How Smarter Medical Collections Can Improve Your Practice’s Finances
America’s Health Insurance Plan Census of Health savings account clearly showed the growth of highdeductible health plans. The number reached around 10.7 million in January 2015. These high-deductible health plans combined with economic downturn has made payment responsibility heavily shifting towards the patient and thus made collecting fees a growing challenge for medical services. Apart from that, millions of Americans who are entering the insurance market for the first time under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) face higher out-of-pocket costs for these new health plans, thus directly impacting the practice’s finances and increasing their bad debt percent year on year. As a result, the practices need to shift their focus on collecting up-front and refining their billing strategies. Below are some of the smart strategies to improve your practice’s finances: Set clear financial policies: It’s important to set clear guidelines and policies that everyone in your practice is aware of and knows how to enforce. These guidelines could be: Checking coverage of patients and their insurance eligibility before scheduling any appointments. If a procedure is not covered, make sure your patient are aware of it and the out-of-pocket costs that are involved in the same. Ensure the payment arrangements are made by the patient before coming for appointment Put visible signs in your office that clearly states the payment policy. Train your front office staff. Provide them with a detailed description related to confirming appointments and to be used while calling the patients to collect overdue. Communicate all your policies clearly and in advance. Make sure any form that a patient signs contains points related to an interest on outstanding balances to be charged etc.
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