Jim Henson’s beloved character Kermit the Frog famously said, “It’s not easy being green.” However, due to the technological advances in our modern society, going green has actually become simpler and more beneficial to businesses and consumers than ever. How can healthcare providers do their part? One significant step in the right direction is switching to a paperless billing and payment system.
Read MoreTopics: Patient Consumerism, patient pay, Paperless Billing
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."
Read MoreTopics: Self-Service Technology, Patient Check-In Kiosks, Medical Billing, Digital Payments, patient pay, Innovation, Conference Announcements & Recaps
Topics: Revenue Cycle Management, Patient Satisfaction, Patient Payments, Financial Transparency, patient pay
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.
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
