Patient Payments Blog

 Worry is growing about the staggering costs of healthcare and unexpected medical bills. I read a study, column, or white paper on the topic at least once a month. The statistics just keep climbing.

Topics: Patient Engagement, Patient Centered Practice, Patient Centered Care, Patient Satisfaction, Missed appointments, Fear

As a part of our ongoing support to practices we often provide forms, policies, graphics and other helpful items. Our desire is to help you create a patient friendly payment environment. 

Topics: medical practice management, Patient Payment Solutions, Patient Centered Practice, Patient Payment Policies, practice management, Back Office Tips

Do your patients love the doctor but hate to deal with the front desk staff? Many practices make the mistake of putting the employee with the most seniority (or fewest back office skills) at the front desk, regardless of their people skills. Patient satisfaction and retention can be permanently damaged when the wrong person or people occupy your front desk.

Topics: healthcare payments, patient retention, medical practice management, Patient Engagement, Patient Centered Practice, Patient Payments, New Healthcare Consumer, Patient Centered Care, Medical Office Administration, Front Desk Tips, Front Office

So, what's the big deal about card-on-file? What magic happens if you start asking patients to give you a credit or debit card to place on file? We've created a simple graphic to show you. 

Topics: medical practice management, Credit Card On File, Patient Centered Practice, Healthcare Reimbursements, New Healthcare Consumer, Medical Office Administration, Medical Billing

 

 

When we talk of risk, one of the first things that often comes to mind is skydiving. The reality is that there's a 0.3% rate of injury for every 1,000 jumps. That could mean anything from a minor scratch to a life threatening injury. The truth is that you are taking more risk on your daily commute. The average driver is more likely to be involved in a fatal car crash than the average sky diver is to get injured. In a similar way, practices think they are taking risks if they talk to their patients about money when, in fact, they are taking a larger risk by not talking to them. 

In the same survey I linked to last week (https://revcycleintelligence.com/news/36-of-providers-never-address-patient-financial-responsibility) is a little reported survey statistic. Only 23% of practices ALWAYS discuss payment with their patients. That means the remaining 77% sometimes or never discuss payment. That’s quite a risk.

Topics: Patient Balances, Credit Card On File, Patient Collections, Patient Centered Practice, Financial Policy

 

I read a lot of studies about payments, patient habits, practice management, and other related topics. No matter what the study or content of the article, one glaring fact keeps drawing my attention.

Topics: medical practice management, Patient Centered Practice, practice management, Front Desk Tips, communication, Refreshing, Front Office, Scripts, Financial Policy

This post is the ‘how to’ for last week’s post ‘One Call Collections For Past Due Balances’.

Topics: healthcare payments, medical practice management, Credit Card On File, Patient Collections, Patient Centered Practice, Patient Collections Culture, practice management, Front Desk Tips, Back Office Tips

What do I like about collecting past due accounts?

Nothing.

Really, I can’t think of anything I like about the process of collecting on past due accounts. What about you? Ok, there’s that glimmer of satisfaction when you finally win the phone tag and excuse battle and get a payment in, no matter how small. But that glimmer fades quickly when you look back at your ‘still to collect’ list.

Topics: medical practice management, Credit Card On File, Patient Collections, High Deductible Challenge, Patient Centered Practice, Patient Collections Culture, Medical Office Administration, Medical Billing, Free Offer

What can we learn from a professional who owned his own primary care practice, has managed over 50,000 patient experiences, and coaches physicians and staff members every day? That was our question when we first met James Riviezzo of Practice On Your Terms. 

We soon learned that James has a knack for explaining some of the most complex issues in very simple terms. Beyond that, he has a gift for building easy to follow systems that help practices solve nagging problems.  

Topics: Patient Balances, medical practice management, Patient Collections, Patient Centered Practice, practice management

Sometimes it's best for us to let our customers talk. In this case, one of our customers, Amy Rogers, administrator of Orthopaedics and Rheumatology of the North Shore had not one, but two publications ask her for her story. She implemented a mandatory Card-On-File program in 2015 - her results are worth noting! 

Topics: healthcare payments, Patient Balances, medical practice management, Credit Card On File, Patient Collections, Patient Centered Practice, Healthcare Reimbursements, practice management