So I'm looking for a new doctor for myself and my husband and as I was browsing through the site of a potential office I noticed that they had a complete list of all the insurances they accepted. This brought me back to a few years ago when I had the misfortune of working for one of the most dysfunctional offices ever ran and I have to wonder if part of myself is thinking they were that bad out of spite or if they really were that bad. So I thought I'd ask.
Getting back to the list of accepted insurance, when I was working at this little slice of paradise I was in scheduling. People would often ask if their insurance was accepted by this office. I asked the manager of scheduling if there is a list of accepted insurances so I can answer this question. I was told to tell them they have to call their insurance company to see if they will cover a visit to this office.
Now, I'm not very old but I've got about 10 years experience of scheduling my own doctor's appointments. Never once was I ever told that I had to call my insurance company and ask them if an office will accept them.
Another little nugget of joy was how many calls I would get from specialists saying that a patient is there for an appointment but that the office never received a referral from the patient's PCP. Every single day I got calls about this and every single time I looked in the patient's chart there was no referral at all. There were notes that the PCP would like the patient to follow up with said specialist but no actual referral. I would call or send a message to the MA's of these physicians to let them know and I was told one of two things.
First: We here in scheduling are responsible for filling out the referrals.
Um . . . sorry . . . what? Scheduling is supposed to be filling out referrals? Since when? I thought that was the doctor's job or at least the MA's. Nope, it's us. The peeps on the phone, some of whom aren't certified to take blood pressure, are supposed to be writing these referrals. What, you want us to write prescriptions too?
Second: The specialists don't actually need the referrals.
Oh really? Then why I keep getting calls from other offices every single day asking for a referral? Am I supposed to tell them that they don't know what they're talking about?
The office manager didn't seem to bat an eye at any of this so I have to wonder. Is any of this standard or was the office manager just grossly incompetent?
Getting back to the list of accepted insurance, when I was working at this little slice of paradise I was in scheduling. People would often ask if their insurance was accepted by this office. I asked the manager of scheduling if there is a list of accepted insurances so I can answer this question. I was told to tell them they have to call their insurance company to see if they will cover a visit to this office.
Now, I'm not very old but I've got about 10 years experience of scheduling my own doctor's appointments. Never once was I ever told that I had to call my insurance company and ask them if an office will accept them.
Another little nugget of joy was how many calls I would get from specialists saying that a patient is there for an appointment but that the office never received a referral from the patient's PCP. Every single day I got calls about this and every single time I looked in the patient's chart there was no referral at all. There were notes that the PCP would like the patient to follow up with said specialist but no actual referral. I would call or send a message to the MA's of these physicians to let them know and I was told one of two things.
First: We here in scheduling are responsible for filling out the referrals.
Um . . . sorry . . . what? Scheduling is supposed to be filling out referrals? Since when? I thought that was the doctor's job or at least the MA's. Nope, it's us. The peeps on the phone, some of whom aren't certified to take blood pressure, are supposed to be writing these referrals. What, you want us to write prescriptions too?
Second: The specialists don't actually need the referrals.
Oh really? Then why I keep getting calls from other offices every single day asking for a referral? Am I supposed to tell them that they don't know what they're talking about?
The office manager didn't seem to bat an eye at any of this so I have to wonder. Is any of this standard or was the office manager just grossly incompetent?
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