Medical Billing Interview Prep
"Do you happen to have an extra copy of your resume?"
Interviewers may have lost your resume among the hundreds submitted for your position as well as other positions. Interviewers may have had trouble downloading your resume from the Applicant Tracking Software. An interviewer may be using this question to test your preparation... and by extention, your interest in the position.
I recommend having at least 3 copies of your resume in the event you are walking into a panel interview. Have extra copies of a well-prepared reference sheet and your cover letter.
Tell Me About Yourself….???
Don't Wing It!
Don't Tell Your Life Story!
Prepare a 30 second response that includes your:
Experience that is most relavent
Education and training
Excellence and Expertise
Excitement about the position
Sample Answer -
Experience Example
"I worked in retail which gave me great customer service experience and I learned how to turn upset customers into happy customers!"
Education Example
I graduated from Laurus College with Professional Business Systems and Medical Billing Certificates. I also have 5 specialty certificates and I'm planning on getting more."
Excellence/Expertise Example
"I'm naturally very precise and accurate."
Excitement Example
I really enjoy interacting with doctors, patients, and insurance companies to solve problems and get good results for all the parties involved.
General Common Questions
Tell me about yourself...
How did you decide to go into medical billing?
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Which part of medical billing do you like least?
Which part of medical billing do you like most?
What are your strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
Soft Skill Questions
Coding/Billing professionals have to adapt themselves to daily challenges. Tell me about a time you had to adapt…
How do you communicate empathy with patients?
Tell me about a time you had a conversation with a patient who wasn’t paying their bills…
Tell me about a hostile patient collection case you were involved with….
When are you assertive with insurance companies?
Tell me about a time when you had to be analytical and research claims…
Electronic Medical Records Questions
What do you know about EMR (Electronic Medical Records)?
Are you more familiar with EMR or EHR? Electronic Medical Records or Electronic Health Records?
What kind of computer experience have you had?
Which type of software have you used? Medisoft? Epic?
Which version of the program(s) have you used?
Which forms have you used most?
Which procedures do you have the most experience billing for?
What specialties have you coded for?
Do you know how to run reports?
Can you customize reports?
How do you deal with rejected claims?
How is your medical terminology?
What is your strongest specialty?
Hard Skill Questions
Do you have a medical billing certification?
Are you planning to get certified or are you in the process?
Do you have any area specific certifications? HIPPA, ICD-9, Form 1500?
How do you keep current with insurance and healthcare coverage changes?
How long does it take for you to process one day’s worth of patient visits or claims?
Work Sample Exercises at the Interview
What would you do to resolve this actual denied claim? (Be prepared for a company to give you a sample case with the patient’s specific information removed)
Be prepared to find 5 Procedures from word descriptions...ask if the procedure has options/levels/stages...if appropriate, ask if it was a right, left or bilateral procedure...
Be prepared to find 5 Diagnosis or ICD-9 codes...if appropriate ask follow up questions on whether the illness is acute or chronic....NEVER use the index alone or guess...go to the numerical section and read about the choice...don't use "unspecified" unless that is the only code that will work...it is better to code symptoms.
Verificaton Questions
Why is it important to verify coverage prior to patient arrival?
Self Pay Questions
How would you handle a self pay patient at the front desk who thinks they should not pay now that he has already received the service from the doctor?
Medicare Questions
How you would go about getting paid for a surgery I did that Medicare says is included in a previous procedure or service?
Posting or data entry
- Typing in CPT and ICD-9 codes you have circled or checked
- Entering co-payments from the patients
- Verifying patient’s insurance coverage
- Entering patient demographics
- Calling insurance companies to ask why claim not paid
- Ability to print and mail HCFAs/CMS 1500
Medical billing skills
- Writing appeal letters - Have them explain the process
- Work the A/R reports - Have them explain what type of reports in detail
- Finding the right codes for a specific specialty
- Using modifiers properly
- Developing more efficient Superbills/Fee Slips
- Handling difficult self-pay and workers’ comp issues
- Responding to billing inquiries in person, mail and telephone
- Maintaining a high level of customer service regardless of the behavior of the patient or patient family member
- Updating the codes in your computer and fee slip each year
- Able to read, understand, and explain insurance carrier’s contracts
- Able to read, understand, explain, and fight regarding insurance companies use of different codes to deny proper or full payment of a claim from EOB
- Understand handling referral/authorizations
- Understand handling pre-authorization & verifications
- Understand California worker’s compensation
- Understand Fair Debt Collection Rules
- Understands HIPAA rules
- Understand the difference between a “write-off”, insurance adjustment, and hardship adjustment, capitation adjustment and how they differ
Trick Questions
The HIPPA Set Up....Was there any patient in your last practice that you will always remember? If you give out full names, or even last name of patients – breaking HIPAA - this is a problem.
The Appeal Set Up....Can you appeal every denial received from the insurance company?
The answer should be no, you can only appeal the improperly denied claims; an inexperienced biller is going to want to say YES. An experienced biller would know you can’t appeal and win everything. You must use your time and energy wisely going after what you can win.
The First Week Report Question....If you got hired, what Reports would they run and why? What would you do the first week? The answer should be something like this:
I would run and A/R report for the practice as a whole for the last 1 year to 1 ½ years with aging buckets 30 60 90 120 and over.
I would run a productivity report for the practice as a whole and then for each individual provider. The productivity report usually will show what CPT codes you have used and how often.
I would run an A/R report for all the insurance carriers and then each one individually.
I would run a report on the patient A/R separate from the insurance A/R report.
If software will allow, I would run a report on what adjustments have been take over the last year. How much has been “adjusted off” and it should have categories as to the reasons why.
I would be reviewing this to see if maybe we are taking too many adjustments off instead of fighting back with the insurance company or getting a little firmer with some of the Self Pay patients.
Do You Have Any Questions For Me?
At the end of most interviews, the interviewer will ask a final question, “Do you have any questions for me?” I recommend being prepared with 3-5 of your own questions. Asking good questions will position you as very interested in the job.
Sample Questions
What are the biggest challenges at this position?
What are the key things your best billers/coders have done at this position?
What are some things an under performer has done?
What is the selection process?
Is there any question I should have asked but didn’t?
If you were in my shoes and really wanted to communicate a strong interest in this position, would there be anything else I should do at this point that would improve my chances?
No comments:
Post a Comment