Medical Office Assistant III

About the role

The Medical Office Assistant III serves as the first point of contact for patients within the Bassett Healthcare Network. This is a key role in the patient-centered care team, demonstrating excellence in all patient and customer encounters including face-to-face and telephone interactions. You will provide administrative support to ambulatory patient care teams through excellent customer service, attention to detail, and interpersonal skills, ensuring a high-quality patient experience.

Responsibilities

• Reception/Call Handling
  • Greet every patient courteously and positively, ensuring their needs are met as observed by supervisors and patient satisfaction surveys.
  • Provide new patients with a Welcome to Bassett Network Packet, including Advance Directive information, Health Information Privacy documents, and brochures. Ensure established patients over 18 receive Advance Directives if undocumented.
  • Escalate emergent situations or patient problems to a Supervisor or Supervising Nurse.
  • Answer phones within 3 rings using a 3-part greeting (Department name, your name, "How may I help you?").
  • End calls by asking if there is anything else needed, as noted in compliance reports.
  • Take clear, complete, and accurate phone messages or prescription requests using the electronic medical record messaging system.
  • Maintain operator statistics at or above institutional standards.
  • Offer patients the opportunity to sign up for MyBassett over the phone or in person.
  • Keep patients informed of any delays in provider schedules.
  • Train incoming new staff in reception and call handling functions.
  • Assign daily agent assignments for telephone queues in Amtelco or Cisco.
• Registration/Appointment Scheduling/Referrals
  • Complete outpatient registration, ensuring demographic and insurance information is accurate and entered or scanned into the system.
  • Confirm attending PCP and Billing PCP when appropriate.
  • Ensure data capture and entry (e.g., MSPQ) for regulatory compliance is accurate and complete.
  • Support collection of Advanced Beneficiary Notice signatures to meet Medicare regulations.
  • Make corrections based on missing items work-queue within 24 hours of system notifications.
  • Answer patient questions about the organization/services and provide directions to clinical locations.
  • Schedule outpatient appointments following department guidelines, offering alternate providers/locations when needed.
  • Accurately complete the Interactive Face Sheet and confirm/update demographic and insurance information.
  • Ensure patient communication preferences are up-to-date for appointment reminders.
  • Remind patients of co-pay collection expectations at the time of visit.
  • Utilize scheduling functions (e.g., Auto Search, Combine Departments) to optimize appointments.
  • Edit daily appointment schedules as requested by supervisors and follow policies for rescheduling.
  • Review the electronic Confirm List daily to confirm appointments 24-72 hours in advance.
  • Process urgent referrals same day and routine referrals within 24-72 hours.
  • Ensure complete and accurate referral information for reimbursement, regulatory compliance, and patient care.
  • Obtain prior authorizations and document them appropriately within referrals.
  • Work "Incoming" and "Outgoing" referral queues according to departmental standards.
  • Follow up with referred providers to ensure patients kept appointments and results were received.
  • Act as a subject matter expert in scheduling, registration, and referral functions.
  • Train incoming staff in registration, scheduling, and referral functions.
  • Run and process daily operational reports under supervisor direction.
  • Monitor and assign referral work-queues, alerting supervisors when thresholds are exceeded.
• Collection of Payment/Cash Handling
  • Convey payment due based on insurance verification and request payment method (cash, check, or credit card).
  • Receive and receipt all payments with no more than 2 minor errors per quarter.
  • Maintain and balance cash drawer daily with no more than 2 minor errors per quarter.
  • Accurately prepare daily cash up in cooperation with supervisor.
  • Perform Petty Cash record-keeping and management accurately and timely.
  • Assist with cash drawer errors, discrepancies, and reconciliation of cash management reports.
• Office Support/Cross Coverage/Confidentiality
  • Date stamp and deliver incoming patient-related information to appropriate providers/staff daily.
  • Complete basic patient demographic information on forms (e.g., Disability, Workers Comp) before delivering to nurses or providers.
  • Mail outgoing patient information (e.g., lab letters, completed forms) within 24 hours.
  • Prepare correspondence to patients or other entities as directed by providers or supervisors.
  • Prepare and scan outside patient health information per Document Imaging procedures.
  • Complete indexing and scanning of hard-copy patient health information into the electronic health record.
  • Send requests for medical record releases to assigned HIM locations for processing.
  • Maintain appropriate inventory of office supplies and required forms.
  • Establish and maintain departmental record-keeping and filing systems.
  • Open and/or close clinic per divisional guidelines, ensuring appropriate hand-offs for 24-hour departments.
  • Cover other locations or departments as requested, performing similar office functions.

Qualifications

Demonstrates a high level of understanding or acts as a subject matter expert in facets of the job such as scheduling, registration, and referrals. Takes a lead in training new incoming staff members.