Ever wondered why MHM clients get very regular payments both from Insurance Companies, Private Hospitals and self-funding patients too?
It is down to the above discipline – the ritual – both on the part of MHM and on the part of its clients.
Specifically, every single time an MHM client completes an outpatient clinic or is in theatre the detail is sent to MHM. Some clients send them daily, others send them weekly. But send them they do.
Then it’s a question of ritual.
Ritual
Every single morning at 8 am, I have the daily discipline of picking up the clinic or theatre lists from the previous day. And then they are invoiced to the insurance company concerned or direct to the patient.
Monday to Friday this is the first job every single morning.
It is a RITUAL.
So how does this daily discipline help MHM clients?
The Outcome
It means payment has been requested on behalf of MHM clients. This in turns means insurance companies are able to process the invoice for payment. Does this sound far too simple?
Well, in reality, it is very simple.
It is literally a question of RITUAL LEADING TO VERY REGULAR PAYMENTS TO MHM CLIENTS.
Paradoxically, I know many medical secretaries who instead raise invoices “on a Friday afternoon” or “after I’ve typed my consultant’s letters”.
The inevitable happens.
On a Friday afternoon, the telephone goes berserk or something comes up that prevents the invoicing from being completed.
Because there is no ritual, the consultant does not get paid as quickly as they think they should. Indeed I was talking to a med-sec last week who was telling me she has a three-month backlog in uninvoiced outpatient clinics.
She wasn’t happy that at 10.20am on Thursday, August 12th I had a backlog of ONE clinic dated from the previous day.
I wonder how many times I’ve said “invoice right = get paid right” over the years?
I dread to think.
But invoice right = get paid right does not just mean having the patient’s details, coding, and fee right.
It means making sure an invoice is generated as soon as MHM is asked to do so and it means making sure it is delivered to the body responsible for paying it.
It is a discipline.
And it is a discipline that leads to MHM clients getting paid as quickly as they do.
pete@medicalhealthcaremanagement.co.uk