With the advent of technology in the healthcare sector, there have been a number of improvements that have escalated the industry to new heights. The treatment for each illness is looked after thoroughly by a team of dedicated doctors to get the best result possible. But with the treatments also comes the burden of payment. It is an inevitable fact that you have to pay for the services that you have received from medical professionals. This is where the aspect of patient payments come into play.
In recent years a constant trend that has been seen among many patients is the fact that they are choosing to go for HDHP (High Deductible Health Plans). One of the latest surveys on healthcare that have been done shows the fact that 35 percent of the medical revenue comes from patient pay. It is crucial to remember that the timely collection of all the patient payments is important if you want your institution to be financially stable. Since every patient out there is unique, therefore, the process of patient payment collection tends to open up a new challenge each time.
How Do You Collect Payment from A Patient?
There are different steps that need to be followed when securing payments from patients.
1. Honest payment Policy
If your medical organization does not have a policy that requires upfront patient payments, then the time to draft one is now. Drafting a patient policy has its own benefits. These are all the things that you should cover in your policy if you have not already.
– Responsibility for paying the medical bills: Patients who have health insurance will know that they are responsible for co-payment along with charges that are left over after the health insurance gets paid. Patients who do not possess health insurance will have to pay the bill from their own pocket.
– Due date: One of the most important aspects of rafting a policy is to ensure that the process of patient payment and billing remains seamless. This means specifying the payment (copays and deductibles) date during the time of service.
– Payment not received: The policy should be clear cut about all the actions that the medical office might take lest the payment is not made upfront. One of the most effective yet common sanctions is to send an overdue invoice to the collection agency.
– Mode of payment: Letting your patients know about the various ways of collections of patient payments (debit card, credit card, cheques and much more) is also important.
2. Check for the eligibility of the patient’s insurance
HDHP (High deductible health plans) are now quite the standard thing which means that the majority of the patients must pay a deductible or a copay for the health services. If your medical practice can regulate the eligibility for the patient’s insurance and whether or not the deductible or copay applies, then the patient can pay the bill upfront.
Checking for the eligibility of the patient’s insurance as close to the date of the service as possible. It is important that you perform eligibility checks with the right EMR system. However, not having a specific system means that you would have to depend upon manual calls to confirm the insurance coverage.
3. Securing a great POS system
Once the process of determining the due payment is over, the next priority is to collect the payment in the swift manner possible – this is when POS (point of service) comes into play/ A point of service system helps enable your business to receive the necessary payments. If your organization does not have a POS system, getting one would be a wise decision.
4. Training the staff
Payments get submitted at the front desk which is why outsourcing medical billing company is of the utmost importance. The staff sitting at the front desk should be proficient and experienced when it comes to requesting payments upfront from the patients. When the staff are inadequately trained, they would not know how to implement the payment policies upfront.
Biggest Challenges Faced in Medical Billing
There are a number of issues that surround the aspect of health insurance. Let’s take a closer look at what those are.
- Late payments: When healthcare systems tend to rely either on the insurance companies or on patients for the payment upfront then delays in payment can occur. Focusing on patient payment solutions means that you widen the accessibility for payment. This way you can get properly reimbursed for the services your organization has provided.
- Staying updated with patient information: Verifying insurance and personal information is a part that cannot be separated differently. When the solutions and information for the current software become out of date or are inadequate, it leads to more steps being added to the entire process altogether. Therefore, to save yourself the hassle it is always important to get the right information from the beginning itself.
- Medical coding: When it comes to the medical codes they must be implemented in the correct manner or else it can lead to a loss in remuneration. Hiring professional medical coders and billers means that they will be proficient with their job and put the codes in a correct manner wherever it is required.
- Quality control: When it comes to smart medical billing solutions it has many benefits, one of them being it readily helps in the elimination of errors across the billing system. Moreover, when there are errors that do occur while recording, they get eliminated which leads to complete and accurate information within the log.
- Assisting them with tech execution: High-tech solutions get employed through the medical establishments, they frequently do not include enough support when it comes to the process of implementation which creates newer problems that need to be solved. Management teams and establishments therefore should always have sufficient tech support with the best training possible.
Therefore, to get the best out of patient payment solutions there are certain agendas that need to be fulfilled as soon as possible. And, if you are looking to hire a company for medical billing services, Synergy HCLS is a name you can always bank upon.
