Outsourcing a med answering service is becoming part of managing a medical practice. Perhaps you are having hesitations whether the service is affordable and how your customers might respond. An answering service is a great addition to your practice when looking forward to improving your bottom line. Live answering improves revenue, saves money, and retains customers. Read on to understand how an answering service will improve your medical practice bottom line.
Eliminates staff overheads
Making a decision to have your in-office staff handle your calls might seem cheap but not so in the long run. You will have to take employees for appropriate training, invest in additional office space, furniture, and equipment. Keep in mind that you will have to budget for salary, staff benefits, and medical insurance for the in-house answering staff.
When you outsource an answering service, there’s no need to add more people to your payroll. The agency has professional and experienced staff to handle your calls. These will work remotely to eliminate the need to invest in additional office space, furniture, and equipment. The most significant benefit is eliminating worry about phone handling staff getting sick. With less medical bills to deal with, your practice will significantly save a lot of money to improve your bottom line.
Improves patient accessibility
Patients usually love being treated as a first priority. In today’s hectic lifestyle, there’s limited time for various things including visiting a dentist. People just have limited time to call their physician. These are likely to call any time of day. Calling and not reaching your practice is likely to make them hang up and call another practice. Fortunately, live agents from a medical answering service are always available to answer all patient questions and to schedule their appointments immediately.
Talking to a live agent allows patients to get a positive experience from your practice. This is especially true for most patients who hate voicemail asking them to leave a message to request a callback. The patients are likely to hang up from frustration and call another practice. Live agents guarantee that every call to your practice is answered any time. This is likely to increase the number of customers visiting your practice and subsequent improvement in cash inflow.
Improving the reputation of your practice
The reputation of your medical practice determines its success. Patients who love your medical practice will obviously send their friends and family to your practice. This comes from offering them an exceptional experience to make them feel like a first priority. Happy clients are more likely to come back to your practice and to write good reviews about it.
Exposing your patients to voicemail doesn’t give them a good experience. The patients are likely to feel you don’t take their medical conditions seriously. This is likely to make them consider switching to other practices that might make them feel important. A live answering service is always available to respond to customers regardless of time or day. This will improve the reputation of your practice to make customers become loyal and always bring business to your practice to improve your bottom line.
No fines and lawsuits
Medical practices have to comply with HIPAA regulations. There are regulations regarding how to handle patients’ medical records. In-house call agents are less likely to understand HIPAA regulations better. There are regularly changing and require your staff to always be on par with updated regulations. Your in-house staff is less likely to comply with all these.
Noncompliance to HIPAA regulations exposes your medical practice to fines and lawsuits. These will lead to loss of significant amounts from your practice. The best way to avoid your practice from such loses is by hiring a professional answering service to handle calls to your practice. This will have agents at par with HIPPA regulations to ensure that your practice is on par. With no loss of money to fines and lawsuits, your a will significantly improve its bottom line.
Always available
A medical practice should always be there for patients. This is because the patient’s life depends on support from the physician. However, it is understandable that your employees can’t always be available especially after business hours. Employees are also prone to family emergencies, sickness, and disturbances from harsh weather making them absent from work.
It is a smart idea to outsource live agents to handle your phone calls. With this, patients will always find your practice available whenever they call. Regardless of the weather or someone gets sick, your patients are guaranteed to talk to a live agent who empathizes with their situation. Ensuring that all calls to your practice are answered increases chances of getting more clients to improve your bottom line.
Conclusion
Just like any other business, a medical practice has to generate profits. Live agents ensure that all calls to your practices are answered to win more clients. Outsourcing is cost-effective to hiring in-house staff and ensures HIPAA compliance. These benefits from live agents will significantly improve your medical practice bottom line.