How to Evaluate BPO Vendors

Posted by Smart Data Solutions on April 5th, 2021
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Smart Data Solutions

How to Evaluate BPO Vendors For Healthcare Claims Processing 

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is an essential service in the healthcare industry that allows organizations to outsource specific aspects of their business operations. 

These outsourced services include front-end processing such as appointment reminders and call centers, as well as back-office processes such as IT services, medical billing, and electronic data capture. 

The biggest benefits of using a BPO vendor are saving time, money, and resources. Learn more about what BPO is and its benefits in our article. 

BPO vendors allow businesses to outsource mundane processes that take too much time or are out of the team’s area of expertise. Identifying which services are beneficial for your business to outsource is helpful to set up your organization for long-term success.

The vendor search can be tedious. It requires thorough research, candid conversations, and critical evaluations to find a BPO vendor that gives your business momentum.

Smart Data Solutions offers many healthcare-specific BPO services with 20+ years of experience in healthcare claims processing. We’ve had our fair share of intake meetings so we’ve gathered the most important questions for internal discovery before you vet BPO vendors, and questions to ask potential partners when you’re ready to have a conversation.

Internal Alignment Before the BPO Vendor Search 

Taking the time for internal conversations helps you figure out exactly what you’re asking for before engaging in a meeting with a BPO vendor. The services that businesses need to outsource vary for every company, so gathering multiple internal perspectives is key to success. 

Smart Data Solutions has managed and implemented thousands of diverse and complex projects. We’ve learned which best practices lead to successful projects, and which ineffective and outdated practices put projects at risk. Our time-tested model yields successful implementation results: to us that means on-time, on-budget, and aligned with your business goals. Key questions to ask your team include: 

How to Evaluate BPO Vendors 1

Having an understanding of the pain points of your current claims processing workflows and where you would rather be spending your time is the basis for identifying which BPO services make sense to outsource.

5 Questions to Ask BPO Vendors For Health Claims Processing Before Signing The Contract 

Once you’ve analyzed your internal processes, it’s time to start vetting BPO vendors. The following questions will help plan for the future with fundamental requirements for your BPO needs.

  1. Do you offer supplementary services? (Think about intake, data capture, or validation functions.) 
  2. What type of reporting do you provide?
  3. Can you give examples of similar work processes with past clients? 
  4. What security standards do you support? 
  5. What is your pricing structure?

These baseline requirements will end up documented in a service level agreement (SLA) that’s tailored to the unique claims processing needs of your business. You’ll likely uncover more questions to ask and points to clarify throughout these initial conversations. By all means—ask away! 

Ultimately you want a BPO vendor who takes on the mundane aspects of healthcare claims processing while freeing your team’s time for strategy and innovation that moves the needle for your business.

When you’re ready to have a conversation about BPO needs, contact Smart Data Solutions for a free consultation with our healthcare technology specialists.

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