7 Ways To improve Medical Billing and Collection at Medical Practice

Medical billing and collections play a crucial role in the growth of any small or big healthcare provider. Achieving 100% reimbursement and on-time payment is practically impossible. Healthcare providers should try to gain maximum amounts within a specific period.

Copays and deductibles have increased tremendously compared to the covered benefits over the past two decades. Deductibles rose by 176% and copays by 67%, but the coverage benefits dropped by 38%.

In a recent study, it was found that 41% of the adults in the US have medical debts. Patients have to pay heavy insurance premiums and bear the deductibles and copays. The increase in the copays and deductibles by insurance companies has made it even more difficult for healthcare providers to collect payments. The healthcare providers that have upgraded themselves have found ways to combat these losses and collect payments from the patients.

Here are the top 7 ways to improve billing and collections that significantly reduce the A/R for healthcare providers.

Educate the Patients

Educating the patients on medical billing is the biggest secret to collecting faster payments from them. Healthcare providers should be able to provide complete information on how the medical billing process work. Patients should be aware of the amount they need to pay and the details of their treatment. Patients should know about the modes of payment and their responsibility toward medical bills. 

Patient Eligibility Verification

Healthcare practices don't want to hear statements from patients like, "I was unaware that the cost of appointment or service would apply to my deductibles." To avoid such conversions, practices should verify patients' eligibility for the treatment of medical services they are willing to take. The verification significantly minimized the chances of patients coming unprepared for healthcare practice. Providers can inform them about the amount they must pay when they visit the clinic for treatment. This practice will increase collections and reduce the payment denials.

Improve Communication

A recent study found that 60% of the patients said they did not make payments because their provider did not remind them about the due date or inform them about the amount appropriately. Communication with the patients about their medical bills and future expenses is essential. Overall, patient communication is vital in ramping up the billing process. Providers can collect patient collections through payment reminders, answering patients' doubts, and scheduling payments.

Be Transparent 

One of the prominent reasons healthcare providers fail to get patient collections on time is that they lag financial transparency with the patients. Patients keep complaining that they are not financially prepared to bear the treatment cost as providers did not inform them about the due payment. Practices must be utterly transparent with patients regarding treatment costs to understand if they can afford the payments. Staff should also collect the insurance information to check if the patient's plan covers the treatment before the appointment is confirmed.

Up-to-date Training

Training the staff and ensuring they stay updated with the latest medical billing and compliance changes will help the practice achieve its financial goals. If the team is trained, they can detect billing errors and better assist the patients with their doubts. Trained staff will know why the patients deny payments and will work on the solutions to collect payments from them.

Incorporate Empathy

Understanding patients' emotions are essential for healthcare professionals to treat and collect payments. 90% of people make financial decisions based on emotions, and only 10% do logical thinking. Healthcare providers can leverage empathy to their advantage. They should emotionally connect with their payment by understanding their financial status. If the practice targets the right emotion at the right time, they collect patient payments faster and build a long-term relationship with them.

Use Technology to Simplify Payments

Providers using patient payment software have shown 10X growth in revenue collection. This software simplifies the payments for healthcare providers and patients. They provide many benefits like patient engagement, reminders, analytics, and more. These features make medical billing and collection simple and boost revenue. Patient payment software reduces the efforts of staff so that they can focus on providing premium care to the patients.

AnodynePay is one of the best medical billing and collection service providers. It can seamlessly integrate its services with your present EHR systems without needing additional IT infrastructure. We have a team of certified professionals who are experts in patient satisfaction. We make sure our clients get the results they want in the desired time.