A Few Tips On How To Select A Medical Answering Service

As a doctor you are already aware of the benefits of hiring an answering service.

There are no any doubts about this.

However, are you able to select the right medical answering service for your needs?

The straightforward answer is that you get what you pay for.

To assist you in finding the right answering vendor to meet your unique needs, here are a few pointers you must keep in mind.

Staff expertise

Get to know how the call agents are trained. A standardized training program specifically crafted to help medical professionals will ensure your callers will get the right responses.

Of particular importance is that the vendor must necessarily be a HIPAA compliant medical answering service.

Stability

How many years the company has been in the business of assisting the medical profession?

A long experience and a good record of medical clients’ assistance is a favorable point.

Is the company a dedicated physician answering service?

Just any telephone answering service is not fit to assist doctors. To assist medical professionals, the call agents must undergo customized training as an ongoing process.

Specifically, to be HIPAA compliant, the service must have staff that keeps itself updated on the latest revisions of HIPAA clauses.

Reliability

Does the answering service have back-up power and redundancies to take care of unexpected outages due to power-cuts/storms?

Ensure that the company has a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place.

Service availability

Will the call agents be available 24 x 7 and 365 days a year?

Doctors can get calls from patients at any time, night or day. There is nothing more important than uninterrupted availability of the service at all times.

Ask about association membership

Find out if the vendor is approved by the Better Business Bureau or any other such organization. Answering services involved with such associations usually provide good service.

Pricing

There are several ways a medical answering service bills for their service. It can be by the call or by the minute or even a fixed charge per month.

If you want good quality operation that can handle the volume of calls you generally get, choose a service that is hired by most medical professionals.

Strive to get the best value for your money.

Do not forget to ask questions like:

•    How quickly the agents will answer my calls?

•    Is there a hold time? If yes, how much?

•    Do the agents sound friendly, helpful, and courteous?

•    Can the agents help with prescription refill and patient appointment scheduling?

A good answering service is not just a convenience. It is a great business partner.