Why the Billing Office Must Train
It’s that time of year
Next week, our billing office family here at Enhanced Management Services will pause to train. Every single Enhanced staff member is trained as a Certified Ambulance Coder (CAC) using the curriculum supplied by the National Academy of Ambulance Coding (NAAC).
This billing office is committed to our clients’ success by insuring that everyone that touches any portion of our clients account information has that level of expertise under their belt.
You train, so we should too
EMS trains!
You know that better than we do. Countless hours of training and re-training comprise an EMS career. Sometimes it’s a drag, but most times we leave training sessions excited to try out life-saving skills. The very thought of learning a new method to save someone so they can see another day, experience another sunrise, enjoy another birthday or soak in the love of a family member drives us it would appear. Otherwise, there are plenty of less strenuous and time-consuming careers out there that we all can do.
The billing office is equally proud of our accomplishments. We train to support what you do in the field. Without a good billing office producing necessary dollars to buy the equipment and pay for the vehicles we use, your commitment to patient care is less successful at every level.
Because what you do is so very vital to your community, any billing office worth its salt would consider it a top priority to do the same thing.
It’s a billing office’s mission to not only collect every dollar possible to support your EMS agency’s life-saving agenda, but it’s every billing office’s mission (or it should be) to protect your honor and integrity by insuring that every single claim is completely compliant with all of the rules and regulations that guide what we do in EMS billing.
Wearing our CAC with pride!
Since the inception of the Certified Ambulance Coder curriculum, those of us who participate in the program wear our certification with pride.
It’s the ambulance billing industry’s badge of honor. The people who rely on us- EMS administrators and providers alike- know that a CAC has been given all of the knowledge and tools to do the job right the first time.
The CAC studies take the participant through hours of instruction. If your billing office does not have CACs as part of their staff, maybe it’s time for you to take a good look at what the level of commitment is for those involved in your ambulance billing program.
In this day and time, when EMS agencies are being asked to justify every single penny of the annual budget by both internal and external stakeholders; don’t you want to have the confidence that someone is minding the billing store correctly?
We learn…
CACs learn to critically look at every single claim. Feedback to you is critical whether you function at an administrative level or a street provider level…or both.
While you may not like it when the billing office questions one of your Patient Care Reports, the dialogue concerning PCRs and their completeness is critical to the financial health and stability of the EMS agency you serve. There must be someone at this level looking over your PCRs not only to crank out every single penny, but to insure that while doing so there is no violation of the voluminous rules and regulations that direct us all in the proper way to collect those dollars.
We train to train you.
CACs are provided the skills to make the billing program work and when executed properly the CAC supports what you do outside of the ambulance station. What we do is a true partnership.
No one side should overshadow the other.
Working together the skill sets mesh well – administrator, provider, biller – to construct a well-oiled machine that contributes intricately to the health and welfare of the patient population we all serve.
Thanks!
So when we take time to train, we say thank you for your patience and understanding. It’s our honor to serve you and the public!
