Southwest Medical Consultants (Southwest) provides managed care contracting and credentialing for your facilities, including access to staffing support for various questions which might come up as you handle managed care issues on a daily basis.
Southwest Medical supports your facility for managed care credentialing (also known as ‘provider enrollment’) services, as well as the process of negotiating to get contracts in place with managed care plans. Your organization is assigned a specific person to serve as your Senior Consultant.
Your Senior Consultant is responsible for oversight of our relationship with your entire company and is also responsible for the negotiation process to obtain managed care contracts for your facility. Your Senior Consultant is supported by our entire administrative staff, including Credentialing Coordinators, Database Support Coordinators, and Programmers, and Help Desk Coordinators.
WHAT does the Help Desk staff provide for us?
- Help Desk helps answer general questions about managed care administrative and billing processes.
- Help Desk helps when you need an update on credentialing or contract approval status.
- Help Desk helps with specific questions or problem resolution related to pre-authorization for services, and your facility’s status as a contracted provider.
- Help Desk helps when you have been told your practice is “in-network,” with a specific MCO and the Pre-Authorization staff deny a potential authorization due to “out-of-network status.”
- IF A PATIENT IS THREATENED BY AUTHORIZATION PROBLEMS, CALL US ON THE PHONE AT 623-218-6371! Problems with a patient authorization are always treated as an URGENT request, and we want to move quickly!
WHY are we here?
The Help Desk is here to help you answer questions related to your managed care business.
WHEN should I contact the Help Desk?
When a question or difficulty comes up with one of your managed care contracts or a patient covered by a managed care plan, the first call you make should be to that company. Each managed care organization (MCO) will have an 800-Number for Provider Relations questions, located on the Member’s identification card. If the MCO is unresponsive, or the answers you receive do not match the information you believe to be correct you can contact our Help Desk staff for assistance with the following areas:
HOW do I get help?
Help Desk Inquiries can be submitted in three (3) ways:
- Email to helpdesk@swmedicalconsultants.com
- Phone call to (623) 218-6371
- Fax to (888) 299-3176
Every Help Desk Request MUST include:
- your facility name and address
- your name, email address, and phone number
- description of the need or questions
- your time sensitivity for a response
- ANY documentation related to the question, if applicable. We cannot answer questions or assist with problem resolution unless you provide our staff with all of the related details and documentation.
WHO will respond to me?
- Your inquiry will create a “Help Desk Case” in our database, ensuring that follow-up and response from our staff is tracked through from beginning to end.
- You will receive an email to CONFIRM receipt of your request for help.
- Your question or request will be triaged by Help Desk staffers to ensure the subject matter expert on the submitted issue appropriately responds with an answer or solution.
- You will receive a follow-up response from Southwest Medical staff within two (2) business days.
- REMEMBER– help for a patient situation should always be handled by phone!
WHAT else do I need to know?
- Only submit ONE request to Help Desk, per issue. If you submit multiple emails for the same issue or question, you will create multiple “Cases” for the same question, and it SLOWS DOWN the process for us to help you.
- We are here to HELP!
- The Help Desk is designed to triage your question to the right person to help, in the fastest period of time possible. Everyone at Southwest Medical supports the Help Desk, so there will always be someone available to help when you need us.
CONTACT HELP DESK STAFF
helpdesk@swmedicalconsultants.com
helpdesk@swmedicalconsultants.com
(623) 218-6371 Phone
(888) 299-3176 Fax