Patient Communications Plays a Role in Collections

Many healthcare practices do not realize that their patient satisfaction, collections, and staff morale all depends on how they communicate with their patients. Amy Floria, the CFO of Goshen Health in Goshen, Indiana explained that the sooner healthcare organizations communicate with their patients, the more they will benefit. Floria found that 35 percent of U.S. households are unable to afford a 2500 deductible even though they willingly signed up for this type of health insurance plan. She performed an analysis of Goshen Health and discovered several patient experience issues with the revenue cycle. Once she completed her analysis, she found that the patient experience issues had to do with patient communications. As a result, Goshen Health front loaded their revenue cycle efforts to where patient communication was concerned. Goshen Health completely redesigned their website and made it a priority to meet with every patient to show them different payment plan options and answer any questions. Options were also expanded, especially for patients with high-deductible health insurance plans. These days, Goshen Health’s patient loans can go up to five years and financial information is offered in Spanish in addition to English to meet the needs of the surrounding Hispanic community. Before any changes were made three years ago, Goshen Health collected $2,500 a month. In 2017, this number increased to $240,000 a month. Goshen Health has made life easier for patients who are unable to pay their bills and no longer has to consider them as bad debt. This example has proven the power of communications when it comes to collections.

Tips for Collecting Payments from Patients with High-Deductible Plans

If your healthcare organization is struggling with collecting payments from patients with high-deductible insurance plans, know that there are ways you can improve. Start by taking the time to understand your patient population and their payment tendencies. This way, you can effectively tailor your billing interactions to your particular patients. You may need to provide multiple channels for your patients to pay and offer long-term payment plans, mobile options, and automatic deductions. Be sure to make all of your options known to your patients by scheduling a time to directly speak to each and every one of them before they receive care.

Contact Applied Medical Systems

If you’d assistance on how to improve your patient communication and increase your collections, we encourage you to contact us today. We look forward to helping you meet and exceed your healthcare entity’s goals.