4 Outsourcing Solutions That Could Make Your Practice Better

KAREO | @GoKareo; #KareoTipPAGE 1 KAREO | CONFIDENTIAL
4 Outsourcing Solutions
That Could Make Your Practice Better

KAREO | @GoKareo; #KareoTip
Our Schedule for Today…
1 Introduction & Welcome Audrey
2 4 outsourcing Solutions that Could Make
Your Practice Better
3 Discover Kareo’s Role
4 Answer Questions

Your Hosts Today…
Audrey McLaughlin, RN
www.physicianspracticeexpert.com
Lea Chatham
Content Marketing Manager, Kareo

Participate via Social
Facebook.com/GoKareo
Twitter.com/GoKareo
http://kareo.ly/kareogroup
We’ll be live tweeting during today’s webinar!
How to participate:
1. Follow @GoKareo on Twitter
2. Follow @LeaChatham on Twitter
3. Search for #KareoTip
4. Join the conversation using #KareoTip
5. Join Building Best Practices
group on LinkedIn

Audrey McLaughlin, RN
 Creator of
 CEO, McLaughlin Sales Group
 Developed Customer Service from the
Heart
 More than 12 years experience in
healthcare consulting and sales
 Author and speaker seen in publications
like Physicians Practice
Audrey McLaughlin

Our Schedule for Today…
1 Introduction & Welcome Audrey
2 4 Outsourcing Solutions that Could Make
Your Practice Better
3 Discover Kareo’s Role
4 Answer Questions

What we are covering today
 Pros and cons of outsourcing
 Specific services you may consider outsourcing
 Incoming calls
 Outbound calls
 Eligibility and pre-authorization
 Social media management/online marketing
 When outsourcing may be right for your practice

Outsourcing is the process of assigning
a practice’s business processes to an
external agency.

Pros of Outsourcing
 Pros
 Reduced costs
 Time zones
 Consistency in results
 Ease of replacement
 Increased revenue
 Increased patient satisfaction

Cons of Outsourcing
 Little direct control of the day-to-day
 Costs can vary
 Practice makes perfect
 Risk to patient satisfaction
 Possible hidden costs
 Limitations

What Can my Practice Outsource?
Commonly Outsourced:
 Environmental Services (Cleaning)/Laundry
 Payroll
 Billing
 IT
 Lab services

What Can my Practice Outsource?
Less Commonly Outsourced:
 Incoming calls
 Outbound calls
 Management of eligibility and pre-authorization
 Social media management/online marketing

Inbound/Incoming Calls &
Outbound Calls

Inbound/Incoming Calls & Outbound Calls
Options:
 Inbound Services: Vendor takes calls for you
 Outbound Services: Vendor makes calls for you

Inbound/Incoming Calls
How it works:
 Automated vs. Live-Answer
 Call Center vs. Virtual
Receptionist
 Similar to answering services of
the “good ‘ole days”
 Phones are routed to the service
 Service delivers the messages to
practice
 Practice returns calls PRN

What can they do:
 Answer
 Route calls
 Schedule appointments
 Answer questions
 Take refill and other requests
 Triage*

PROS CONS
Cost savings Give up direct supervision/control
Free up staff Lack of practice knowledge
Less holding/telephone wait time Focus of agent may be divided
Never miss a phone call Hidden costs
Multi-lingual options
Metrics

When it’s time to outsource this function:
 High Call Volume
 Budget consideration
 Small Practice
 Patient Experience

Outbound Calls
How it works:
 Service calls your specified list of patients
for a specific task
 Service can be automated or live-person
 Service may be call, text or email
 Some EHR/PM systems have this built-in
or as an add-on for a nominal fee

Outbound Calls
What can they do:
 Appointment reminders
 Recalls
 Confirmations
 Answer questions
 Take refill and other requests

Outbound Calls
PROS CONS
Cost savings Give up direct supervision/control
Free up staff Lack of practice knowledge
Less holding/telephone wait time Focus of agent may be divided
Multi-lingual options Hidden costs
Never miss a reminder call Ignoring automated calls
Metrics

Outbound Calls
When it’s time to outsource this function:
 High out-call volume
 Budget consideration
 Small Practice

Inbound/Incoming Calls & Outbound Calls
Special Considerations:
 Meeting your practice’s needs
 Testing the waters
 Inland vs. offshore
 Remote access to scheduling functions
 Auditing performance
 Uptime and reliability

Eligibility and Pre-Authorizations

Why?
There are huge time and cost savings here. Unlike some of
the other services I have mentioned, outsourcing eligibility
and pre-authorizations is much more simple to outline
obvious cost/benefit.

