10 Best Practices for Collecting Patient Payments
Patients are forever dependent on the healthcare industry for their physical and mental health and well-being. With the passage of years, diseases of the body and of the mind are becoming as common as ever. Besides, with the multiplication of diseases and the emergence of a whole new range of diseases, like the novel coronavirus disease, the patients now have to ensure whether they are near trusted healthcare clinics and practices or not.
Now, as the patients of today are growing to be more dependent on the practices, the practices are equally dependent on them and their payments. The patient payments they receive are the sole largest source of revenue for the practices of today, on which depends the growth of the practices.
As per the recent reports over 40% of the providers fail to collect $31K+ a year from their patients, which makes it a significant loss of revenues for the practices. These failed payments surely restrict the overall growth of the established healthcare players while making it an uphill journey to pursue for the new startups and hospital chains that are currently looking to build a market out of the healthcare industry. We will learn all about healthcare payments and the best ways to improve patient payment collections here in this article but before that, we need to know why patient payments are important for the practices. So, let's dive in:
Why are patient payment collections important for the practices?
Patient payment collections are crucial for healthcare practices in ways more than one. Here's why patient payments are eagerly looked up by the practices:
A vital source of revenue
The payment collections received by practices from the patient payments serve as a vital source of revenue for them. Practices from all around the world aim to bring in the best doctors and facilities for the patients and in return what they get is the patient's payments and their trust.
Fosters the growth of the practice
As the collections from the patients form a major part of the practice revenues, it ensures the growth of the practice. Boosting healthcare payments is thus an easy way to ensure the growth of the practice. This is because, with the rising practice revenues, the practice would look for growth in all terms.
Boosts morale
The reception of adequate revenues and receiving them timely is never less than joy. Similarly, in the healthcare industry, healthcare payments are largely relied upon by doctors/physicians, practice managers, owners, and other medical workers, where adequate patient payment collections always resonate highly and boost the overall morale.
Leads to practice expansion
Practice revenues, which are significantly made up of the patient collections that they receive, are used to a great extent for the growth, development, and further expansion of the practice. This includes the attraction of more new patients, retention of the older patients, and the general expansion of the operations of the practice.
Improves the quality of medical care
Proper patient collections for the practices help them address more patients in ways that are as effective as possible. The medical industry is now witnessing a new era of medical care that is provided with the help of new-age software, tools, and technology from reliable medical office software providers like GrowPractice. All of these are actively playing their part along with the innovative and effective patient payment collection methods to improve the patient payments effectively.
Helps attract more patients and retain them effortlessly
More income for the practices would mean that they can also invest more in experienced staff, upgrade systems, and provide the best possible care for the patients without any worries.
Most prominent problems in the collection of the healthcare payments
Surveys conducted in 2020 reveal that the practices have lost over $16 bn in revenues in the same year. The loss of practice revenues is due to a range of reasons and a significant portion of it is due to the decline of the patient payment collections.
The patient payments were earlier made only via cash at the practice itself but this has changed quite a bit with the introduction of credit and debit cards, online methods of payments, and more. All of these have made patient payment collections today less than a tough affair in comparison to what they used to be.
However, when it comes to payments, many other problems still remain constantly nagging the healthcare ecosystem. Here are some of the prominent problems when it comes to the collection of healthcare payments:
Rising costs
Healthcare payments are becoming costlier each day with the rising prices overall. This is making it tough for the general patients to keep up with the rising expenses, which is eventually leading to reduced collections and heaping on the bad debts on behalf of the hospitals and practices.
Lack of online payments
Online payments are now a reality in every industry regardless of whichever direction you look at. The healthcare industry is also embracing the online options for payments in much the same way that the other industries are aiming at. However, many practices still lack the online patient payments in the list of their offerings, which can, in many ways be really helpful for the practices in boosting their revenues. Recent surveys show that over 68% of the patients prefer to pay their providers online, which is simply not satisfied still by many of the practices, and this greatly adds to their practice revenue losses.
Lack of accurate billing and payments department
Medical bills have long been ill-reputed to be faulty and for this, numerous practices, their staffs, and their manual systems are to be blamed.According to the latest statistics, 80% of all medical bills contain errors, and these errors either lead to the dropping of the practice revenues or the loss of practice reputation.
Lack of flexible payments options
Payments are to be made by the patients at the end of their journeys and these patient payments are something that the practices and the whole of the healthcare system highly depend upon. In this current age that we are living in and with the rise of the healthcare service charges, the patients are really finding it very difficult to pay their way for care at one go. This is why the concept of easy payments or installments has been introduced
Over 78% of the patients said that they would go back to the same provider if they offers them extended payment options. Furthermore, on another survey, it has been revealed that the patients who would be provided by the extended payments options would even refer the particular practice to their family and friends. Thus, the introduction of flexible patient payments is crucial for the healthcare service provider and would even lead to improving their patient retention and boosting the attraction rate of the new patients.
Failure of claims processing in time
The failure of the medical claims processing on time can lead to several severities including the rejection of the medical claims. Now, in case the patient claims are rejected or denied, then the collection of the patient payments is often delayed and it becomes really tough at times for the practices. On the other hand, if the practices have experienced staff and they process the claims accurately, then that can really stand to be rewarding.
Inaccurate claims processing
Medical claims are often faulty. Studies point out that over 58% of all medical claims contain errors. Making the medical claims error-free can yield numerous exciting results, all of which lead to multiplying the patient revenues for the practices by enhancing the patient payment collections.
Delay in manual patient payments
Delays in manual patient payments often contribute to failed patient payments for practices. When the practices rely on manual payments, it is sometimes difficult for them to take it up further with their patients, thereby reducing the patient collections in general. This has to be considered great and to save the fall of the healthcare payment collections, more and more practices need to implement online payments.
