Simplify and Improve Your Up-front Collections



Tips for generating more revenue and easing the self-pay burden

Patients are carrying more and more of the fiscal burden for delivery of care every day. Self-pay patients can be a source of financial pain for many providers because they are more likely to generate a write-off that results in lost revenue. Making sure your staff knows how to considerately collect money before the delivery of care is a key way to generate more revenue and make it clear to the patient what their financial responsibilities are after they leave your office.

............................................................................................
• Make your patient registration as accurate as possible because it's your best chance to maintain contact with the patient throughout the process. Many write-offs occur because of inaccurate information during this stage. Automated solutions such as Emdeon Assistant can check and verify key information to ensure accuracy and eliminate painful errors.

• Utilize electronic eligibility and benefits verification to create an accurate accounting of what the patient will have to pay after and third party or payer contributions. An automated solution such as Emdeon Assistant can integrate this into your daily patient registration to give your staff the most information possible.

• Be timely and accurate with your billing and make sure your up-front costs are as clear as possible to the patient. When a patient is confused about what they are actually paying for it can create mistrust. Make sure your billing documents are detailed, but still as readable as possible to people with no medical training.

• Work with your staff to make sure they can politely and competently explain the benefits of paying for care up-front, rather than after the fact. They should remain polite and not make the patient feel uncomfortable when discussing their financial responsibilities.

• Have a clear, consistent payment policy that you give to the patient before the delivery of care. It should define the terms and payment schedule to expect from the patient. This eliminates confusion for any financial responsibility they may carry after any procedure.

• Reduce staff turnover so that you are not constantly training new registration personnel. Mistakes made in the initial process are a primary cause for future billing and payment problems.

............................................................................................

These tips will help you and your staff collect payments up-front and ensure you have the most accurate information available to reduce the chance that you have to write-off revenue. By preventing financial losses and ensuring accuracy from the beginning you can save time and money across your entire revenue cycle and simplify your work on multiple levels.

To learn more about how Emdeon can help simplify your revenue cycle, call us today at 877.EMDEON.6 (877.363.3666), or visit us online.