How it works:
EHR/PM
Automatic Eligibility
Enter Patient Data when
appointment is scheduled
Automatically checked 72
hours and then 24 hours
Outsourced Company
Provide list of patients
Verifying patient coverage
Contacting patients directly
Updating billing system with
details

What they can do
 Ensure all requirements for eligibility and pre-authorization
are efficiently met
 Complete all follow-ups and promptly send results back to
your practice

PROS CONS
Dedicated Team Direct control
Stays up-to-date on requirements
Huge time and money saver
Large ROI
Faster payer responses
Reduces Claims Rejections
Avoid collections and billing costs
Accurate collections at point of care

Eligibility by the numbers
 It’s a SAVINGS

 Cost of manual eligibility verification: $3.70 x1,250 =$4,625

 Cost of electronic eligibility verification: $0.74 x1,250 =$925

 Cost of electronic eligibility verification: $0.74 x1,250 =$925
 Average annual savings from electronic eligibility verification:
$3,700 (Based on annual average of 1,250 verifications for a
single physician.)

Faster and more accurate payer
responses
ID PCP and other medical coverage
Reduces claim rejections
Avoid collection and billing costs r/to
verification errors
Enable accurate collection at POC
Staff time and energy devoted to
revenue-enhancing

Pre-authorization by the numbers
 Cost of manual prior authorizations $10.78 x 200 = $2,156

 Cost of electronic prior authorizations $2.07 x 200 = $414

 Cost of electronic prior authorizations $2.07 x 200 = $414
 Average annual savings per physician for automating prior
authorization: $1,742 (Based on average of 200 prior
authorizations)

Faster payer response
Minimize time and resources
Free staff for revenue-enhancing functions
Decrease transaction costs over 80%

Specialty Considerations:
High volume
High dollar services
Services that require pre-authorization (i.e., surgery)

Social Media Management/Marketing

Why?
Marketing is key to growing your practice and social media is
the most targeted and cost-effective way to get there. Just
like with insurance and reimbursement, social media and
marketing rules and best practices change…often.

How it works?
1. Questionnaire
2. Branding meeting and research
3. 12-month strategy
4. Weekly posts
5. Monthly Metrics

What they can do?
 Increase brand recognition
 Bring new patients in the door
 Build a community around your
practice
 Highly targeted advertising and
data
 BIG advantage over the
competition

False Rumor:
Our practice can’t do social media marketing and cannot
outsource this function because of HIPAA.

PROS CONS
Strategic Direct supervision/control
Expertise Access to content
Up-to-date on latest algorithms Hiring can be time consuming
Professional, relevant content/graphics
Custom Applications
Metrics/Data
Around-the-clock monitoring

Special Considerations
 Team effort
 Staff social media policy
 Start small
 Research to find real expertise

You can’t do everything yourself and
expect to grow.

When to Outsource
2 Key Questions:
1. Are the cost advantages greater than the cost
incurred to outsource?
2. Is the risk to the practice due to outsourcing
acceptable?

When to Outsource
 Are the cost advantages greater than the cost incurred to
outsource?
 Cheaper labor
 Expertise
 Lower fixed cost

When to Outsource
Is the risk to the practice due to outsourcing acceptable?
 Key business functions
 Protecting health information
 Reliability

How to choose an outsourced vendor

1. Clearly define what you want to achieve

2. Check experience

2. Check experience
3. Ask for references and/or work samples

2. Check experience
4. Ensure good communication/client management
practices

2. Check experience
practices
5. Ascertain intellectual property ownership

2. Check experience
practices
6. Check IT infrastructure (data security)

2. Check experience
practices
6. Check IT infrastructure (data security)
7. Select specialists, start small, reduce risks

Engaging a Vendor
General details:
 Cost and scope of work
 Monitoring/Reporting
 Disengagement Plan

Additional Considerations
Outsourcing that only solves PART of the problem
That pesky control thing
The practice is more skilled than the vendor
The practice can do it cheaper than the vendor
The practice doesn’t continue to monitor vendor

The most successful practices:
Use outsourcing to compliment and
supplement their staff’s expertise.

Discover Kareo’s Role
Cloud-based
Insurance & Patient Billing
Scheduling & Practice Management
Electronic Health Records
Medical Billing Services
Education, Training, & Support
Ranked #1 by Black Book 2 Years
25,000 Providers Nationwide

Kareo Virtual Office
• Kareo PM
• Kareo Billing
Services
• Kareo Virtual Office
• Inbound Calls
(scheduling, refills)
• Outbound calls
(recalls, reminders)
• Eligibility/pre-
authorization
• Document
Management

Kareo Marketplace
• Kareo PM
• Kareo Billing
Services
• Kareo Virtual Office
• Kareo Partners
• Online appt.
scheduling
• Text reminders
• Recalls
• Reputation
Management
• Specialty EHRs

Discover Kareo’s Role

4 Outsourcing Solutions That Could Make Your Practice Better

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to 4 Outsourcing Solutions That Could Make Your Practice Better

Similar to 4 Outsourcing Solutions That Could Make Your Practice Better (20)

More from Kareo

More from Kareo (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

4 Outsourcing Solutions That Could Make Your Practice Better