Quick Tips for Managing Your Front Desk

 With days filled with seeing patients and attending to all the day-to-day responsibilities front line managers need an effective way to manage the Front Desk Activities to ensure that patients receive excellent customer service.   Front Desk Specialist’s are the first line of communication that your patient’s will experience – it sets the tone for their entire experience so keeping on top of what is going on is essential to your success.

Here are some quick things you can check on to help ensure the highest level of service to your patients and result in payment for services rendered

Things to observe – very important to notice what patients will notice:

·         Phones being answered on the first or second ring

·         Staff is organized and motivated

·         Staff is paying attention to each patients needs

·         Everyone smiling and working as a team

·         Patients checking-in and checking-out

·         Payments collected at time of service

·         Staff is discussing patient issues in private

·         The schedule is being maximized

·         All equipment working properly

·         HIPAA guidelines are in place

·         Staff interacts well with therapist’s and biller/collector

Daily checks include – very important for insuring nothing falls through the cracks:

·         All patients scheduled are accounted for –

o   Seen

o   Cancels

o   No Shows

o   Rescheduled

·         All co-pays, co-insurance etc are being collected at time of service and reconciled at the end of each day

·         Daily deposit processed and reconciled

·         New patients benefits are being checked prior to their coming in for treatment

·         The flow of information between the front desk, therapist  and biller is effective

·         The staff is counseling patients on their financial responsibility

·         Patients are being notified of their next appointment

·         Calls being made to patients after their initial evaluation and after discharge

·         Referrals and authorizations are being checked and updated on a daily basis

·         Evals and re-evals are being sent to physicians for signature

·         Charts are pulled and reviewed for accuracy before giving to the therapist

·         Daily reports are being run to improve productivity and efficiency

o   New Patients

o   Cancels/No shows

o   Discharges

o   Patients with no activity who haven’t been discharged

o   Co-pay/patient pay list

o   List of patients whose referral/authorization/visits have expired

Weekly Meeting Discussions – very important in holding staff accountable:

·         Scheduling

o   Current trends

o   Ways to improve efficiency

o   % of arrival – how to increase

o   Waiting list – how to manage

o   Scheduling several weeks in advance

·         Payment at time of  service

o   Direct access – collection at time of service

o   Co-pays - % being collected

o   Are all payments collected accounted for

·         New Patient Processing

o   Benefit issues

o   New insurance guidelines

o   Registration forms completed

o   Patients with financial hardships

·         Data Entry

o   Patient demographics

·         Equipment

o   Computer problems

o   Copier/fax/credit card device etc.

·         Referrals

o   New physicians or other referral sources

o   Managing authorizations and referrals

·         All daily tasks, including filing, coping, mailing, medical records requests

o   Issues that prevent these tasks being completed on a daily basis

o   Any daily tasks not being taken care of

Don’t be the last to know what is going on in your business – take an active role.




Diane McCutcheon, President

DM Business Management Consulting Services, Inc.

Account Matters – Billing & Collection Services

4 Charlesview Road, Suite 4

Hopedale, MA 01747

P: 508-422-0231  F:  508-422-0234

diane@dmbmcsi.com