The Ambulance Billing Office Christmas Gift List
Easy to please…
Now there may be those of you who differ in your opinion, but take it from those of us who have been part of an ambulance billing office for a long time, we’re actually easy to please.
With that in mind,we thought we’d send out a Christmas wish list to help you prepare for the folks in your ambulance billing office. We can definitely tell you we’ve all been nice (well, maybe a little bit naughty…after all it’s EMS) so we all definitely deserve these suggestions to make our holiday a little brighter…or should we say greener, as in dollar bill green?
✔ Lots and Lots of Documentation
The number one gift idea for any ambulance billing office is DOCUMENTATION!!
More than anything else, we billers crave mountains of documentation. If you really want to excite your favorite ambulance biller, turn in a written narrative in your Patient Care Report (PCR) that is so detailed that it will make the billing office jump for joy.
We can guarantee you if you begin to consistently write narratives that spell out your patient’s medical necessity using clear clinical documentation to the point that there is no question that you have completely described why your patient could not be transported by any other vehicle other than an ambulance and paint a clear picture in words about the reasonableness of the trip, you’ll see a different side of the people in that office than you’ve ever seen before.
We really like you. Without you, our faithful EMS providers, we don’t have a job. So we want you to succeed and we also want to collect reimbursement dollars in as little amount of time as possible as efficiently as we can. We can do that if you help us by nailing your PCR documentation.
Just a few well-placed words to leave no doubt about your patient’s need for ambulance transport is the perfect stocking stuffer this year and every year!
✔ Signatures
Want to WOW that favorite billing office person this Christmas? Then wrap up a perfectly executed signature and place it under the tree.
There’s no better feeling in the world but to be able to review a PCR that has all of the accompanying signatures as part of the package.
This gift may consist of several smaller gifts wrapped up into one big gift. You know, the kind that starts in a big box and by the time you’ve unwrapped several boxes all inside the other you reach the real gift…kind like that.
So, on your PCR you and your partner are signing the PCR. Whether you accomplish this using some electronic means via a tablet or other mobile device or you do it the old fashioned way and apply pen to paper, you’ll be turning in your signature and your partner’s signature applied directly in some way to the PCR itself which verifies the authenticity of the PCR.
Next, be sure to obtain the patient’s signature, or the signature of a person who signs in place of the patient. We billing office people LOVE patient signatures. They are the cream in our coffee, the chocolate in our chocolate chip cookies, the egg in the nog!
We can do so much with a patient signature, you can’t even imagine. Collecting a signature after the fact is so much harder than having a patient signature accompany the PCR when it arrives in the billing office- you just can’t imagine how helpful it is to have it and hit the ground running with the billing cycle.
And, in the event your PCR documents a routine, non-emergency transport please be certain that you have collected an appropriate signature on a Physicians Certification Station (PCS). Please stop by the billing office to review who can sign these documents appropriate given the scenario and then be sure that the correct person has not only signed, but has dated and has printed his/her name and credentials near his/her signed name.
✔ Patient Demographics
Want to make your favorite billing office staff squeal with delight on Christmas morning? Then put a bow on and deliver a complete package of patient demographics when you send over your PCR to the billing office.
We billers love to be able to start the billing cycle right away. The best chance of collecting every single dollar due to your EMS agency is when the billing office has all the necessary information needed to hit the ground running right from the start.
This means that you have collected patient demographics. You have taken the time to fully pass on the patient’s full name (no nicknames and spelled correctly too!) You have provided the billing office with the patient’s date of birth, Social Security Number, a correct mailing address and most importantly you have provided the patient’s appropriate insurance information.
Maybe you simply have obtained and passed on a hospital face sheet. Maybe you’ve taken the time to add the information into the PCR or you’ve copied down the information onto a separate form and attached it to the PCR.
However you package the information, you will certainly win a friend for life if a full set of patient demographics is part of the billing office’s gift giving this year!
