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.
Are you eligible to become a Medical Billing Executive?
If you want to make a career in healthcare, and want to become a Hospital Billing Executive or Front Desk Receptionist, then there are many institutes that offer Medical Billing / Hospital Front Office & Billing Executive courses where you can apply. However, before you apply, make sure that you have a Bachelor’s degree from a recognized University. Also, if you’re pursuing the final year of 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.
Hospital Front Office & Billing Executive: Job Description
Before you enroll into 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 role of an HFOBE partly requires people skills along with an ability to pay attention to detail as this position calls for someone who is the primary point of interaction between the hospital’s management and the patient.
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
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
Tech Mahindra SMART Academy for Healthcare
As mentioned above, there are many healthcare institutes that offer Hospital Front Office & Billing Executive / Healthcare Billing 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 Office Billing Receptionist 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 to find 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 was INR. 22,000 and INR. 14,296 while in Mohali, it was INR. 13,500 and INR. 11,083 and in Mumbai, it was INR. 24.800 and INR. 14,710 approx.
Though the exact working hours for a Hospital Front Office Billing Executive would depend on the organization where you find a role, the industry standard is to follow a general shift-based schedule.
Depending on the location and specialty of the hospital, you can expect to deal with high-volume traffic or increased emergency cases which would require the HFOBE to be highly methodical and organized.
Healthcare Billing Executives: Growth & Job Opportunities
Every year, the healthcare industry is expanding, and thus increasing the demand for skilled healthcare professionals. A trained Medical Billing Executive or Hospital Front Office Receptionist will always be valuable for any healthcare institute. You must remember that once you land a job as an HFOBE or a Healthcare Billing Executive, then you’ll have to work in high pressure and people-centric environments on a regular basis, which means that you must have the ability to stay calm, prepared and organized on a daily basis. Such a role would open up horizontal growth opportunities, where you can gain a lot of experience and then move further up in national and international markets.
