Top 21 Medical Receptionist Interview Questions In 2024 [With Answers]

Places like hospitals, schools, banks, etc. which attract a large footfall of visitors, set up a dedicated place, known as a reception for resolving all their queries and issues. A reception acts as the first place of contact for all types of audiences and is managed, controlled, and supervised by a specialist known as a Receptionist.

The relevance of this dedicated place enhances even further in the hospitals, wherein a medical receptionist is required to attend to patients, attendants as well as visitors. It is a respectable profession, which attracts bright salaries and lucrative incentives. Hence, if you have an upcoming interview session, be ready to ace it by reading all the interview questions mentioned hereunder:

21 Best Interview Questions To Study

1. What Are CPT Billing Codes and How They Help Patients?

Being a medical receptionist you need to be aware of all the medical procedures initiated by the patients for claiming reimbursements as there will always be multiple queries from this area.

Sample Answer

Sir, CPT stands for Current Procedural Terminology, These are codes assigned to the different health care services, which are offered by any medical institution. These uniform codes enable the patients to determine how much:

• Will be the total cost of the treatment or service sought from the healthcare provider
• Will be the amount covered under the insurance policy that will be reimbursed and
• Will be the amount that needs to be paid by the patient himself

2. Assume A Situation In Which A Patient Misses His Scheduled Appointment But Appears At A Later Time and Is Fighting To Get Treated At A Priority. How Will You Handle This Situation?

This is a situation-based interview question in which you are required to share a calm and composed response.

Sample Answer

Sir, patients are like customers for a hospital and must be handled calmly following the highest standards of customer service. It is common for medical receptionists to face such situations in which patients miss their scheduled appointments and then suddenly appear to demand an immediate check-up on a priority basis. I always calm such patients down and try to convince them in a persuasive tone by saying that now you will be attended towards the end of the current batch of patients, hence, please sit down and maintain the sanctity of this place.

3. Share Any Three Major Responsibilities Of A Medical Receptionist.

This question tests how much you understand your profession.

Sample Answer

Sure, sir, These are:

• Attending to the patients, visitors, attendants and addressing all their issues and grievances
• Scheduling appointments on a phone call or in-person
• Preparing the patient’s file and keeping all the documents and records intact

4. Maintaining “Confidentiality” Is An Important and Necessary Trait For Medical Receptionists. Justify This Statement.

Through this question, an interviewer wants to know your views in regards to maintaining confidentiality at your workplace.

Sample Answer

Sir, it is common for employers to enter into confidentiality agreements with the medical receptionists so that no information related to patient records gets leaked and fall into wrong hands. I also take cognizance and completely agree with it. Further, being a loyal and dedicated employee, be assured, I will never indulge in any such action.

5. What Is Your Understanding Of The ICD 10?

This question tests your knowledge and understanding of the various codes used for diagnosis.

Sample Answer

Sir, ICD stands for International Classification of Diseases and is approved by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). An ICD 10 contains a list of all the codes assigned for diagnosis and helps in:

• Tracking the statistics to evaluate the burden of various diseases
• Establishing data related to mortality
• Helps in preparing appropriate hospital bills

6. What Do You Mean By Assessment Of The Medical Bills? Explain In The Context Of Reimbursement Of Medical Expenses.

This question tests your understanding of the procedure related to medical reimbursements by the insurance companies.

Sample Answer

Sir, an insured patient who is covered under the reimbursement medical policy, is required to present an assessment of the bill, which refers to the total amount of expense he or she wishes to get reimbursed. The amount depicted in the authorized and genuine medical bills will be totaled and reimbursed, subject to the sum assured limit of the patient.

7. What Are The CPT Codes For Anesthesia and Radiology Mentioned In The Category I Of The CPT Codes?

This question tests your knowledge about the various codes present in the three categories of CPT Billing Codes.

Sample Answer

Sure, sir, These are:

• Anesthesia: From 00100 to 01999 and 99100 – 99140
• Radiology: From 70010 to 79999

8. Describe About A Time When You Showed Commitment At Your Workplace.

“Commitment” is a necessary trait for medical receptionists and you will always be asked to narrate any real-time professional experience to corroborate this attribute.

Sample Answer

Sir, I am a committed and dedicated employee who has always sought to contribute with all my skills and perseverance. I remember an instance from my previous employment, wherein I was supposed to digitize all the patient’s records in 15 days along with executing my routine tasks. This was challenging, but I never gave up and started working with passion and commitment. I used to work for 12 hours a day, and completed the assigned task in 14 days.

9. What Do You Mean By The Term “Extra-Cellular Fluids”?

Being a medical receptionist you must be aware of the basic medical terminology as there will always be questions from this area.

Sample Answer

Sir, extracellular fluids represent those substances that exist in a liquid form in our body and circulate outside the cell. Blood is extracellular fluid in our body and never enters or penetrates inside the cell wall. Rather, it flows just outside the cells transporting oxygen and other vitals on the way.

10. What Are The Basic Qualities That Every Medical Receptionist Must Possess?

This question tests how much you understand your profession.

Sample Answer

Sir, An ideal medical receptionist must be:

• Detail-oriented, and has an ability to gather a lot of information before starting any task
• Meticulous in his or her operations and have a sharp eye for all the minute details
• Having excellent communication skills wherein you are able to satisfy all the types of audiences that appear at your desk

11. As A Medical Receptionist You Will Be Working In A Team. How Do You Maintain An Excellent Rapport With Your Team Members?

