What are Patient Collections?
Patient Collections are an essential step of the medical billing process. It involves bringing in reimbursements from the patients regarding the services they have received from the healthcare provider.
These patient collections could be of two kinds- one that is paid through insurance company claims or self-pay. You have to keep a proper follow-up for both of them until you have closed the balances. Understanding that the patient billing and collection process work side by side is necessary. If these processes get prolonged, you will face more challenges closing the accounts.
Read the following tips to thoughtfully get patient collections.
Convenient Ways of Payments
To get your patient collections easily, you first have to make their payment modes convenient. Several patients prefer online modes. It could be through net banking or cards. Having a secure payment gateway in your patient portal will make the payment process easier for them.
Knowing the Payer
It is important to know who is the payer of the bills. Whether it is self-pay or the patient’s insurance is covering it. This will help you follow up with the right person for your patient collections. In addition, you can clearly communicate the due balance and mode of payments available.
Offering Payment Plans
Payment plans have been helpful from a patient’s point of view. Hence including payment plans in your patient collections process will be considerate towards your patients. It will also help you get your unpaid balances in proper time durations.
Tracking Outstanding Balances
It is necessary to properly study your outstanding balances. You also have to keep track of whether they are self-pay dues or unpaid insurance company claims. If they are self-pay, you have to keep a proper follow-up with the patients and let them know the means of payment and various plans they can opt for. In the case of insurance, you have to communicate with the insurance company to check out the reason behind the delay. You must resolve the issues as early as possible to claim your reimbursements.
Friendly Follow Up
It is necessary to have a friendly follow-up while asking the patient to clear the balances. Not only does your team have to be patient ,but also considerate keeping in mind the payer’s situation. Demanding aggressively will only cause more delays in receiving your payment.
Understanding the Reason for Delayed Payment
While conducting your patient collections, it is necessary to understand the reason behind the delay. It could be because they do not agree with the final bill, or they are unaware of the balances, or it could be due to a shortage of money. You must be considerate enough to hear the reason and suggest a plan to resolve the issue. Being judgemental in this case won’t help you. Instead, you have to figure out how you can even receive timely reimbursements, and they won’t hesitate to pay.
Make them aware of the convenient payment modes and various plans through which they can pay their entire payment according to their convenience.
Conclusion
Patient collections cannot be neglected, but having compassion and patience won’t hurt. On the contrary, it will only help trigger the payers to pay faster. Hence you need to understand the problems and come ahead with effective solutions.
At I-Conics, a team of experts sit and figure out the challenges faced by each payer and come up with solutions that will help them pay and ensure that your organization has a continuous cash flow.
