Meet Healthcode’s Business Development Manager (Insurers and Hospitals)

Tell us about your job?

I work with insurers and hospitals, helping them to save time and improve cashflow by automating manual tasks.

My responsibilities include new business development so on a typical day, I’ll spend time researching and talking with prospective customers about the particular issues they’re facing. I need to understand their business so I can introduce them to suitable products and services that make their life easier. It can take time to reach an agreement with a large insurer or hospital group so it’s important for me to establish good relationships with my clients and support them through that process, from providing an accurate quote to explaining how to add our solutions to their existing management systems using flexible API integration.

Another aspect of my job is account management. That might involve responding to customer queries, resolving issues with our technical teams, attending monthly service meetings with insurers and getting out and about to meet my contacts on site. I also regularly attend industry events to keep up to date and meet our stakeholders.

What’s the biggest business challenge that customers raise with you?

One of the most common questions people ask me is how they can speed up the invoicing process. A lot of hospitals have to employ massive invoicing teams because it’s so labour intensive to upload invoices manually, sort through remittances to reallocate shortfalls or review a pile of invoices to find out why they’ve failed. As well as being time-consuming to manage, invoicing bottlenecks lead to delays which makes it more difficult to manage cashflow.

How can Healthcode products help with this?

I love telling customers how automation can transform the invoice process and introducing them to the suite of smart tools that can reduce their workload and help them get it right first time. For example, Find Member and Pre-authorisation provide a fast and effective way to check patients’ membership details against insurers’ databases and request pre-authorisation for treatment from eligible patients, without having to spend a lot of time on the phone. Both these products have been rewritten with a bright new user interface which makes them more intuitive and a pleasure to use. Find Member was the first to go live and we’ve been delighted with the positive response from customers. We hope they’ll be as impressed with the new version of Pre-Authorisation which we’re about to pilot with our user group.

We offer Failed Bills Management Tools within our Financial Management Solutions to help hospitals diagnose and fix issues in failed invoices without having to manually check each one.

Another big time-saver is our automated Shortfall Collection Service. It instantly identifies shortfall codes from electronic remittances and then generates a payment notification to notify patients who can then pay online. It’s a more cost-effective alternative to manually going through remittances and hospitals get money in the bank a lot quicker which helps with cashflow and planning.

Can you give an example of where you’ve been able to make a difference?

A hospital customer reached out to me because they were having a lot of failed invoices following the departure of a long-standing member of the team because they were the only person who was familiar with their systems and knew how to fix issues.

What often happens is that the business hasn’t kept up to date because the person responsible didn’t see the need. However, when they leave, there may not be time for a proper handover and the rest of the team can struggle. On a conference call, we talked about their invoice process and I was able to show them some of the shortcuts and features that would help them get the best from the system without the need to recruit experienced staff which can be difficult in some areas of the country. They were relieved to see how easy this stuff can be and that we had tools that would help them get the job done.

What new and upcoming features are you excited to tell customers about?

We’re in the process of rolling out the next generation of popular Healthcode products like Find Member and ePractice and we’re working on a brand new VEDA which is the gateway that enables my customers to access Healthcode services. As well as providing a better user experience, these services will increasingly feature smart tools powered by Healthcode Intelligence (Hi) which simulates the human mind to make recommendations and predictions, create content and analyse data. You can already find Hi in our Shortfall Collection Service and features like diagnostic pathways and ePrescribing.

One more thing that I know will be a gamechanger for my customers is the next release of The PPR (Private Practice Register), our information hub for the private healthcare sector. We’re in the process of creating new dashboards to give hospitals better visibility of linked practitioners, including the insurers that recognise them. This should prevent frustrating situations where an invoice fails because the practitioner doesn’t have the necessary recognition by the patient’s insurer which can cause long delays.

What do you like best about working for Healthcode?

Joining the company 18 months ago was a massive change for me as I’d been working in hospitality for about 15 years, going from waiter to managing multiple restaurants. However, that lifestyle wasn’t practical when my little boy came to live with me full-time.

While office life was a big contrast a lot of the people and time management skills I had were transferable and I’ve enjoyed learning about a whole new sector and the technology. I think there’s a good, dynamic culture within the company and there are great opportunities to progress but I also feel well looked after. I’m in quite an unusual situation as a single dad and I’ve found the managers here to be very caring and supportive.

And finally, what do you enjoy doing outside work?

I love spending time with my son who’s quite an active child so we go to the park a lot. He takes after me in that respect because I’m really into running and fitness. Last year I did the Vitality 10K to raise money for the Rainbow Trust (Healthcode’s Charitable partner) and I’m really excited to have a place in the London Marathon next April. I also enter Hyrox indoor fitness events which are a mixture of running and strength exercises. I find them a good challenge and it’s a chance to see other places – I took part in the Vienna event earlier this year.

Aside from fitness, we regularly go down to South Devon because all my family live down there. It’s nice to see them all and spend time there, especially in the summer. They’re a great help with childcare too which gives me the chance to socialise.