LAS VEGAS – Providers looking to boost cash flow would do well to explore the options at Medtrade Spring, scheduled for April 16-18, 2019, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. Exhibitors such as Allegiance Group, Overland Park, Kansas, will be on hand, helping providers with turn-key solutions to automate the collection of outstanding balances.
“Providers can see marked improvement in their patient pay recovery,” says Bruce Gehring, senior vice president, Business Development, Allegiance Group. “It’s not unusual to get a 20% to 25% improvement in recovery right off the bat. That’s money that has been left on the table.”
Gehring will also be sharing his expertise in an educational session: How Call Centers Can Improve Patient Satisfaction, on Tuesday, April 16, from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Islander C. Medtrade Monday sat down with Gehring to talk about the Allegiance Booth, the educational session, and how better customer service can drive efficiency.
Medtrade Monday: Why did you decide to speak at Medtrade Spring this year?
Bruce Gehring, senior vice president, Business Development: The desire to speak comes from a need that we have seen in recent years. Providers in our industry are looking for ways to really provide better customer service and drive efficiency within their operations. Everybody has to do more with less.
The whole idea behind the call center or CSR training is so critical and overlooked. Many times organizations see that [CSR] as the entry level position. But think about that; You’re putting the least experienced person in positions that have the most influence on your customers. Is that really the best business practice?
Medtrade Monday: How should people be thinking about that role?
Gehring: We want people to think about the potential for really refining their call center or CSR staff to perform at a higher level that will drive customer satisfaction and sales. Providers are trying to retain customers, improve customer satisfaction, and get repeat customers. Those are the things that we see constantly where people are asking us for best practices, samples, and how do we do certain things.
We’ve done more consultancy as an organization. But we’re going to talk about why your company culture is so important and what your hiring practices are, and what you should be looking at as far as candidates and how to flush out the right candidate for the right job. Talking about the on-boarding and training…all of this is lead by example and gaining consistency throughout the organization. You don’t want a customer service team that is not motivated. It leads to turnover, and that leads to huge costs.
Medtrade Monday: What questions should providers be asking?
Gehring: What are the right training principles? What should the key performance indicators be? You can’t do any of this without proper compliance and knowing what is legal. What are you obligated to provide in the way of customer interaction and making sure it complies with protected health information?
Should you handle these matters internally, or should you outsource it to experts? In summary, it’s about culture, hiring, onboarding/training, KPIs for CSRs, compliance, and outsourcing. That’s the full gamut of what we’ll be covering at Medtrade Spring.
Medtrade Spring: What can people expect when they visit you at Booth #1121?
Gehring: We’ll have takeaways at the booth. We’ll have some basic sample scripts for CSRs to follow to at least get them started. We have a tool called COLLECTPlus and we can provide a live demonstration of the tool that we deploy with our customers. There will be case studies that we can provide, because everyone wants to know the results they can expect when we engage with them to do these services.
