Practice Assistant ($27/hr)

Practice Assistant

Type: contract to hire

Schedule: M-F between the hours of 7:15am and 5:30pm (will not go over 40 HPW but need to be flexible within these hours)

Responsibilities:

• Assist in the front desk and the call center.
• Perform duties under moderate supervision with intermediate to advanced proficiency in administrative skills.
• Act as a super user for scheduling, registration, and billing systems. Provide training and assistance to others in these areas.
• May perform more complex or specialized functions (i.e. surgical scheduling) at highest competency level.
• Utilize knowledge of HMO's, managed care and other third party insurers, and troubleshoots insurance issues as appropriate.
• Assist with training and orienting staff as needed.
• Provide cross coverage as needed.
• Assist with special projects as directed.
• Follow HIPAA guidelines for the management of patient privacy and confidentiality.
• Assume primary responsibility for scheduling patient appointments per Dermatology and practice specific standards and guidelines.
• Ensure customer satisfaction by appropriately managing the appointment schedule and access to clinical services.
• Work closely with physicians to ensure scheduling of patient appointments is done in accordance with physician preferences and templates.
• Verify patient's identity using 2 identifiers when scheduling and during check-in process. Verify patient's appointment time and physician.
• Maximize EPIC application features by accessing all available scheduling data and resources. Use in a manner that supports optimal access, appropriate appointment arrangements, and thorough documentation of relevant requirements. Obtain all necessary information to ensure patient is scheduled with the most appropriate physician.
• If next available appointment exceeds a reasonable timeframe (as established by practice), offer to investigate other scheduling opportunities. Work with other practice staff, physicians and practice management to determine other options that could provide patient with an earlier appointment. Follow-up with the patient or referring physician's office as appropriate.
• Coordinate and schedule all appointments with interpreter services as necessary. Coordinate interpreter services or language line representatives into patient phone calls to provide high quality service to patients who require interpreting services.
• Cancel and reschedule appointments as requested. When canceling an appointment, treat patients kindly and professionally. Inquire as to whether/when they would like to reschedule the appointment.
• Optimize access and satisfaction by maintaining and coordinating appointment wait lists.
• Coordinates physician cancellation (reschedule) lists as required. Ensure outbound calls or other communications are documented on patient's appointment record in EPIC.
• Monitor appointment reminder reports and follow-up as appropriate, including making reminder calls in accordance with Dermatology and practice guidelines.
• Ensure that patient questions are appropriately answered and/or that appropriate follow-up is provided.
• Ensure appropriate new patient and referring physician communications are done per Dermatology and practice. · Send new patient communications and related materials to patients in advance of scheduled appointment.
• Process and monitor appointment requests via e-Referral appointment requests, Dermatology and practice-specific guidelines.
• Process and monitor appointment requests via external and/or patient-directed applications (i.e. Fast Pass, Direct Scheduling, ZocDoc, etc.), Dermatology and practice-specific guidelines
• Answer incoming telephone lines in a timely and professional manner using Dermatology and practice standard greeting.
• Adhere to relevant Dermatology service standards related to telephone access to ensure patients, referring physicians, and other customers can access the practices in a timely manner.
• For practices using a call center system, adhere to Dermatology and practice standards related to amount of time logged in as an agent and amount of time available for taking calls.
• Adhere to standards related to placing calls on hold and transferring calls.
• Adhere to standards related to voicemail and the management of internal lines.
• Respond to telephone messages within established timeframes.
• Appropriately manage all calls, either by working with the customer or by referring the call to the appropriate party. For routine matters, respond directly to customer inquiries without referring the caller elsewhere. This includes responding to inquiries related to the availability of appointments, scheduled appointment dates and times, parking, directions, and general information about Dermatology practices.