Tips to Increase Your Clinic’s Collections
August 3, 2022Patient collections are a constant headache for many physicians. Most clinics have difficulty collecting payments, especially if the collection process takes too long or becomes complicated. Due to this, clinics may miss payments, resulting in a reduction in income.
For the clinic to succeed, improving the payment collection process is crucial. So, what can you do to increase your collection rate and shorten the time between payment collection and care delivery?
This article will discuss tips to increase your clinic’s collections.
Enhance the Collection Process
Reviewing current billing and collections processes can help reduce payment timelines. Patients often receive bills months after the procedure, making it less likely for them to pay.
After the services are rendered, send out the patient’s invoice as soon as possible. Automate as much of the process as possible to shorten timelines.
Provide e-statements and other electronic invoice delivery methods to reduce payment processing time. Furthermore, you can increase payment frequency and reduce receipt time by automating services.
Gather payments in Advance
Patients who do not have insurance should pay on the day of their clinic appointment. This way, you won’t have to waste staff time chasing patients down for payments or establishing a payment plan after they leave. If a patient has insurance, it’s critical to remind patients about their copay obligations before the appointment. If you want, you can text them a reminder, “Don’t forget your Copay?”
Patients will know their expected copay (from the information you sourced, or it will be printed directly on their insurance identification card). They should not request you to submit the copay portion to insurance for processing instead of paying on the spot.
Manage Bills and Payments via the Patient Portal
It can be challenging to collect patient payments. Making your payment process easy to access is the best way to ensure that your patients can pay their bills on time. To maximize revenue cycle management, providers need all the help they can get. Due to the decline of in-person appointments and payments, online payments through patient portals are becoming even more vital to the bottom line of medical practices and clinics. It not only helps practices financially, but it also helps improve patient satisfaction.
A quality patient portal should offer a fully integrated billing interface, which allows patients to view and understand their bills, ask questions, and process payments. Patients who understand their bills and payments better are more likely to pay.
Provide Payment Plans
In cases where patients are motivated to pay but cannot pay the entire bill upfront, payment plans may be a better choice. The availability of flexible payment plans will help your practice increase collections and assure patients that they can afford the treatments they require.
Patients receiving large bills and who say they can’t pay the whole amount right away may benefit from these payment plans. Ensure that your staff knows how to explain these options and track them appropriately. Payment plans should comply with all state and federal regulations.
Prepare an Emergency Plan
Even if you implement new collection strategies to speed up payment processing, you will still experience a delay in payments. If cash flow is tight, a medical clinic still needs to be able to operate and pay its bills.
If accounts receivable are behind, a proactive cash management plan should be a backup. Fortunately, clinics and medical practices can get a healthcare business loan to fund expenses until invoices are paid.
When you use this strategy, you can wait until the last minute to collect invoices and request only the amount you need for expenses. Improving your collection methods will allow you to require fewer loans as your clinic continues to grow.
Invest in the Technology Systems and Software
Technology solutions can help you maximize patient collections. Examine the latest medical billing software to ensure that it contains all the features your staff needs to perform the billing process effectively.
This is a situation in which online capabilities are crucial. Since more and more patients are accustomed to doing everything online, including paying their bills, you should take advantage of that. A few clicks on the web browser are enough for them to pay their bills via the Internet.
Providing patients with easy access to bills and a quick, digital way to reimburse your practice can make a big difference in the bottom line.
In addition to letting your employees work more efficiently, technology will allow them to track how long people have owed money. This will enable them to track denied claims due to staff coding errors.
A secure email may increase the likelihood of reimbursement for a patient receiving a late payment reminder. When a paper statement gets buried in junk mail, it may not be noticed for months, resulting in payment delays.
Conclusion
Although medical practices and clinics provide a service to patients, they must view their processes from the perspective of a business. Thus, it is crucial to ensure that patients pay their invoices on time to ensure the success of your clinic.
Tap Into Our Expertise
Feel free to contact us for assistance with medical billing and coding during this uncertain time.
At 5 Star Billing Billing Services Inc, we offer the highest level of performance for high-quality medical billing and coding. Save your money by outsourcing to a professional billing service.