Staying on top of patient collections and concerting efforts to increase patient collections is vital to the financial health of medical practices – our figures say that patient due amounts account for 30 percent of a practice’s income. Therefore what we do as billing operations have an enormous impact on a practice’s financial performance.

Here at PracticeForces, we have addressed how to increase patient collections by following strict guidelines, best practices, and, most importantly, by educating the practices we serve on collection procedures. Utilizing this approach, we have achieved a 99% collection rate for the past 2 years.

This translates to a 20% average increase in revenue per client, with spikes of 60-70% yearly revenue increases. For more information, see this recent half-yearly analysis of our services for one of our clients where, in just over 6 months, we achieved a 158% increase in reimbursement, and significantly reduced their outstanding A/R.

To help increase the effectiveness of your collection efforts, today we share 8 hacks that have proved highly effective for PracticeForces’ clients.

Implement a Credit Card on File (CCOF) program:

1. The following are some of the Patient Benefits of CCOF:

• Bills can be paid without having to go online.
• Patients do not have to bring payment with them for their visit.
• Patients do not have to wait for a billing statement.

2. Some of the Practice Benefits of CCOF:

• Collection expenses are reduced.
• Elimination of patient billing statements.
• Improved cash flow.

3. If a practice does not utilize CCOF, the billing company can educate the practice on the importance and value of CCOF. At PracticeForces we always do this, and encourage you to speak to your medical biller if you don’t have this in place yet.

Financial policy:

4. An established financial policy is the first step in having a financial conversation with patients, as well as the number one tool to increase patient collections. If your practice does not have a policy, work with your billing company to develop a policy for patients to follow.

5. The financial policy informs patients on:

• What and when patients must pay.
• What is expected of them?
• What the patient can expect from the practice.
• Whether or not patient insurance will be billed.

Time of service collection is key:

6. Decreasing collection time improves payment – in fact, after 30 days collection percentages drop dramatically.

7. This means the time of service is always the best time to collect patient due amounts.

8. Practices can provide scripts or role-play training to front-desk personnel to assist them in collecting co-pays, deductibles, and deposits from patients.

Conclusions

As patient financial responsibilities for healthcare services continues to rise, practices depend on billing companies to achieve high rates and increase patient collections. In reaching patient collection goals, we have seen great success as a billing company by following the key points in this article. As a result, we have educated many practices and helped them improve their in-office collection procedures and overall performance.