Front Office Medical Assistant

Description

POSITION: Patient Services Representative

RESPONSIBLE TO: Practice Manager

JOB SUMMARY: With a customer service orientation—register patients, answer the telephone, prepare the office for the day, schedule patient appointments, collect payment at the time of service, and post charges and payments. Employee will balance all transactions daily according to Allergy Partners policy and procedure. Employee will schedule patient follow-up appointments and facilitate referral requests and test scheduling.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Answers the telephone professionally and pleasantly. Efficiently screens and directs calls and make appointments as necessary.
• Screens visitors and responds to routine requests for information from patients and vendors.
• Maintains office equipment and office supplies in the front office areas.
• Ensures all faxes are cleared off the machine and are distributed throughout the day. For those practices utilizing electronic fax capabilities, ensures that electronic files are routed appropriately.
• Opens, date stamps, and delivers mail daily as assigned.
• Assembles files and maintains integrity of patient charts. Runs reports and prepares patient encounters for the next day. Responds to medical records requests as appropriate.
• Keeps the patient reception area neat and clean at all times throughout the day.
• Schedules patient appointments, explains to patients which pieces of information they are to bring or complete prior to an appointment, provides a range of potential charges for the visit and the patients estimated financial obligation, provides patients several scheduling options, follows approved scheduling guidelines, prepares and send out all appropriate information to patients.
• Greets patients as they arrive for scheduled appointments. Ensures registration forms and other patient paperwork is complete and up to date.
• Verifies demographic and insurance information for new and established patients, according to protocol, indexes insurance and identification documentation into the practice management system as appropriate.
• Check out patients and collect payment from patients at the time of their visit and provides patients with a receipt. Collection should be made on past due balances as well as current dates of service. Arranges for payment plans according to Allergy Partners policy.
• Ensures proper posting of charges into the practice management system daily as assigned.
• Balances daily over-the-counter transactions and reconciles encounters with payment transactions; prepares deposit slip and delivers "daily close" packet to the Manager or central Administration as appropriate.
• Closes the office each day, according to protocol.
• Determines uncollectible balances and refers such accounts to the Practice Manager.
• Assists in other front office duties at the request of the Practice Manager.

Other

• Facilitates any physician requests throughout the day.
• Maintains patient confidentiality; complies with HIPAA and compliance guidelines established by Allergy Partners.
• Maintains detailed knowledge of practice management, electronic medical record, and other computer software as it relates to job functions.
• Assists the clinical staff in contacting emergency services and participates in anaphylaxis drills as required. Helps to monitor patient waiting areas and facilitates proper patient flow.
• Attends all regular staff meetings.
• Performs all other tasks and projects assigned by the Practice Manager.
• Completes all assigned AP training (such as CPR, OSHA, HIPAA, Compliance, Information Security, others) within designated timeframes.
• Complies with Allergy Partners and respective hub/department policies and reports incidents of policy violations to a Supervisor/Manager/Director, Department of Compliance & Privacy or via the AP EthicsPoint hotline.

Supervisory Responsibilities
This job has no supervisory responsibilities.

Typical Physical Demands
Position requires full range of body motion including manual and finger dexterity and eye-hand
coordination. Involves standing and walking. Employee will occasionally be asked to lift and
carry items weighing up to 30 pounds. Normal visual acuity and hearing are required.
Employee will work under stressful conditions, and be exposed to bodily fluids on a regular
basis.

Typical Working Condition
Work is performed in a reception area and involves frequent contact with patients. Work may
be stressful at times. The employee must be comfortable dealing with conflicts and asking
patients for money. Interaction with others is constant and interruptive. Contact involves
dealing with sick people.

Qualifications

EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• High school diploma required.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Minimum of two years of experience in a medical office or customer service position.
• Proven success asking for payment, making change, and balancing a cash drawer.
• Working knowledge of basic managed care terminology and practices.
• Familiarity with scheduling and rearranging appointments effectively.
• Comfortable using email, word processing and interacting with Internet applications.
• Working knowledge of practice management and electronic health record software. GE Centricity is a plus.
• Proven experience handling challenging patients/customers and dealing with conflict in elevated/stressful situations.
• Ability to perform multiple and diverse tasks simultaneously with accuracy and efficiency.
• Neat, professional appearance.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Bi-lingual is a plus, not required