Is Healthcare Call Center Outsourcing Right for Your Practice?

Your ability to provide timely, thoughtful care to each of your patients is of the utmost importance. However, when your phone lines get flooded and hold times increase, the patient experience suffers. In worst-case scenarios, long hold queues can be life-threatening. Healthcare call center outsourcing lets your staff focus on what's most critical — caring for their patients. Moreover, outsourcing can shorten your wait times, allowing your providers to respond quickly to emergencies.

Healthcare contact center vendors offer various support services, from nurse hotlines to non-clinical teams, and can oversee all incoming calls or handle overflow during peak times. In each case, your outsourced call center reduces call hold times, ensuring priority care for your patients. It's important to understand what medical call center outsourcing entails, compare the pros and cons of in-house versus contracted services, and explore how technology plays an essential role in patient care. 

What Is Healthcare Call Center Outsourcing?

This type of outsourcing involves an entity that handles protected health information (PHI) contracting with a third party to answer inbound calls. Healthcare call center outsourcing is one of many forms of business process outsourcing (BPO). Your vendor acts as an extension of your organization and provides services that comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

An outsourced healthcare contact center with an experienced team can:

• Deliver HIPAA-compliant call center answering services
• Complete an insurance eligibility verification
• Provide a toll-free number for patients or payers
• Offer patients access to appointment scheduling tools
• Update patient information for medical centers
• Request physician referrals on a patient's behalf
• Interact with healthcare payers 
• Route member inquiries to the correct hospital staff
• Handle medical billing questions 
• Perform outbound calling tasks, such as appointment reminders
• Support multiple languages on patient calls 

You can choose individual services or outsource all your call center operations. For instance, some healthcare practices use a contact center for off-hours communications or handle overflow calls during business hours. Others deploy an outsourced hotline for emergency assistance. You can customize your services according to your specific needs.  

Outsourced Call Centers: Costs and Benefits

The cost of medical call center outsourcing depends on several factors. You can choose a dedicated or shared service, source domestic or foreign teams, and pay by the hour or minute. Contact center outsourcing companies will work with you to determine your needs. They'll look at your call volumes and the types of specialty services required, such as a nurse hotline.

For US-based call center agents, pricing typically starts at around $20 per hour. The cost increases when you add multiple communication channels, bilingual agents, and specialized representatives. However, healthcare practices can achieve significant cost savings overall and additional benefits when outsourcing. 

Outsourcing your healthcare call center operations has many advantages. You can: 

• Reduce operational costs: Decrease funds spent on office space, hardware, software, tech support, and maintenance. 
• Increase patient satisfaction: Enhance the patient experience by answering calls quickly and routing them to the correct facility. 
• Optimize your existing staff: Healthcare call center outsourcing handles basic administrative duties, so your team can focus on your patients.
• Improve patient care: Monitor agent performance in real-time and update your call flows to ensure each client receives personalized care.
• Support business growth: Outsourced medical call centers handle your overflow inbound or outbound calls, allowing you to manage an uptick in business without risking the patient experience. 

Medical Call Center Services: Outsourced vs. In-House

If you're experiencing a high volume of calls, you can either ramp up your contact center operations or use outsourced medical answering services. Building a call center requires additional infrastructure and employees. You may need to hire new staff, train them, and supply desk phones, headsets, and computers. 

While the operational costs are higher, you retain complete control over your agents. If there's an issue with an agent's performance, you can address it immediately rather than going through a third party. Medical practices should choose contact center software for healthcare with user-friendly dashboards and automated reporting features so you can access data analytics about your patients and their experiences. 

According to a Kameleoon report on patient experience optimization, healthcare organizations (HCOs) that apply customer insights are five times more likely to increase revenue.

Unlike in-house call center services, outsourced healthcare solutions employ and train representatives. They equip agents with hardware and software and address performance issues. You'll also have access to reports and analytics. Some third-party vendors use software that integrates with your unified communications (UC) tools. That provides you with additional insights into patient experiences during their interactions with your outsourced medical call center.

Advanced Technology for the Healthcare Industry

According to Deloitte, investment in health tech hit $14 billion in 2020 compared to about $7.4 billion in 2019. Healthcare call centers use various technologies to track patients' health, provide medical care, and monitor calls. The applications your outsourcing partner uses affect your healthcare practice. 

Many healthcare organizations select HIPAA-compliant contact center software to avoid the risks associated with outsourcing call center services. Your company maintains complete control of the patient experience, and staff members can provide support across multiple channels, including in-app chat and video or voice calls.

With UJET's CCaaS 3.0, leaders in the medical industry can use SmartActions to verify insurance or request a photo during a chat session. They can also use UJET's Virtual Agents to answer common questions and collect additional information before transitioning the call to a live agent. UJET's real-time data exchange with your CRM ensures data privacy while helping your call center agents personalize conversations.

Reimagine Your Healthcare Call Center Services

Patient satisfaction is your top priority, and your contact center can provide healthcare support across multiple channels. Whether you choose outsourced medical answering services or upgrade your current call center software, partner with teams that take a human-centric approach and support natural interactions with your clients.

Ready to learn more about business process outsourcing (BPO) for healthcare? Book a demo today to see how partnering with UJET can help you increase patient satisfaction and reduce costs.