As the months roll on most of us are still working remotely, and for many medical billing offices, this may be the way of the future. Companies are realizing that they can do without the expensive overhead of office space and that many employees prefer to be at home. This may seem fairly straight forward at first, but as your billing team grows the next challenge becomes hiring employees at a distance. We get a lot of information about someone when we meet them in person, so how can we get around this vital piece and still make great hiring decisions?
Create a step by step process that focuses on your company’s values and tests the prospective medical biller’s skills. Begin with a phone screen to see how someone conducts themselves on a phone call. A big part of medical billing is talking on the phone, whether it is with patients or with insurance companies. You will want to see how this person handles questions about their background and billing knowledge over the phone.
Once you find a good candidate a good next step is a medical billing test or a project. Give the candidate a start time and an end time to ensure they actually know the material and aren’t looking up all the answers online. If you are hiring a coder for a particular specialty, give them a coding test, and so on.
The next step is a video interview. Have the candidate do a face to face interview over Zoom, or GoToMeeting. Test their knowledge face to face (virtually) and ensure their answers line up with the original phone screen. If this is a managerial position for which you are hiring, ask them to do multiple interviews with different team members, or conduct an online panel interview, just as you would in person.
Finally, check their references, but also check them out online. Most people have a LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram profile these days. Go ahead and take a look at these, this will give you a lot of information about who this person truly is. Similarly, feel free to google their name and see what comes up. Call their references, but also reach out to any mutual acquaintances you may have and ask their opinions as well.
Congratulations! You have hired a fantastic new medical biller, now make sure they are on-boarded properly to ensure they are successful. Even if you hire the best team member, if they are not trained and set up for success, they will not thrive. If all of this sounds a bit daunting, and you simply want more support for your in house team, reach out to us at 4D Global. We can help support you as you grow and thrive.