I don’t know about you, but I love watching the show Fixer-Upper on HGTV. There’s just something so satisfying about seeing an outdated and sometimes completely trashed house be transformed into something beautiful and functional. Have you ever seen an episode where nothing seems to go right, and the house turns out to have all kinds of hidden problems beyond the issues that are immediately visible to the eye? Host Chip Gaines goes to knock down an unappealing interior wall, only to find black mold lurking in the joists, or a rotten wooden is exterior is removed, revealing an infestation of—eek—termites! Now the homeowner is forced to dish out all kinds of additional money they were not ready to spend.
Regrettably, the healthcare industry is like that. Once you peel back the already flawed exterior, even more problems become evident, and on and on until it is apparent that the system is more broken than most even realize.
This issue is discussed at length in this May 2018 MedCity News "Medcitizens" article by our founder and CEO Rajesh Voddiraju entitled, “The Hidden Costs of Healthcare’s Hidden Costs.” The article begins by highlighting a disturbing trend that has emerged in the healthcare industry over the last ten years—small to mid-sized practices being forced to close their doors due to soaring costs and decreased revenue. The healthcare providers from these practices are then often absorbed by larger healthcare systems and hospitals.
Unfortunately, these large healthcare systems and hospitals simply do not provide the same level and quality of some types of preventative care, as evidenced by this study. Worst of all, the increased consolidation of medical practices may well lead to increased healthcare costs for everyone.
In his MedCity News Medcitizens article, Rajesh helpfully outlines some “fixer-upper” measures medical providers can take in order to stop the insidious spread of these hidden costs that eat away at their bottom line like termites. These measures include:
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Topics:
Patient Satisfaction,
Patient Payments,
Patient Retention,
Patient Check-In Kiosks,
Medical Billing,
healthcare payments,
Patient Collections,
Innovation
The pressure is on for medical practices to implement modern patient revenue cycle solutions that have the capability to address the rising tide of "patient as a payer."
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Topics:
Self-Service Technology,
Patient Check-In Kiosks,
Medical Billing,
Digital Payments,
patient pay,
Innovation,
Conference Announcements & Recaps
The following guest post was submitted by Jason Meyer, CEO of Frost-Arnett. For more information on the Frost-Arnett/Health iPASS partnership, please click here.
The proliferation of high deductible health plans (HDHP) has resulted in a dramatic increase in the amount of healthcare that is paid directly from the patient. Per The Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank, in 2016 the average deductible was $1,478, up 49% from 2011. Further, it is estimated that 25% of Americans now have high-deductible plans and there is no signs of that slowing down. As the out-of-pocket portion of the overall healthcare bill has increased dramatically, so has the amount that healthcare providers write off and end up in the bad debt setting. This has CFO’s, Directors of Revenue Cycle and Physician Practice Managers looking for alternative ways to collect more from their patients at the time of service.
With over 125 years of experience, Frost-Arnett is intimately familiar with the issue of collecting patient balances and the growing issue it is presenting our clients. As such, we continually monitor the marketplace for alternative ways we can help our clients improve collections, reduce accounts receivable outstanding and increase cash flow. We were very intrigued by the Health iPASS solution from the moment that we met Rajesh and his team. The front-end of the healthcare system – especially in the physician practice setting - has been historically very inefficient in collecting the patient portion.
Typically that position is staffed by someone who has likely not been with the practice for a long time, has no incentive to ask for co-pays or past due balances and typically has not been trained to handle that process efficiently. Additionally, often the technology for the practice to estimate the patient pay portion of their bill is not present at the time of check in. So the point of service is not equipped to estimate and collect that amount at the time of the visit.
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Topics:
Patient Check-in,
Revenue Cycle Management,
Point of Service Payments,
Patient Consumerism,
The HealthiPASS Solution,
Patient Check-In Kiosks,
Patient Debt,
Medical Billing,
healthcare payments,
patient pay
An effective patient payment collection system is a necessity for your healthcare organization's revenue cycle management. There's no question that the current trend in healthcare means that patients are paying a higher percentage of their own costs. For healthcare organizations and small practices, this means that the financial solvency of the organization relies on patient payments. In the past, these models often focused far more on payment through insurance and government funding. Securing patient payments isn't just about the financial bottom line. It also impacts healthcare consumer confidence.
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Topics:
Patient Perspective,
Patient Consumerism,
Patient Check-In Kiosks
In a perfect world, we could all have everything we want. Alas, this will never be the case, but for medical providers looking for better revenue cycle management, insight into patients' minds may be the key to unlocking successful financial models.
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Topics:
Patient Check-In Kiosks,
Medical Billing
There have been many takeaways to process and many people engaging with us since MGMA ended on November 2, but we’re finally catching up, and ready to share our experience from arguably the most important industry gathering of the year!
The conference featured hundreds of medical practice executives, administrators, physicians, vendors, industry experts and speakers, which gave us an invaluable opportunity to interact with some of the most influential people in healthcare.
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Topics:
The HealthiPASS Solution,
Patient Check-In Kiosks
Kiosks are transforming the customer service experience for patients. However, the importance of making kiosks more administrator friendly is often overlooked. Patients can only have an optimized customer service experience using kiosks if administrators can easily access them as well. Administrators need to be able to complete front-end tasks as efficiently as possible. Toward that end, several helpful features enhance ease-of-use by staff.
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Topics:
The HealthiPASS Solution,
Patient Check-In Kiosks
If you’ve made it to the point that you’re considering using a patient payment portal to improve your collection of the patient yield, you’re in a great place. Study after study on revenue cycle management and medical billing shows that patients prefer an option that gives them transparency, confidence and convenience, and are receptive to paying under these conditions. Basically, they want the ability to pay comfortably and securely on their own terms.
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Topics:
Patient Check-in,
Patient Payments,
Patient Check-In Kiosks
Unlike other industries, healthcare has been slow to adopt technology that would yield more financial success by streamlining the payment cycle. That narrative is changing thanks to rising self-pay payments. Providers are increasingly looking to patient payment systems that will streamline the revenue cycle from start to finish.
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Topics:
POS Technology,
Patient Check-In Kiosks
The patient billing cycle is broken. What used to take maybe just 30 days to collect can now take up to 100+ days or more, if you’re able to collect at all.
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Topics:
Revenue Cycle Management,
Patient Payments,
Healthcare Technology,
Patient Check-In Kiosks
