When you think about any business model, getting paid is a crucial piece, not an afterthought. Unfortunately, the healthcare industry hasn’t always been on the forefront of a workflow that worked for ensuring prompt payment. Think about it. For years, patients came into an office, received treatment, and left without being asked to make a payment. Statements would then be mailed to patients weeks later, and then the patients would write out a check and mail the payment back to the provider. It shouldn’t be surprising that patient collections have become such a major issue in healthcare with 44% of providers challenged by large patient balances in 2021 (Source: InstaMed 2021).
In addition to lack of automation, time and staffing continue to top the list as the major challenges that providers face in collecting patient balances. When a patient calls in to pay a bill, a staff member needs to be available to take the phone call and the payment. Many HMEs are understaffed as it is, and some calls last 5 to 10 minutes, which is time away from all the other tasks that employee needs to complete that day.
The bad news is this scenario isn’t as outdated as you might think. In fact, 75% of providers still use paper and manual processes for payment collection. The good news, however, is that modern-day technology and efficiencies related to collecting patient balances are at the ready to revamp the options for patients to make payments so that your cash flow is on the fast track.