Personal injury law firms and specifically mass injury departments are increasingly finding themselves working with virtual firms and/or adding a virtual component to their practice. This allows staff to focus on other aspects of their caseload and other operational functions. Medical records are essential to personal injury cases, and a timely and smooth process is important to ensure proper discovery. Thus, medical records management outsourcing adds a professional process to personal injury law firms.
Outsourced Medical Records Management: How Can a Virtual Team Help?
Customer Questionnaires – In most cases, the discovery process begins when customers complete a customer questionnaire. The tasks of contacting customers and completing the questionnaire by telephone can be outsourced to a virtual team. This will include calling the client to discover key medical items such as physician information, including dates of visits, dates of surgery, and/or relevant medication usage. This will allow paralegals within the law firm time to focus on other tasks and save the firm time and money in the early stages of the case.
Medical Records Retrieval – After medical and provider information has been collected and the client has obtained a HIPAA authorization form, the medical records retrieval process can begin. This process includes the applicant submitting HIPAA Form Applications to healthcare organizations, including information disclosure, health information management, and medical records departments. The method of recovery will depend on the processes and policies of the department or organization. In some cases, the application can be faxed and in other cases, applications must be submitted with an original signature. Outsourcing the recovery process can be a win for most law firms because the process can be time consuming and is a significant part of winning cases.
Call tracking to ease backlog – A large part of medical records retrieval and management is the outbound calling process. Several follow-up calls must be made. This is another key area where outsourcing will help alleviate backlogs between the law firm’s legal and administrative staff. This process is twofold:
1. Make follow-up calls to requesters to first ensure receipt of the request and to be aware of the workflow and estimated time of arrival of the records. In some cases, this can mean 2-10 calls per month.
2. Second, the follow-up call secures or discovers any missing information or the need to resubmit the records. In many cases, health organizations and records departments outsource the records processing to a copy service and/or online health portal companies and calls must also be made to these companies. This arduous task can easily be outsourced to help the business.
Eliminate Overwhelm: Working with a virtual support person or team can improve morale at law firms. If your paralegal’s staff is overwhelmed, outsourcing some of their tasks can help ease their workload and reduce staff overload. This includes the process of retrieving medical records in whole or in part. In the end, this will help with billing and create a sustainable company.
Adding a virtual component to your law firm’s strategy is a great way to position your firm for growth and an additional competitive advantage. The conversation should start with your team. Talk to your case managers and paralegals. Discuss the benefits of outsourcing medical records processing with them.