It is common for business organizations nowadays to operate in a team, wherein all the employees are divided into separate groups on the basis of their education levels, skills, and nature of tasks to be performed. As an ideal response, just make your interviewer believe that you will work perfectly in a team.

Sample Answer

Sir, I have always considered myself to be a team person with an ability to work together forming a meaningful association. In order to smoothly execute all the business tasks, I always:

• Understand the team goals and strategies adopted to achieve them
• Strive to achieve my individual targets, so that the combined progress of a team is not affected
• Accept the guidance, suggestions and feedbacks that are provided to me by my team members or seniors

12. Medical Receptionists Need To Attend Several Phone Calls All Of Which Are Recorded For Quality Purposes. How Open Are You To Accepting Negative Feedbacks and Criticisms?

This question tests your opinion towards getting criticisms for the work that you have performed while being in employment.

Sample Answer

Sir, It is common for the employees to feel bad and even offended when they receive negative feedbacks in regards to the tasks, which they have executed. I don’t see it negatively, rather I believe criticisms are the perfect ways to improve your work-related performance as they show you what is going wrong and how you can improve it. When taken seriously, a person can get better at his job,

13. As A Medical Receptionist You Will Be Required To Liaise. How Much Do You Understand About This Aspect Of Your Job?

Medical receptionists are required to liaise and establish a smooth flow of communication between several medical departments operating in the hospital. As an ideal response just share the strategy that you follow to effectively liaise.

Sample Answer

Sir, a hospital is a set of varied functions and provides several services to its patients. With the existence of several departments within a confined space, it is necessary to integrate and align them. For example, the radiology department must be linked with the physician’s office. In all the cases of issues and misunderstandings, a medical receptionist must stand up and try to resolve all the arising issues. This is what effective liaisoning is and I am happy to possess this knack.

14. Name A Few Best Medical Billing Software That You Are Aware Of.

Everything moves in and around technology nowadays. There are several medical billing software that are used by receptionists. You are expected to have knowledge about them.

Sample Answer

Sure, sir, These are:

• CureMD
• Epic Care
• Dr. Chrono

15. Can You Explain To Me The Basic Composition Of Blood?

As a medical receptionist, you got to be aware of the basic medical terminologies that will help you in smoothly executing your tasks and duties.

Sample Answer

Sure, sir, Blood is primarily divided into two parts which are:

• Plasma (55%)
  • More than 90% is water
  • 2% of the total composition is electrolytes, nutrients, hormones, enzymes and minerals
  • The rest are proteins, which roughly make up 60 to 80 grams per litre
• Hematocrit (45%)
  • White Blood Cells
  • Red Blood Cells and
  • Platelets

16. We All Need Something Which Compels Us To Perform To The Best Of Our Abilities. What Motivates You To Work?

This is a common interview question using which an interviewer wants to know about all the motivational factors that compel you to work hard at your workplace and achieve all your goals and objectives in a time-bound manner. These factors are influenced by the personal situations, financial conditions, and circumstances of an individual. Hence, it is recommended that you always share an original response, instead of the generic one.

17. Working As A Medical Receptionist Will Require You To Handle Several People Including Troubled Patients and Their Relatives. How Do You Manage Your Work Related Stress?

Stress is a common issue and is experienced by almost everyone in this world. It is an established fact that a stressed employee is never able to deliver desired performance and fails to achieve most of his targets and tasks. Thus, an interviewer is always interested in knowing the various strategies and techniques that you have adopted to manage your stress levels. Deep breathing, meditation, positive pep talk and yoga are some of the widely appreciated methods to alleviate stress levels.

18. When Can You Start Working With Us?

This is a non-technical interview question, which requires you to share a date on or after which you can start working for the medical institution. It is recommended that you always share a date after maintaining a margin of at last 2 business days to account for all possible hiccups and issues.

19. Receptionists Are Busy Employees and Are Required To Perform Several Tasks In A Single Business Day. How Do You Prioritize These Tasks For Timely Completion Of All Of Them?

Medical receptionists are assigned various tasks with all of them having a fixed deadline attached to them. It is necessary to execute all these tasks in a time bound manner so as to deliver an ideal performance. This can be done using a prioritization technique, through which you can arrange or order your tasks on the basis of specified criteria such as difficulty level of the tasks, time consumption, etc. To give an ideal response, just share your priotization technique and narrate a real working experience to justify it.

20. What Are Your Salary Expectations?

It is common for the interviewers to ask about your salary expectations during an interview itself. It is necessary to share an appropriate salary figure, which is based on comprehensive research of the industry to which you belong. In the instant case, you must calculate an average of salaries offered to the medical receptionists and base your expectations on it.

21. Do You Have Any Questions For Us?

It is common for the interviewers to close out an interview session using this question, through which, all your doubts and apprehensions in regards to the organization are being requested. It is recommended that you always attempt this question, and ask a few relevant counter questions from your interviewer in relation to the rules and policies implemented, allowances offered to employees, the number of paid leaves given, etc. You can always read the model questions mentioned below for a better understanding of an ideal response.

Model Questions

• What are the work timings of medical receptionists in the different shifts adopted by the hospital?
• Please share a list of all the incentives and allowances that are offered by the company to its employees.
• How are the promotional aspects of the company, and on average after how many years are the medical receptionists promoted?

Download the list of questions in .PDF format, to practice with them later, or to use them on your interview template (For Medical Receptionist interview):

References

1. https://academic.oup.com/cid/article-abstract/73/7/e1850/5893141