A verification specialist in healthcare performs secretarial tasks, including scheduling appointments, storing patient files, answering questions, assisting with insurance documentation, and submitting bills. They need a bachelor’s degree in medicine or a related field, two years of work experience, computer skills, organizational habits, medical knowledge, and an outgoing personality.
A career as a verification specialist is usually suitable for a highly organized person with excellent interpersonal skills. In many cases, these individuals work in the healthcare industry and perform a variety of secretarial tasks. Generally speaking, this career requires at least a bachelor’s degree in medicine or a related field and two years of work experience. Some key duties of a verification specialist include scheduling appointments, storing patient files, answering questions, assisting patients with insurance documentation, and submitting bills to patients.
One of the main responsibilities of a verification specialist is scheduling appointments. Throughout the day, she can take calls and schedule patients for procedures like appointments and doctor appointments. In most cases, she will enter the appointment time and patient information into a computer database. Hence, it is beneficial for an individual to have considerable computer skills and organizational habits. Otherwise, conflicting schedules can create complications.
Another big part of this position revolves around patient file storage. Information such as medical history, prescription drugs, and insurance documents are usually stored in a patient file. It is up to a verification specialist to properly classify and categorize all patient files in a filing system.
Answering a variety of questions is also part of this job. During the course of each day, a verification specialist may be asked to answer telephone or email questions, refer patients to physicians, answer insurance questions, or show visitors where to go within a facility. This aspect of the job requires a person to have extensive medical knowledge and be thoroughly familiar with doctors and facility layout. It is also beneficial to have a friendly demeanor and an outgoing personality.
Along with this, it is common for a verification specialist to help patients with insurance documentation. When a patient does not fully understand all the details of an insurance application, it is her job to break things down into layman’s terms. She will also be required to verify a patient’s insurance coverage and may have to refer to conflicting information on an insurance application. Consequently, a verification specialist needs to have a deep understanding of health insurance and all legal requirements.
In addition, it is often her responsibility to send bills to patients. Usually, it is up to her to prepare financial statements and send them to the appropriate person. In most cases, she will also make copies of each statement in case it needs to be viewed later. Having a knack for bookkeeping often comes in handy for these tasks.
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