Is a Medical Answering Service Worth the Cost? What to Know

medical answering service

Every year, US medical facilities deal with 139 million visits from patients. Many of these patients call the facility first before visiting the hospital in person or taking their loved ones there. Callers often get all the assistance they need over the phone, making it unnecessary to attend the health facility.

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Investing in a top-quality medical answering service is a great way to ensure that patients who call you always find someone to talk to. With 70% of Americans reporting difficulty accessing medical care in the evenings and on weekends, ensuring that everyone who calls your office is directed on what to do can make a significant difference today.

But exactly how much do medical answering services cost? More importantly, why are these services worth paying for?

Read on to find out.

What’s the Cost of a Doctors’ Answering Service?

The cost of medical answering service can differ significantly depending on the plan you opt for. There are different pricing structures to choose from.

If you choose flat-rate pricing, the national average price is $140 per month. You can also choose to be charged per volume, with the cost of 100 calls, each 30 seconds long, being $61 to $81. For those who prefer to pay per minute, the national average price is $1.09.

Why Invest in a Medical Answering Service?

Now that you’ve seen how much the average healthcare answering service costs, you may still be wondering whether this service is worth the money. The simple answer is yes. A top-grade doctors’ answering service can help you reap significant benefits, including:

You Get to Avoid Missing Calls

When patients call your medical practice, they expect someone to answer the phone. If their calls go unanswered, it only adds to their frustrations. And based on what their medical needs are, not getting prompt help can spell disaster.

By hiring a medical answering service, you make sure that no call ever goes unanswered. It helps ensure that your patients get the services they need to remain safe and healthy. It’s always good to know that none of your patients are unable to get ahold of you when they need you most.

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You Reduce Patients’ Hold Time

With multiple calls coming in simultaneously, your in-house staff may be unable to answer every call quickly and efficiently. As a result, you might find that some patients have to spend a lot of time on hold as they wait for the next available receptionist to answer them. This dramatically diminishes the customer experience.

A professional medical answering service helps eliminate this problem. When your patients call your office, there’s already someone waiting to answer the call. With shorter hold times, you can enhance your clients’ services with your services.

You Stay Ready for Emergencies

An emergency, such as a tragedy in your area, can quickly cause a large influx in the number of patients calling your medical facility. Meeting this sudden increase in demand can prove challenging. There’s barely time to hire additional staff to handle the calls and increase the infrastructure needed.

For medical facilities with professional medical answering service providers, emergencies do not catch them off guard. Your answering service provider can swiftly scale up its capabilities to meet the new demand. This way, all calls get answered.

You Get to Offer a Live Touch

Automation has taken the world by storm, with most organizations choosing to automate just about any process that can be automated. Customer service is just one of the areas where automation is widely applied. But it’s impossible to replicate the human touch of speaking with a live agent.

Hiring a healthcare answering service helps you offer this live touch to your patients. As a result, callers feel more cared for and protected. This level of care separates exceptional medical facilities from the rest.

You Enjoy Higher Efficiency from Your Employees

Your medical staff is specialized in performing specific tasks. Every time a doctor steps away from their primary duties to answer a call, their efficiency is compromised. One way to avoid this entirely is to let a professional medical answering service take care of your calls.

With staff free to focus on their primary job, their efficiency improves. The result is that your entire medical practice operates more productively. Ultimately, this improves your profitability.

It’s Easier to Comply With HIPAA Requirements

Every organization that works in the medical industry must meet HIPAA requirements. The standards are meant to safeguard patients’ sensitive patient information. Failure to meet the given standards can lead to severe consequences.

A professional medical call answering service is familiar with HIPAA’s strict guidelines and knows what to do to meet all of them. This way, you can always be sure that your patients’ and organization’s data is safe.

You Get to Ensure that Personal Time Is Protected

Running a medical practice means that you’re constantly worrying about your patients. Unfortunately, doing so blurs the line between your professional time and family time. It’s an unsustainable way to live.

A doctors’ call answering service can help take some of the load off your back. You can finally get to enjoy your time off work while someone else cares for your patients. Your patients’ queries and concerns will be competently handled while you’re out of the office.

Enjoy the Benefits of Investing in a Medical Answering Service

A big part of being a responsible medical facility owner is making sure patients who turn to you for help get all the assistance they need.

A reliable medical answering service goes a long way toward ensuring that you achieve this. With such a service, you can be sure that patients who call your office promptly get the information they need while your physicians focus on their core responsibility: treating people.

Are you interested in medical answering services? If so, please click on the “compare quotes” button and we will do our best to find you a medical call center.

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