At the beginning of the year, your patients typically accumulate deductibles and out-of-pocket costs. That means it’s the perfect time to improve your patient collections process! Wondering just how to improve patient collections by following best practices?
Here are a few simple things you can do to achieve that goal.
Educate and inform
It’s extremely helpful – and sure to be greatly appreciated – if you take the time to let families know their expected costs. This practice allows patients to better plan for those expenses. Communicate clearly, early, and often. Document expectations in writing with acknowledgment from the responsible party wherever possible.
Start early
Speaking of early communication, getting a head-start on the admin side of things is worthwhile before a new patient arrives at the practice. Ensure you save their contact details and, most importantly, their insurance information. It will benefit both your practice and patients if you double-check that their insurance adequately covers the cost of your services. If it doesn’t, provide a breakdown of all details pertaining to co-payments to streamline future collections.
Communicate
Make sure patients and their families can access their statements easily. Also, take the time to find out how each patient or responsible party prefers to access their balances. Email and text notifications are becoming more common and are a less expensive means of communicating patient statements. Many EMR systems now offer this secure alternative. Deploy an opt-in system for patients to consent to electronic statements.
Provide clarity
Providing patient statements that are easy to understand, clear, and timely is an important part of the patient payment collections process. Statements should clearly state what was paid by insurance and the remaining balance due. Using different fonts, colors, or design features helps to make statements more reader-friendly. Additionally, sending patient statements as quickly as possible after the service date keeps the charges fresh in the patient’s mind.
Prioritize accessibility
Gone are the days when patients mailed a perforated stub and check to the office. Now, patients want to pay by personal credit card, health savings account (HSA), or flex spending account (FSA). Increasing accessibility to phone or online payment systems will improve collections. Remember that it’s critical to ensure that systems and processes are HIPAA and PCI-compliant.
Reconsider your payment options
You can improve patient medical bill collections by making it easier for responsible parties to make the payments. If you only offer one or two payment options, it is time to make some changes. Doing so will improve patient satisfaction and see a positive uptick in collections. Accepting cash, credit cards, checks, and point-of-sale payments is a good idea, and it will boost your ABA company’s billing practices. Thanks to technological advancements, it’s also possible to receive payments through a dedicated online payment portal, which often also comes with its own patient collections tracking feature.
Offer convenience
Many patients receiving long-term or intensive treatment reach their insurance out-of-pocket maximums or incur significant co-payments. Paying this balance in full immediately may be impossible for the responsible party. Providers can offer flexible payment plans to accommodate patient needs. Automatic recurring payments are ideal for minimizing necessary actions on behalf of the patient’s responsible party. If you do decide to offer payment plans, keep the following in mind:
- Payment plans extending beyond six months aren’t recommended as they can complicate collecting deductibles from patients.
- You’ll need a solid agreement informing the patient or responsible party of all the terms and conditions pertaining to the payment plan. Ensure that you include information about any “late fees” payable in the event that a recurring payment isn’t made within the stipulated time frame.
- The agreement should be signed by the patient or responsible party, and they should receive an electronic copy of the document.
Streamline your follow-ups
In most cases, collections shouldn’t be challenging, but occasionally, you’ll face a situation in which one or more follow-ups are required to complete a transaction. Your follow-up process is important as it can determine how quickly and effectively a collection can be made. You should always start by sending a billing statement, a reminder, and a phone call. If the issue still isn’t rectified, you’ll need to send an additional letter, followed by a final reminder and a final call before handing it over to a collections agency.
Give your employees a refresher course
Regular training and refreshers is critical regardless of whether you have a separate billing department or your front-of-office staff handles patient collections. After all, compliance requirements change frequently, and it’s always a good idea to get the team together to discuss improving patient collections and delve deeper into what’s working and what isn’t.
Outsource ABA billing and collections
For many ABA and behavioral health providers, managing patient statements and balances seems insensitive to the families that may be experiencing extreme hardships already, or the time and technology required may be burdensome. However, contracts with insurance companies outline the legal obligation of providers to attempt to collect patient balances. Your company gets tons of benefits from outsourced billing and collections. It’s a common misconception that you must do all your billing and patient collections in-house.
Improve patient collection with Missing Piece
Missing Piece Billing and Consulting is experienced in managing patient collections. We customize our solution to the organization’s unique needs and can offer a wide range of options to help optimize collections, including electronic statements and payments. Let Missing Piece handle your insurance billing and patient statements so that you can focus on taking care of your patients.
To learn more, contact us today at 765-628-7400 or weare@yourmissingpiece.com.