case of cancellation or postponement. Besides, they follow up with patients to remind them of appointment dates. This removes the burden for patients to remember dates and gives them peace of mind that they will always be updated for any scheduling changes.
Handling Both Inbound and Outbound Calls
Virtual assistants are also responsible for placing and receiving both inbound and outbound patient calls.
Here are the common purposes of their inbound calls:
- Appointment booking: VAs arrange these calls to schedule, reschedule or cancel patient appointments.
- Address queries: They also answer any questions that patients have about office hours, medical billing, claim status update and more.
They usually host outbound calls for the following needs:
- Reminders: Medical assistants remind patients of upcoming appointments so that they don’t miss out on showing up.
- Follow-ups: VAs identify any missing information in claims and follow up with patients to seek the same.
Accurate Data Entry and Management
Healthcare virtual assistants are also adept at correctly collecting and recording patient information including all important demographic and insurance details.
Around 25% of front-end rejections are caused by invalid or missing patient demographic data. On the other hand, nearly 17% of denials are associated with incorrect insurance verification. To prevent these risks, VAs use electronic medical records (EMRs) to doubly check that all patient data are accurate and up-to-date. They also update EMRs regularly to maintain compliance with healthcare standards. These practices facilitate efficient patient registration for smooth billing processes.
VAs also ensure complete privacy of patient data by complying with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This helps to safeguard the privacy of individually identifiable health data so that all sensitive information remains confidential and only authorized personnels can access it.
Personalized Patient Coordination
Virtual assistants send personalized reminders to patients for changes in appointment date and timing and also address their individual queries. They show empathy and understanding while interacting with patients and actively listen to their concerns.
Medical VAs also patiently explain difficult medical terminology to patients to make sure that they get clarity of information. This degree of personalized attention helps to make patients feel heard and supported.
Accurate Eligibility and Benefits Verification
Medical virtual assistants also confirm whether your patients are eligible for insurance benefits. They verify patients’ deductibles, co-insurance, co-pays and coverage and follow up to collect any missing information or rectify any incorrect details. Ensuring error-free verification of patient eligibility and payer’s benefits also helps lower the chances of claim denials.
Reduced Claim Denials and Cost Savings
By ensuring that patient data is correct and up-to-date, virtual assistants help minimize mistakes in medical billing. This increases the chances of claim approval and reduces the odds of rejections. The result is cost savings for patients which relieves their financial burden and boosts their satisfaction.
For every practice, it is important to foster a strong patient-provider relationship. Hiring virtual assistants for your medical practice can help ensure exactly that by unlocking all the above patient care benefits.
Want to outsource virtual medical assistant services to a trusted revenue cycle management company? Reach out to a dependable medical billing provider like RCM Workshop that offers expert VA services with the option of operational scalability for 24×7 availability. Provide the best experience to your patients to gain their trust and maximize their satisfaction.