Wiki How many billers in your clinic?

[FABBOTT]

So, I'm just curious as to how many billers or coders your clinic has, and how many full time providers? It seems like, in my opinion, there are a lot of clinics who appear understaffed, and it seems to be an uphill battle to get extra staff hired. Thanks for your input.

 

[remckenzie]

I am in a primary care office consisting of 8 providers and I am the only full time coder. I am always behind. I have not been able to convince upper management that they have set unrealistic goals for me. 100 plus encounters are generated each day and I am expected to access CPT codes as well as diagnosis codes. In addition, I do hospital and nursing home coding for our providers. I agree that there seems to be a trend in under staffing. It is easy to say what is required for a position when you don't do that job or know what the job entails. Good luck!

 

[aleigh]

That seems like a common theme in every billing department I've worked in/heard of from friends who worked there. It is hard to convince upper management, and then when we finally start looking it seems really hard to find qualified applicants.

 

[Cindy Akkerman]

Staff

The easiest way to get management to agree to additional staff is to show them the aging and the production numbers. If you can prove that the salary of another person is more than compensated by the amount of work they can do, posting, aging, and assisting front desk for check in and copays, one can easily get another employee. Also, contact your local schools for an extern. They are usually free and have to work 160 or so hours before graduating. That month should be more than enough time to get them trained on a task or two to increase productivity and revenue for the practice. I used this method years ago when I was the only one and needed the help. The owner hired the person after the externship and we were able to increase revenue by having another person on staff.

 

[Janelle926]

We have 6 gi doctors,one is also internal medicine. We have 2 coders and one other that does a little. We are SO far behind. We do office, ER, inpatient and outpatient procedures and visits. We are all overwhelmed and ALWAYS behind. Management won't get us help and we wouldn't have anywhere to put them even if they got us another person since the few of us are crammed into a tiny space.