Ways Hospitals can increase self-pay revenue reimbursements

The self-pay patient accounts come with lots of risks to the hospitals. It takes up three times to collect the unpaid sums than it would for a commercial insurance account. If these accounts take too long to be settled, there is a greater chance that the patients will not pay at all.

Unfortunately, there might not be an end to this problem. With the rising healthcare costs and increased self-pay as opposed to use of the medical insurance policies, most patients have to bare the brunt of the high costs. About half of the Americans will find it hard to raise $500 to cater for a medical emergency straight from their pockets. Many of them will not pay such amounts at all. Studies also show that one in five working-class Americans has problems taking care of his or her medical bills despite the income and having some form of medical insurance.

What does this situation mean for the hospitals

If a good number of patients do not pay for their medical attention, the bad debt goes up, you get low cash in and the cash flow starts to give the hospital management some problems. With time, hospitals experience a shortfall in revenue. The situation is harder for hospitals that are trying to contain the costs an raise their revenue.

The comer driven high deductible insurance covers also play a role

There is an increase in the number of the high deductible health insurance plans out there. This leads to a case where the health policies pay less of the overall cost and the patients have to pay the rest. When combined with the increasing healthcare costs, self-pay patients with insurance also feel the great healthcare burden.

There is pressure on physicians in private practice

There is a greater pressure for physicians who run independent clinics. When patients are not able to pay for their healthcare or the insurance reimbursements are not forthcoming, these private practices experience a lot of strain. This has caused many of them to close their private practices and join bigger healthcare organizations or move out of the medical practice.

What can be done to increase the self-revenue reimbursements?

The hospital CFO and CEO has a duty to keep the hospitals afloat financially. Given that the self-pay accounts are now taking as much as 30 percent of the total revenue in hospitals, there is a greater revenue collection responsibility on their end. Here are some steps that the hospital management can take to arrest the situation.

• Understanding the patients financial status

The self-pay balance keeps rising as long as the hospitals have opened their doors. However, the hospitals can improve on self-pay if they started treating the patients like clients and seeking agreeable payment terms with their patients. Unfortunately, many health providers treat the patient balance the same without taking into the account the patient's ability to pay.

With the use of technology, it is now easier than ever to determine the patient's ability to pay and how to go about getting payment from the patients. A hospital can track the customer accounts and score them on the ability to pay. This information is then used to negotiate payment schedules with the customer. It lowers the time and cost spent in collecting debts.

• Engage with the clients as early as possible

Most patients are met with a shocker at the end of the treatment when the doctor explains their financial obligations. It is good to engage the patients early in the cycle and let them know what is expected of them. Where possible, they can make a partial payment before the service is delivered to them. When patients are aware of the likely charges and the costs of particular procedures before the procedures are done, they are more likely to honor the debts.

• Include an easy payment processing unit at every level of the service

The hospital could down the services into several stages and give a chance to the patients to pay for the services at their convenience. For example; they may pay for the drugs, CT Scan and surgery beforehand or partly before the procedures are done. They should be provided with scripts and a method to pay the money such as mobile pay, bank transfer or credit card processing at every stage of the treatment.

• Tap into the internet to get more payments

Most of the people are into online banking and pay their bills online. The hospital administration can tap into technology and give customers a way they can access their accounts online. This way, they can see what the insurance has covered and what remains for them to pay. The fact that they are not leaving the hospital premises increases the chance that they will make some payments.

• Follow up with the clients

The hospital CEO should invest in good customer service to deal with customer complaints and make follow-ups. Phone calls and email reminders are cheap and effective in getting the patients to pay. The self-pay accounts, as well as the patient payment processes, should also be audited regularly to ensure effectiveness and that the systems are working. Customer care teams should be trained and given information about payment procedures and taught to encourage patients to pay more beforehand.

Proactive payment plans and systems are the way to go for hospitals to increase collections payments from self-pay accounts. Moreover, technology plays a big role in making it convenient for patients to pay and enabling the hospital to know its customers. A little helping hand can go a long way

Since most of the hospitals are not experts in revenue collection, it is good to engage the services of an experienced in debt recovery, advocacy, and health insurance matters. Deco works with hospitals and other healthcare experts in the industry to get as many people under the health insurance including programs like the Medicaid as possible. With their hospital revenue cycle management, they can increase revenue collections by as much as 45 percent. They have many more services geared towards improving eligibility for insurance programs. Contact them today for more information.