10 best ways to enhance the patient payment collections and boost the practice revenues!
Patient payment collections for the practices need to be greatly improved in order to help the practices improve their revenues. A significant portion of the practice revenues is lost due to the decline in their patient payments, which is becoming a growing issue. If you are a practice owner or manager and you feel that you are losing out on your precious revenues daily due to the reduction of the patient payment collections, then you need to check it without any delay. This will help you grow your practice in many ways. Now, if you are wondering how you can enhance healthcare payments at your practice, then here are the 10 best practices for collecting patient payments effortlessly:
Bring in transparency in patient payments
Transparency lies at the core of every successful business. This is more so when it comes to healthcare practices because the healthcare industry is one such crucial industry that governs the patientsâ lives and well-being. More than 65% of the patients mark that the cost of the healthcare services plays a major part in the overall satisfaction of the practices. This is the reason why more and more practices need to be upfront and informative about the patient payments or the charges of their healthcare services. This would set an expectation in the patient's minds and would add some credibility to the patient provider, thereby letting them stay with the same provider.
Implement online payments
According to the reports of the Trends in Healthcare Payments, an overwhelming majority of payments (86%), prefer to make their payments online to save them time and experience convenience. Thus, looking at the stats it is really clear why the practices need to switch to online payments to help their patients benefit from the same. However, in case getting a secure and reliable provider is still being an issue for the practices, then it is GrowPractice that they can put their trust on. GrowPractice brings secure and efficient ways for the practices of today to switch to the online method of receiving patient payments effortlessly.
Improve the flexibility in patient payments
Patient payments flexibility and rather the lack of it is a major cause of concern for today's patients. Flexible options for the patients to pay their providers online would boost their convenience and enhance the overall patient experience, thereby boosting the satisfaction rate of the patients.
Hire smart medical staff in the billing and payments department
Getting medical staff who are trained in their specific departments is a challenging thing today for the practices. Besides, with more and more medical workers leaving their jobs lately, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the medical industry is suffering hugely due to the lack of medical workers. Reports say that over 18% of the total medical workforce have resigned from their duties. This decline of the medical workforce calls for the implementation of foolproof medical office software and systems from trustworthy medical office software providers like GrowPractice. Along with this, it is also essential for the practices to hire smart medical staff who are careful and efficiently take care of their duties in all departments, especially in the billing and payments department.
Always stay compliant
Compliance is key for healthcare service providers. After the declaration of the HIPAA guidelines in 1996, it has become mandatory for the practices to abide by the same. Most of the compliance breaches are associated with the patient's data and stems from the billing and payments department. To rid the practices of all the hassles of maintaining their patientsâ data and receiving and regulating their payments smoothly is the sole aim of GrowPractice, which is why it offers HIPAA-compliant medical and dental office software solutions, which is integrated with effortless patient pay services.
Get all the patient information securely and effectively
Receiving all of the patient's information securely and effectively is truly a challenge for the practices. Furthermore, keeping them updated at all times and with accuracy is another imposing task, which needs proper handling. Manually managing all of these with dwindling medical staff would not help the practices. This is why the practices need to derive all the patient information securely and effectively with the help of GrowPractice, which brings secure and efficient medical software that automatically integrates the patient's data in real-time, thereby wiping out all the inaccuracies involved in the process while keeping it secure at all times.
Make use of secure patient portals
Around 80% of the patients opt for secure patient portals to make their payments online for their providers. Security matters the most in this age of cybercrimes and this is what digital healthcare providers need to worry about. Implementing secure patient portals with self pay options for patients is what GrowPractice offers the practices. This makes it really easy for the practices to reduce all the hassles associated with declining patient payment collections.
Monitor outstanding patient payments
Outstanding patient payments are always a trouble for the practices and these pending payments always need to be monitored by the practices before listing the new patient payments. Therefore, before enabling patient pay services, the practices always need to monitor the outstanding patient bills and add them in due time. To ease this process, GrowPractice brings smooth and effective digital ways to help make the patient payment process easier than ever before.
Offer extended plans for healthcare payments
Extended healthcare payments can greatly help the patients. Such plans improve the patient's convenience and enhance the patient's experience. Thus, if the practices offer extended healthcare payments plans for the patients, then the patients would be greatly helped and would also be retained in the long run.
Offer self patient pay services
The digital age is enabling everyone to do their respective jobs themselves, thereby reducing the dependence and improving individual convenience. Self patient payment services can be denoted as one of the most excellent additions to patient practices in recent times. With the smart and secure patient portals that trustworthy service providers like GrowPractice offer, it is less than a deal for the practices now to offer easy self pay services for the patients
GrowPractice offers the best healthcare payment solutions for your practice!
GrowPractice is one of the most trusted medical office, patient management, and practice management solutions providers, which is greatly transforming the patient payments and the overall management of the practices. From helping the patients book their appointments effortlessly to easing the ways of patient intake and check-in processes to helping them make their payments smoothly and following them up easily, GrowPractice is bringing nothing short of a revolution to the healthcare industry.
With its secure and easy solutions, Growpractice boasts of an impressive track record of being the patients and the practice's favorite solutions provider. The medical office solution provider has added $60,000+ more revenue per provider, thereby increasing the overall collection rate by 20%. Besides, it has also contributed its part in enhancing the patient attraction and retention rates by 8% and 48% respectively. GrowPractice also promises to reduce the patient no shows by 89%. All of these would certainly help your practice multiply its revenues and provide an excellent opportunity for it to grow without bounds!
