4 Strategies for Optimizing Revenue During Deductible Season
Starting to feel “the deductible blues”?
Blue not your color? We got you.
Here’s a few tried and true tips to keep things green this deductible season.
Time of service, time to collect
The easiest and most effective way to minimize the impact of deductible season, is to collect as accurately as possible at the time of service. Deductibles, co-insurance and co-pay balances are much harder to collect once the patient leaves your office. The National Association of Healthcare Access Management estimates the chances of collecting patient payments drops 62% as soon as the patient walks out the front door. Capitalize on the check in or check out process by verifying each patient’s estimated deductible, coinsurance and/or copay amounts prior to their appointment. A simple sign at the front desk and some easy revisions to your existing financial policy will alert patients that this balance is due and payable at the time of service. This front end solution can reduce collection time for the back end staff and decrease statement and postage costs.
Think daily, not monthly.
Another tool to help keep cash flow consistent during deductible season is to consider running statements daily or weekly. Utilizing 25-30 day cycles, running statements for new balances on a daily or weekly basis ensures that patients receive their statements promptly after insurance processes, and also eliminates the end of month flood of statement calls and questions. Patient payments and inquiries are distributed more evenly throughout the month, keeping your cash flow consistent and allowing your staff to more effectively manage patient questions and inquiries. Better cash flow AND a better service experience for your patients.
Remove payment barriers
Getting timely statements to your patients is important, but removing payment and communication barriers can expedite collecting patient balances and improve patient engagement. Many practices still rely on traditional paper statements, forcing patients to mail payments or pay over the phone. This can be a time consuming process for patients, and can limit their ability to resolve billing questions and concerns. Additionally, this requires additional staffing overhead for the practice, who has to ensure that expert billing staff is available to take payments and resolve inquiries.
One solution is to offer patients the option to pay balances and submit billing questions electronically through a portal. This allows patients the opportunity to submit payments and questions in real time, on their terms, and not be limited by business hours or staff availability. Many practice management and billing software companies now offer patient engagement features that support this capability. One of our favorite patient engagement solutions is Inbox Health. Inbox Health is a patient-first billing solution that directly addresses one of the fastest-growing problems in healthcare—the challenge of patient A/R. Built for billing teams, Inbox Health automates patient billing and patient payments and modernizes the patient support experience. Inbox Health improves patient engagement by providing clear medical bills immediately after service, choice of payment methods and communication channels, and fast, empathetic support through the phone and live chat. We partnered with Inbox Health over five years ago and have seen tremendous benefits. Not only did their solution improve the patient experience and increase patient collection speeds, Inbox Health helped us reduce paper statement and staffing costs, and improve operational efficiency. More time, more money? Yes, please.
Follow up. Follow up. Follow up.
Even with a proactive front office approach and a streamlined statement cycle, it is likely that a few patient accounts will slip through and end up on your aged accounts receivable report. A consistent and thorough follow up plan ensures the best chance at collecting past due balances. One effective tool, after a patient has received 1-2 statements, is a simple courtesy call. A friendly phone call may be all that is needed to quickly resolve a balance or set up payment arrangements. If attempts to reach the patient by phone fall short, a well-crafted letter can also be effective to elicit patient response. Pre-Collection letters show patients that you are serious about collecting the debt within a specific timeline. Many practices also find that an additional final courtesy call following the letter can bring fruitful results. If repeated contact attempts fail and the patient balance continues to age past 180 days, an outside collection agency may have additional resources helpful in collecting the debt.
A systematic and consistent patient collections process will help minimize cash flow disruptions during the deductible season and reduce aged patient balances throughout the year. Allocating appropriate resources to this important area of your business is essential.
Whether you’re reviewing your patient collections process in January or June, the time to start is today! If you’re inspired to transform your workflows but need a kickstart, reach out to us HERE to learn more about the services and support we provide to practices like yours!
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