Top Five Tips On Communicating Patient Financial Responsibility
For medical professionals, one of the most complicated tasks is to ensure their patients pay their bills on time. Though providing high-quality patient care is always the primary goal when working in healthcare, ensuring sufficient pay for the staff for their hard work is a close second.
As such, securing a steady flow of income from patients is essential to the well-being of the workplace. It is also integral to avoid stress while managing the clinic and implementing healthcare revenue cycle management. Below, the experts at PracticeForces share the following guide on how to push patient financial responsibility gently.
PracticeForces provides billing service solutions for a wide range of medical facilities. As experts in this field, they understand the importance and complexity of communicating patients' financial responsibility. Here are their five tips for communicating patients' financial liability.
1. Use Multiple Channels to Communicate
Instead of solely relying on paper reminders, such as mailing medical bills or handing the patient a cost summary as they leave the office, medical professionals should use multiple methods of communication to inform them about payment deadlines. For example, they can send text reminders, call their patients, leave voicemails, and email them.
If medical professionals notice their patients respond better to certain types of communication, they should focus on that method when requesting payment.
2. Communicate Often
Patients should have enough time to pay their bills. Medical professionals must communicate early and often to ensure their patients pay on time. They should not wait until a week before their bill deadline to send several emails about payment.
3. Offer Payment Plans and Financial Counseling
Healthcare costs often require large payments that may cause patients to feel overwhelmed. Medical facilities can offer payment plans to soften the impact and financial counseling to improve patients’ financial literacy.
4. Use Accessible Language and Payment Options
Patients should have multiple options to pay fees so they can easily take charge of their financial responsibility. Options such as online payments, phone payments, credit cards, etc., work well for patients of all ages. Communication about these patients should also be clear and simple, not overly complicated.
5. Be Transparent About the Cost of Care
Patient financial responsibility is more common when patients understand the cost of care from the beginning. Medical professionals should always be transparent about medical costs, so their patients know what to expect when it comes time to pay their bills.
Get Expert Help with Medical Billing
The professionals at PracticeForces know the ins and outs of medical billing for various types of healthcare clinics. They provide IT support, credentialing services, medical billing, and collections to healthcare clinics throughout Florida. In addition, their clients experience an increase in profits of between 15 and 40% when using their services.
Contact the team at PracticeForces for more information on communicating patient financial responsibility by calling (727) 499-0351.
