The Quick Answer
The quick answer will get you every time!
You know, the patient asks you a question you quickly answer
with an off-the-cuff answer. And then…..you realize…. “Oops…maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”
Too late now!
Where are we going
with this?
Invariably, questions fielded about billing in the field are
best left to be answered by the billing office. Whether you have an in-house
billing operation or you use an outsourcing company like Enhanced, your billing
office is best equipped to answer patient billing questions.
We can’t tell you the number of times that patients have
called to the office and say something to the effect of… “The EMT (or ‘ambulance driver’- yeah I know…ouch!) told me I wouldn’t
have to pay anything for this transport and you sent me this bill.”
Other than a few people that split their time between
billing office and the field, can anyone out in the field answer a billing
question with 100% certainty? I think you know the answer and it’s a big,
fat…NO!!!
So, where we’re going with this is to issue our sage word of
advice and it is; Never answer a patient’s billing question in the back of an
ambulance!
Once it’s said…it’s
gospel…
Now, we’re not trying to be condescending here. You may have
a fair amount of knowledge and time in this business and have the best of
intentions. Maybe you’re trying to allay your patient’s fears and help calm the
patient.
We get it.
But, once it’s said, to the patient, it’s gospel.
Think of it this way. You go to the hardware store and Handy
Mike helps you choose what he tells you is the perfect paint color and mixes it
up and tells you it’s on sale this week. When you get to the check-out line to
pay for your gallon of paint, sweet Sure Sherry at the register tells you Handy
Mike is wrong. The paint sale was last week. You argue your point, but Sure
Sherry has the week’s newspaper advertisement tucked away next to her register
and she points out that there is no paint sale this week.
How do you feel? Disappointed? Angry?
Of course you’re angry because Handy Mike told you one thing
and Sure Sherry told you another….and they both work for the same hardware
store.
Well, really when you think about this it’s the same thing
that takes place when you represent one thing to a patient about their future
EMS bill, but the billing office represents another fact (and the billing
office is probably right.)
In the eyes of your patient, YOU were your EMS agency at the
time and YOU represented the policy…albeit incorrectly. But, in the patient’s
eyes what you said should count.
Subscriptions and
Taxpayer Policies
Where we most frequently run into this is when we are
talking with patients that have used an ambulance service that uses either a
subscription/donation program and/or services that are supported by tax dollars
funneled from the community and, in consideration of that person’s support
(donation or tax) are able to forgive collecting for either co-pays and/or
deductible amounts.
We can’t begin to tell you the numbers of times we ourselves
have listened to well-intentioned EMS providers tell patients… “Don’t
worry about the cost of the trip, your insurance will cover it and you won’t
have to pay anything out of your own money.”
First off, no one- even the billing office, can ever be 100%
sure an insurance company will pay a claim for an ambulance transport. Secondly,
unless you set policy at your ambulance and you have a subscriber list or
taxpayer list right there in the rig, there is no way you can definitively tell
your patient that he/she will not owe any additional payment after insurance
pays.
Kindly Refer…
When presented with questions about EMS billing, in the
field, kindly refer the patient to contact the billing office to ask those
specific questions. A good way to address billing questions during an EMS
incident is to say something like… “Sir/Ma’am,
my focus right now is to provide you with the best EMS care and transportation
that I can. We have knowledgeable people in our billing office that will be
glad to answer any questions you have after we are sure that you are okay.”
This is the most effective way to keep you and your EMS
agency from making promises to a patient that you, your billing office, and
ultimately your EMS agency are unable to keep.
The Ambulance Billing
Services blog is brought to you as an educational tool by Enhanced Management
Services, Inc. Enhanced Management Services, Inc. is an all-EMS third-party
billing contractor serving Fire/EMS agencies across the United States. To learn
more about who we are and what we do, please visit our website at www.enhancedms.com and click on the “Get Started” button on
any landing page.
