How Virtual RNs are Saving Doctors Money

Telemedicine has expedited a shift to virtual medical professionals. As technology has improved and the onset of the coronavirus pandemic made changes necessary, more patients than ever before saw medical professionals virtually in 2020 and 2021.

The benefits of working with a virtual RN are becoming more clear, whether doctors shift back to in-person patient care or continue practicing telemedicine. Working with virtual RNs can save you money and free up your time, among other benefits.

What Virtual RNs Can Provide

Whether you’re looking for scheduling, administrative support, or medical scribe work to be completed, working with virtual RNs gives you access to a skilled professional who can adapt to the needs of your practice.

Live In-Room Charting

You can bring your virtual RN with you into the patient exam room where they will live-chart the visit in real-time in the doctor’s EMR of choice.

Medical Transcription

Virtual RNs can function as virtual scribes for doctors. On a computer or a tablet, a doctor can connect with a virtual RN via videoconferencing software.

Another option is to record dictation and upload it to a cloud server. A virtual RN can then transcribe it, even adding it directly into the patient’s chart.

Scheduling

Another benefit of virtual RNs is that they can be connected to your phone system even though they’re not sitting in your office. This allows them to both receive and place calls as if they were sitting at your front desk. They can interact with patients over the phone to both schedule and confirm appointments. They can even call insurance companies on your behalf.

Referrals, Phone Calls, and Administrative Tasks

It isn’t just the doctors that virtual nurses can assist. They can also make a difference in the front office with a doctor’s administrative staff.

Virtual RNs can assist with the following administrative tasks:

• Authorizations: Virtual Registered Nurses (RNs) can help in obtaining prior authorizations from insurance companies for medical procedures, treatments, or medications. This involves navigating the often complex and time-consuming process of securing approval from insurance providers before a patient receives certain healthcare services.
• Managing Medical Records: These professionals can organize and maintain patient medical records in digital systems, ensuring accuracy, confidentiality, and compliance with healthcare regulations. They may also assist in retrieving and updating medical histories, test results, and treatment plans as needed, facilitating seamless coordination of care among healthcare providers.
• Medical Billing: Skilled personnel can support medical billing processes by accurately coding diagnoses, procedures, and services provided to patients. They may help ensure that billing information is correctly documented and submitted to insurance companies or patients for reimbursement, minimizing errors and maximizing revenue for healthcare facilities or practices.
• Refilling Prescriptions: Experts can handle prescription refill requests from patients or pharmacies, verifying medication orders, reviewing patient records for medication history and allergies, and coordinating with healthcare providers to authorize refills as appropriate. This helps streamline medication management and ensures patients receive timely access to their prescribed medications.
• Eligibility: Professionals can verify patients’ eligibility for healthcare services or insurance coverage by confirming demographic information, insurance status, and coverage benefits. This helps prevent billing discrepancies and ensures that patients receive the appropriate level of care based on their insurance coverage or financial circumstances.
• Insurance Verification: Trained personnel can verify patients’ insurance coverage, including confirming policy details, coverage limitations, and copayments or deductibles. This information is crucial for healthcare providers to accurately bill insurance companies and patients for services rendered, avoiding claim denials or patient financial burdens.
• Referrals: Knowledgeable staff can assist in coordinating referrals to specialists or other healthcare providers by liaising with referring physicians, obtaining necessary medical records or test results, and scheduling appointments for patients. This helps ensure timely access to specialized care and promotes continuity of treatment for patients with complex healthcare needs.

Virtual RNs can also handle both verifying insurance eligibility and prior authorizations for a patient in order to make medical billing a lot easier. Any administrative staff you have will be busy working with patients. A virtual nurse can take care of these tasks to free up your time and your administrative staff’s time.

A virtual RN can chart a patient in real-time during an appointment, but that’s not the only paperwork they can handle. From transcribing dictations to filling out forms, virtual RNs can ensure that your documentation is filled out and uploaded to a cloud server for easy access.

Checking Patients In and Out

Even though a virtual RN isn’t in the office in person, they can take care of checking patients in and out. A tablet set up at a check-in station will offer patients access to the virtual nurse who can check them in and ensure all paperwork is filled out and up-to-date. Patients can check out the same way. A virtual RN can ensure that any follow-up appointments are scheduled and that patients have paid any fees for their appointment.

Custom Office Needs

Chances are, if your office has a specific need then a virtual RN is the solution. Working with a company that specializes in virtual RNs can help you develop your team in whatever way you need. VirtualRNs, for example, will train the VRN personalized to your requests.

The Benefits of Working With VRNs

Working with VRNs allows you to easily manage and scale your practice at an affordable rate, saving you time, money, and headaches. Hiring a VRN through a virtual RN hiring company will allow you to easily fill in gaps in your workflow, making your team’s processes easier and quicker.

How the Hiring Process Works

You’re probably familiar with the hiring process for a nurse who will work with you in person in your practice. But introducing a virtual RN into your workflow may prove to be a more confusing process. Although, it doesn’t have to be.

When you work with a virtual RN company, the company will present you with profiles of hand-picked candidates. You will then select the virtual registered nurse who best fits your needs. This will be the VRN who works with you on a daily basis—no stress from working with a brand new nurse every day.

From there you will connect with your new VRN, setting them up as needed with your software and processes. Set an official start date and begin working with them on a set daily or weekly schedule—just as you would with a nurse working in the office.

Addressing Concerns

Most doctors have worked almost entirely with an in-person team of nurses. Introducing a virtual team member into long-standing workflows can be concerning. Concerns like costs, HIPAA compliance, and training are all reasons you may be second-guessing the switch to virtual.

HIPAA Compliance

Solution: Virtual RNs from VirtualRNs.com are all trained in HIPAA compliance.

HIPAA compliance is incredibly important, especially when working with contractors and employees. Be sure the company you work with supplies virtual RNs who have certificates in HIPAA training, have a background check, and sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA).

Cost

Solution: Virtual RNs from VirtualRNs.com are $11 to $12 per hour.

Working with virtual RNs will cost you on average $12 an hour for a part-time nurse clocking 15 to 30 hours weekly. A full-time virtual RN working over 30 hours a week will cost $11 an hour. This is a far cry from the $36.66 per hour national average RNs are paid in the United States. Not including the additional costs of hiring on an employee.

Training

Solution: Virtual RNs from VirtualRNs.com are trained in the tools your practice already uses.

Depending on the virtual RN company you choose, virtual RNs will be trained to use the tools you currently have in your workflow. If you work with a company like VirtualRNs you will be working with registered nurses with no less than two to three years of experience on average. These nurses will be trained to use the systems you currently use in your practice and will be familiar with using tools like BOX.xom, Updox, RingCentral, AdvancedMD, and other programs.

Taking the First Step to Hire Your Virtual RN

You’ll want to start the process of hiring a virtual RN through a reputable company that can not only be flexible to your needs but also provides skilled nurses. Make sure you do your research to find both the highest quality virtual RNs and the best price per hour. Companies like VirtualRNs provide staffing solutions that are focused on quality and cost-consciousness.

Virtualrns.com

Virtualrns.com is a company that offers virtual RN services for doctor’s practices. They offer reliable virtual nurses at a cost that can save doctors money on staffing. Their virtual nurses can help doctors stay organized as well as free up the doctor’s time so they can focus their time and attention where it matters most: on the patients.

For informational purposes only.