Who are Hospital Front Office & Billing Executives, and what do they do?
Hospitals see a lot of people flowing through their doors in the form of in-patients, emergencies, out-patients, and patients coming in for therapy or recovery. This means that these patients need to be guided to the right departments, their files created and maintained, and their billing reports generated without any hitches.
This is the primary role of the Medical Office Billing Receptionist or an HFOBE (Hospital Front Office Billing Executive). They serve as the primary touch point for people entering the hospital, help with the creation of their case files, and also go on to generate and help settle the patient’s bills either directly or through an insurance agent. This is a key responsibility included in the billing executive job description in hospital settings.
Are you eligible to become a Medical Billing Executive?
If you are interested in making a career in healthcare sector and want to be a Hospital Billing Executive or Front Desk Receptionist, then you can apply in many institutes where medical billing executive job description courses are offered. Nonetheless, as a candidate, you must ensure that you possess a Bachelor’s degree from a recognized University. Besides, if you are in the last year of your Graduation, then you can apply for the course. The minimum age limit to apply for the Healthcare Billing course across various Healthcare Academies is 18 years.
Many professionals wonder about the billing executive meaning in healthcare. Essentially, it refers to a role focused on medical billing, insurance coordination, and front-office management within a hospital or clinic.
Hospital Front Office & Billing Executive: Job Description
Before you enroll in the Medical Billing / Hospital Front Office & Billing Executive course, you must understand the job roles that you’ll require to perform once you get a job. The hospital billing executive job description includes handling patients’ records, billing documentation, and ensuring smooth communication between departments.
The duties and responsibilities of a Hospital Front Office & Billing Executive are as follows:
- Greeting patients when they enter the hospital
- Answer telephones and respond to queries of patients
- Help the patients fill out necessary forms and applications for their treatment
- Gather billing or insurance information from the patient
- Schedule patient appointments
- Distribute incoming and outgoing mails to their respective destinations
- Provide patients and other departments of the hospital with necessary billing information
Each of these responsibilities is part of a billing executive in hospital roles and responsibilities, ensuring smooth hospital administration and patient care.
Qualities of a Hospital Front Office & Billing Executive
As the first person to interact with patients who enter the hospital, an effective HFOBE will be someone who has good communication skills and can quickly resolve matters for the patient and give them necessary guidance.
Here are some personality traits that would help you to pursue a career as a Medical Office Billing Receptionist:
- People skills
- Attention to detail
- Honesty and reliability
- Ability to work in a fast-paced environment
- Ability to coordinate with other departments
- Ability to resolve queries
- And most importantly, patience
These skills align with the billing executive job description in hospital settings, where professionals handle a variety of administrative and financial tasks.
Tech Mahindra SMART Academy for Healthcare
As mentioned above, there are many healthcare institutes that offer hospital billing executive job description courses, which also includes Tech Mahindra SMART Academies for Healthcare. These Academies are an initiative of Tech Mahindra Foundation and are world-class healthcare institutes located in Delhi, Mohali, and Mumbai.
The duration of the course is 6 months, which includes on-the-job training/internship opportunities in various renowned hospitals and healthcare institutes. The SMART Academies’ HFOBE course will train you to work as a certified medical billing executive job description professional in hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare establishments. Apart from the medical billing training, you’ll also receive training in English speaking, personality development, and IT skills.
HFOBE: Placement, Salaries, & Working Hours
Once you’ve completed your training at Tech Mahindra SMART Academy for Healthcare, the placement team will assist you in finding a job. With over 70% of students placed successfully year after year, we ensure that you will gain access to some of the leading healthcare service providers in the country.
The highest and the average salaries of our HFOBE students for the FY 19-20 are INR 27,000. However, you must note that the salaries of our placed students vary with the locations of their jobs and that of the Academy. The highest and the average salaries of our HFOBE students in Delhi in FY 19-20 were INR 22,000 and INR 14,296, while in Mohali, it was INR 13,500 and INR 11,083, and in Mumbai, it were INR 24,800 and INR 14,710, approx.
Though the exact working hours for a billing executive job description in hospital settings would depend on the organization where you find a role, the industry standard is to follow a general shift-based schedule.
A billing executive in hospital roles and responsibilities also includes coordinating with different departments and managing patient inquiries.
Healthcare Billing Executives: Growth & Job Opportunities
This sector is one of the growing sectors in the current society, and as a result, there is a growing need for healthcare professionals. A candidate trained as per the standard medical billing executive job description helps health centers such as hospitals and clinics address their financial accounts appropriately. Since most healthcare facilities are incorporating digital and automated billing systems in their organisations, there is a higher demand for qualified professionals.
The billing executive in hospital roles and responsibilities involve claim management of medical insurance, working with the finance departments, and assisting the front office. In addition to handling transactions and billing, the executives should also have adequate knowledge of medical terms, insurance, and legal issues to do with the billing. They liaise with doctors, nurses and other workers in order to make sure that all records concerning the patients and all financial information are well recorded and updated.
Once you secure a job as an HFOBE or a Healthcare Billing Executive, you are most likely to work under pressure and in an environment that requires direct interaction with people most of the time, This means that you have to be ready to handle pressure in your working environment on a daily basis. The front-office executives act as the contact persons for patients and their families; therefore, good communication and interpersonal skills are important in this field. Moreover, the workers in this field may be expected to process insurance claims, ensure that the billing codes are accurate, and deal with patients’ complaints concerning their charges.
This kind of a role would create horizontal growth prospects where one can gain much experience and then progress even further in national and international markets. Some of them work their way up from billing executive to such senior positions as the hospital administrator, insurance claims specialist or a financial coordinator in a healthcare facility.
In the healthcare industry, the billing executive meaning extends beyond the financial aspect of the job; the person should also be able to adhere to policies, determine the correctness of the bills, and facilitate the flow of information in between departments of the hospital. The job outlook for medical billing professionals is excellent, giving candidates the assurance of long-term employment and job openings.
Conclusion
Front Office & Billing Executive position is a very important one in a hospital organization as it is responsible for managing the flow of customers and their experiences. From record keeping to working with insurance firms, and from dealing with money matters, the hospital billing executive job description covers all various tasks in healthcare organizations.
