While some say success is all about who you know, in the business of healthcare, success is more about how much you know about who you know. When providers have more detailed, accurate information about their patients, they are more likely to collect payment promptly and in full. If they get to know those details before patients arrive for treatment, the likelihood of successful collections can increase exponentially.
This timely topic is the feature of a recent Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) webinar entitled “Creating a Patient Financial Profile Prior to Patient Arrival” and offers insights for hospitals and health systems regarding the power of pre-arrival profiles to aid in bad debt reduction and pre-admission collections. Though the movement toward pre-admission patient financial profiles is taking hold throughout the industry, providers nationwide are in varying stages of adoption. This webinar gives practical and tactical advice to help providers of all types, sizes and degrees of readiness get a game plan in place for acquisition of patient details before encounters occur.
Obtaining profiles before arrival is a common sense approach with far reaching results and mutual benefits for providers and patients alike. Rather than try to gather pertinent financial details in the midst of a patient arrival for care, providers are opting to take care of that task beforehand, ultimately making the process better for everyone involved.
In the pre-arrival scenario, providers have obtained patient information proactively such as an estimate of payment responsibilities, coverage and benefits and payment alternatives. Providers can then use the arrival of their patients to confirm any details in a more relaxed manner. The proactive profile can even compel patients to be better prepared for the financial aspects of their care making for more positive interactions and experiences all around.
Providers are greatly empowered by having all the patient financial details in advance of the point-of-service. With a full patient picture on hand, they are able to avoid potential roadblocks to claims reimbursement, identify those who are eligible for charity care and, in many instances, collect at least a portion of payment upfront and frequently reduce the risk of bad debt post-care. Clearly, getting to know more about patients earlier in the process can quite literally pay off.
How can providers effectively implement pre-arrival financial profiles? What data points should be included in those profiles? What results can providers anticipate from this approach? Our webinar podcast answers all these questions and more. Listen now to hear James DeFrancisco, Manager, Admissions/ER Registration at Lakeland HealthCare talk about how they made pre-arrival profiles part of standard admission procedures.
Tips to Use Pre-Admission Patient Financial Profiles for Increased Payments and Improved Patient Encounters
