Collecting money that people owe you is a tough task. It is even more difficult for the healthcare providing organizations to collect the money from the patients even for the overdue bills. Though it is not a gratifying job, it has to be carried out as a part of the revenue cycle management for the sake of the financial health of the organization. Let’s take a look at few tips that help in contacting patients and improving collections of a healthcare facility.
- Be clear with pricing: When a patient visits the facility, he or she may not be aware of the services or procedures that will be availed and the associated costs with the services availed. The patient does not have knowledge if the costs fall within his/her budget. It is better to keep the patient informed about the services being provided and the expenses that would be incurred for those services.
- Train the employees: Every single employee of the organization represents the organization and in some way or the other influences the revenue cycle management of the organization. Emphasis should be laid on the training of all the employees as to understand their role and how they can improve the collections process. Staff should be trained adequately to be able to handle patients’ accounts and their outstanding balances with ease.
- Get clear information: Once the patients are intimated about the costs they will incur, one of the important tasks of the RCM services is to get clear information regarding the patient’s insurance coverage and the kind of services that are covered even before the consultation happens. If the services provided are not covered, the patients should be made clear when and how much they will be paying out of their pocket. This will help patients to prepare for the financial burden on them.
- Offer alternate payment options: For those patients who cannot afford to pay their bills at one go, give them an alternate payment plan, so that amount is regularly received so as to clear off the balance. It is very important to recover the dues in time for effective revenue cycle management and to avoid losses for the facility.
- Payment reminders: One of the most common mistakes on the part of healthcare facilities is to ignore the smaller patient accounts in order to concentrate on the bigger patient accounts. With efficient professionals in RCM services, an equal focus can be laid on all the due patient accounts to maximize collections and increase profits for the organization. The staff can remind patients about the due amount and intimate them the various payment options available according to the overdue balance.
The collection process is itself a painful process for both the parties involved. However, by following such tips the process can be simplified and it can be further simplified by partnering with RCM service providers like Avontix