During the COVID-19 pandemic, companies of all types and sizes have had to shift to having their employees work from home. And while many people working in medical practices are essential, there are positions that can be filled efficiently by someone working remotely.
As the pandemic goes on, many medical practices are recognizing the advantages of remote work. They’ve experienced the headaches of losing employees with little or no warning and scrambling to find someone to cover for them. And now practice administrators are looking for a new way to handle the business side of healthcare. That’s where remote work comes.
From promoting social distancing to increasing productivity and profitability, having remote workers is beneficial to the healthcare business. And outsourcing your billing services to a revenue cycle management company like Applied Medical Systems is one of the best ways to experience the benefits of having a remote workforce.
Top Benefits of Remote Work
At Applied Medical Systems, we know a thing or two about the advantages of having employees work remotely and telecommute. For the past 10 years, our employees have split time between working in our office in Durham, NC, and working remotely. Our security, processes, and culture are all designed with that in mind. We can say from experience that there’s a lot to gain when you embrace remote work, especially in the current environment.
1. Safety
The first benefit of remote work is the thing that has prompted so many businesses to have their employees stop going into the office: safety. Medical care is a necessity and sometimes a telemedicine appointment isn’t possible, so you need to be sure you are following safety guidelines to protect the health of your patients and your staff. One way to do that is by having people like billers, coders, schedulers, and other administrative personnel work remotely.
Having fewer people in the office is one of the best ways to make it safer for anyone who comes into the building. There is more room for social distancing and there are fewer people to interact with. Limiting contact with others is one of the best ways to stop the spread of COVID.
2. Retention
When you utilize remote work, you can eliminate the pain and expense of employee turnover.
Turnover might be one of the most expensive parts of running any business, including a medical organization. Looking for new people, interviewing them, and training them when they are hired are all investments. And you lose that investment when they leave.
Remote employees have more flexibility about where and when they work, so life changes don’t always mean a change in employment status. For instance, if one of your experienced staff members moves to a new city, you can keep them on. Outsourcing to AMS is like having a group of valued staff members that can keep contributing to your success no matter where they are.
3. Productivity
While you may be concerned that employees will be less productive when they are out of the office, the opposite is usually true. People who telecommute actually get more done during the day than people in an office. According to reports by Forbes, remote workers are an average of 35-40% more productive than their office counterparts, and their output increases more than 4% on the low end.
And with remote work, absenteeism and tardiness become less of an issue. Without having to commute, workers are more likely to be available to start working on time. And if they aren’t in a rush to get home, they may even keep working a little longer in order to finish any tasks.
4. Access to Experienced Workers
Remote work means you are no longer limited by your location when it comes to the talent pool. Instead of looking for someone locally that might fit the position with training, you have access to great people who are already experienced. If you outsource coding and billing to an RCM like Applied Medical Systems company that has a remote workforce, you have multiple highly trained and experienced specialists on your team right away.
5. Profitability
When you outsource aspects of your practice management or take advantage of remote work, you’re going to save money. That means more of the revenue you bring in will be profit. Operating costs go down with remote work for several reasons:
- Employee retention eliminates the costs of turnover.
- Fewer claim denials with Applied Medical Systems helps you avoid lost revenue from inadequate billing processes.
Taking Advantage of Remote Work with AMS
If you’re struggling to keep your office running efficiently with in-office personnel, it might be time to consider taking advantage of remote work. With telehealth tools widely available and quickly evolving technology, it’s never been more convenient to make that change. And when you partner with Applied Medical Systems, we make it even easier to shift from having billing specialists on staff and in the office. Call us at (919) 477-5152 or contact us online to request a free quote.