Medical answering service come in different shapes and sizes, with the ability to perform various duties and offer its clients different payment plans.
But before making the plunge to enlist those services, there are a few key aspects to consider.
First of all, does your business even need a medical answering service? Not every business in the medical industry will benefit from having a virtual doctors receptionist service, so it's important to recognize whether it's a safe bet.
Answer the following questions:
Do you or other employees become overwhelmed with the amount of phone calls on a daily basis?
Is hiring a receptionist a bigger investment that doesn't exactly fit your budget?
Do you often send potential patients to voicemail?
Are you concerned about keeping patient information confidential?
Are you a new business looking for ways to establish reliability, or an established business looking to improve your reputation?
If you answered to any of the previous questions, a medical call center is the probably the best path for you to take. You'll find that they are an ideal solution to the aforementioned concerns.
Here are 4 major benefits of a healthcare answering service:
1.) It's required that physicians call answering services remain compliant with The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) that protects the data and privacy of individuals' health information.
2.) Physicians and doctors can be very busy. A medical answering service allows you to perform your job duties without losing patients. It's there to answer calls when you're too busy to do so or aren't in the office.
3.) With call answer services, your potential patients won't get your voicemail. Many people who reach a voicemail will hang up and move on to the next business, preferring to speak to a human than wait for a return call.
4.) A medical answering service can actually turn out to be less expensive than a receptionist, because they charge per phone call or per action taken.
Here are a few reasons you might not benefit from a medical answering service:
You have a small staff and can handle answering your own phone calls
You're just starting up and would like to be involved in every aspect of the business
You have outside services in addition to medical services. Offering added services outside of your industry can be tricky, and you might prefer to keep it in-house.
· You prefer to personally train and form relationships with the staff that answers your phone calls, versus having people you don't know from a medical answering service. Some people would like the people that answer phone calls to answer much more specific questions, rather than basic ones. This requires more personal training with the person answering.
Most call centers have similar billing options but it's a good idea to be familiar with the different types of billing options available as one may make a huge difference is overall cost for service. For example, if the duration of your typical calls are long you might be better off with a “pay by the call” plan as opposed to paying by the minute.
