Tag: patient collections
Patient Collections: Fine-tune where needed
August 29, 2018Jennifer Leon
The essential techniques for an effective automatic payment program include: establishing, preparing, communicating and lastly—maintaining. You've established your card on file plan, and that's great. However, it's not enough; you must continue to uphold the changes to your billing plan and strive to create an ideal billing experience.Below are three ways to maintain the momentum with your new 'card on file' policy:Hold staff accountable, and continue trainingYou must hold staff accountable...
Patient collections: Train, then communicate
July 30, 2018Jennifer Leon
A. Once you've decided to implement a 'card on file' payment method, and you've begun changing internal processes, the next step should be to communicate this policy—the key in developing a successful automatic payment program.Below are three ways to ensure successful communication:Conduct proper training internally Once you develop an internal policy, you must first communicate that policy company-wide. Designate the key staff members, and utilize them to lead the rest of the team. Develop...
Patient Collections: Lock it down like Fort Knox
June 26, 2018Jennifer Leon
A. There are four simple steps.Select a Payment Vendor that Holds the Highest PCI DSS CertificationFirst and foremost, you want to make sure your vendor has a strict set of security requirements in place for the management and protection of cardholders' private information and other payment processing related activity.Update Internal ProceduresSurely your staff is not photocopying card information, saving it in an Outlook task item or writing it down—are they? If you answered yes to any of...
Collecting at any cost
June 13, 2014Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
YARMOUTH, Maine - When provider Tammy Zelenko gets ready to close the books on her fiscal year every June, she strives to close out outstanding patient balances.
Sometimes, that means offering a discount to patients to get them to pay up.
“You'll do whatever it takes to get that money,” said Zelenko, CEO of AdvaCare Home Services in Bridgeville, Pa. “It's better than ending up writing it off or sending them to collections.”
With more patients paying out of...
Collections: Tame the beast
October 25, 2013Kit Shellhouse
A. Turning your potential revenue into actual revenue is looked at as something scientific and difficult to achieve. In all actuality, it needs to be managed individually like any other department. Unfortunately, patient collections don't always get the attention necessary until the revenue is essential for survival.Like denial rates and aging, patient collections are their own beast. The same type of data must be analyzed and questions need to be asked of all involved. Is the ball being dropped?...
Medtrade preview: Find a co-pay 'bad guy'
October 4, 2013Jennifer Keirn
ORLANDO, Fla. - Most people with private insurance expect to hear this question from their healthcare providers: “Do you have a co-pay?”But most Medicare and Medicaid patients expect the entire cost of their home health products to be covered, says Strategic AR's Gabe Buckner and Jennifer Leon, which makes chasing co-pays another burden on a provider's overworked billing staff.Buckner and Leon will share their suggestions for making co-pay collection easier and more effective at Medtrade....
Short takes: CareTouch, BioScrip
August 27, 2013HME News Staff
Denver-based CareTouch Communications is celebrating the one-year anniversary of CareTouch Collect, a program that contacts patients and connects them with their providers to secure payment or devise a payment plan. The service is provided through an automated IVR or highly trained call center staff…Elmsford, N.Y.-based BioScrip has completed its acquisition of CarePoint Partners, a national provider of home and alternative-site infusion therapy. CarePoint services 20,500 patients annually and...
'One financial story'
August 23, 2013Liz Beaulieu, Editor
Aside from maybe diversifying into retail, collecting co-pays has been the drum most beat in the HME industry in the past five to 10 years. Has that beat finally reached a crescendo?Kurt Lovell, COO of Patientco, which provides a solution that allows patient to manage and pay their bills from various healthcare providers, would like to think so.“It's been a problem too long ignored,” he said. “HME providers are finally waking up and saying, 'Oh my gosh, co-pay is a profit.'”Patientco,...
Collections: Gather true AR picture
August 23, 2013Kit Shellhouse
A. To determine if this is a true need, the provider must become familiar with patient balances at that moment to include accounts receivable buckets in detail and know the acceptable percentage in each. This will assist you in determining the overall need to outsource or not. If kept in house, the right person must be in place to lead. Break down the process systematically and see where and how the process failed to avoid repetition moving forward. Use the data from the accounts receivable...
Collections: Set the standard
August 23, 2013Kit Shellhouse
A. What really is a good patient/customer for your business? One who continues to purchase and rent products but never pays or one who pays or at least makes an attempt? You are losing the balance due, inventory cost and administrative time. Proactivity is the best remedy—set the standard from the start for the patients and your staff. It is imperative that both sides understand what is expected. The market continues to create obstacles for the average provider, so we must enforce...