So, you have decided that it is time to outsource medical billing. There are many important steps to insure that the medical insurance billing services company you select is the right one for you. Today’s post is focusing on one step of the process – checking references. As with the overall process, there are many important elements that need to be addressed to insure that your reference check is effective in verifying the attractiveness (or lack thereof) of your potential medical insurance billing company. The main element I want to focus on today is creating an effective interview guide.

Without a good interview guide you could easily finish your reference check process and not have gathered the right information for your final decision. So, before you start the reference calls make a list of your top hopes and fears concerning your new medical billing company. Then create a few questions that would allow you to come away from the reference check with the information you need to know how your potential medical billing company has performed in these areas for their other clients. Now, type out the questions in a logical manner and leave the space required to jot down the answer right on the interview guide. Before the first call sit down and look at the questions one final time. Make sure that the answers to these questions will give you the comfort you need to make a final decision. Start making the reference calls once you are confident your interview guide is ready.

One final tip: If during the reference check one of the references brings up a key issue you had not considered, add it to your interview guide and call back any references to which you have already spoken to get the missing data you need from them.

I will end with a shameless plug – if you want more details on this topic (including a sample of the interview guide used by Medical Billing Services Buying Guide) please consider purchasing a copy of our buying guide.