How to Increase Patient Collection Percentage for Your Facility? - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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How to Increase Patient Collection Percentage for Your Facility?

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Title: How to Increase Patient Collection Percentage for Your Facility?


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(No Transcript)
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How to Increase Patient Collection
Percentage for Your Facility?
When outstanding patient balances grow out of
control, your practice may feel theres no option
but to place them in the hands of a collection
agency. Putting debt professionals in charge is
the best way to get your payment right? Not
always. Physicians and practice managers often
resort too quickly to the services of a
collection agency and end up feeling the choice
was a mistake. Learn why, and how, to avoid
needing outside collection services and bolster
your cash flow in the process. If you place an
account in the care of a collector, youre
entrusting the business to act on your behalf.
With that, your reputation is at stake the
collector can easily burn your bridges with your
patients, their kin and their colleagues if it
represents you poorly. It may never be possible
for your practice to collect 100 of what youre
owed from patients especially in todays
economy but implementing firm payment policies
is the best way to avoid issues. We have
suggested a few points which might help you to
get more collection from patients and that is
also on time for most of the times! 1. Give more
payment options Dont restrict yourself to taking
cash. Show some flexibility and give more options
to patients for the mode of payment. These days,
people mostly use credit and debit cards to make
payments. Keep a card machine on the front desk,
so that patients can make payment there and then.
Some patients may insist on making the payment in
cash. So you can facilitate them by having an ATM
installed at your practice.
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How to Increase Patient Collection
Percentage for Your Facility?
2. Create the internal financial policy Create
a financial policy for your practice and
communicate it to your patients to avoid any
payment confusions or discrepancies in future.
The policy should be comprehensive and address
issues pertaining to your practice specialty and
patients. Clearly define patient responsibilities
for all non-covered services. 3. Train your
staff Invest in your front-desk staff. Educate
them about ways to collect patient payments
before the services. It is desirable to hire
staff that is familiar with health insurance
policies otherwise train them in making
collections, looking up patient payment history
and resolving payment disputes. Make sure your
staff remains up to date with payer payment rule
changes. Receptionists who schedule appointment
need to be trained on how to audit a patients
account and to know when its time to have the
patient meet with someone in the billing
department. Determine the specific parameters for
your staff so they can do the job you want and
support each other.
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How to Increase Patient Collection
Percentage for Your Facility?
4. Do your homework Check your EHR and create a
list of all the patients with huge payment
Backlog. Your integrated EHR and Practice
Management System should assist you in this. With
good software, you can view the plan and patient
balance in real-time on the scheduling screen.
Make it a habit to view this information, so that
you have an idea about patients lagging behind in
payments particularly for expensive procedures
and services.   Collecting accurate demographic
and billing information should not be limited to
new patients. Update patient information and
insurance information at each visit. If a staff
member fails to do this, hold him accountable.
You can use this chart to help your staff probe
for and collect the right data when scheduling
appointments, or at the beginning of each patient
visit. 5. Make a follow-up strategy Delay in
follow-up will increase chances of non-payment.
As soon as the patient leaves the practice, send
the bill on their patient portal. Call them up
and remind them through email. Keep your options
open while deciding to keep billing in-house or
outsourcing it to a medical billing company.
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How to Increase Patient Collection
Percentage for Your Facility?
6. Outsource to the medical billing company If
you dont have enough staff or good billing
expertise outsourcing your billing might be a
more cost-effective option for you. Most billing
companies deal with patient payments by answering
patient billing queries, following up with your
patients on pending balances and even taking them
to collection agencies after your approval. At
that point, you have the option to write off
small balances as losses if you would rather not
deal with an agency an advisable choice in some
cases. Yet if you decide to move into debt
recovery with an outside company, make sure to
use a trusted, vetted agency. Ask colleagues for
referrals before contracting with a debt recovery
business and ensure during sign-up that they know
exactly how youd like your accounts to be
handled.
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