Health iPASS Insights

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together? We sure do! That’s why we are extra pumped that our Health iPASS First Inaugural User Group Meeting was such a rousing success! With nearly 50 attendees including current and prospective users, sponsors, and partners, the Crystal Room in the beautiful Palmer House Hilton was abuzz with activity as we heard feedback on the Health iPASS solution from our users and shared an array of exciting new features.

It is a universal truth in life that sometimes you just want to go where everybody knows your name. Belonging to a tight-knit group where you are heard and valued is an essential human need, both personally and professionally. That’s one of the reasons Health iPASS is hosting our First Annual Health iPASS User Group Meeting August 8-9 at the historic Palmer House Hotel located in the heart of downtown Chicago. The Health iPASS team is psyched to welcome our users and partners to share feedback on the Health iPASS solution, build on relationships, and maybe even have a little fun.

Ever have too many errands to run, making you wish there was a one-stop shop for all your needs? What a time and energy saver that would be, am I right? Well, hey presto! If you’re an athenahealth user, we’ve got some great news for you! Health iPASS is now an MVP Marketplace Partner available in the athenahealth® Marketplace to athena’s growing network of 120,000 healthcare providers.

Psst—how would you like to make $100 for two minutes of your time? If that sounds good to you, sorry to say that you missed your chance—this time. If you follow Health iPASS on any of our social media channels, you might have seen our quiz entitled, “Are You a Patient Revenue Cycle Expert?” which tested participants on their knowledge of some surprising statistics behind collecting patient payments. Those who took the quiz were entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card, just in time for holiday shopping.

As patient out-of-pocket expenses continue to rise, using the same old manual patient revenue cycle management (RCM) tools just isn’t going to cut it anymore. Did you know that after a patient leaves your office, there is only a 40% likelihood they will ever pay their bill? As the first post in our Health iPASS Features Spotlight Series, we are not going to begin at the beginning, but at the end, after your patient has walked out the door. Why? Because that is where the Health iPASS “rubber meets the road” - where our patient RCM solution makes a real difference in how (and how much) revenue your practice is able to collect from patients.

Facebook quizzes can be fun, but most of the time they are fluff pieces created to suck away your time with very little long-term or educational value. Sure, sometimes it's tempting to “Find Out What Cheese You Are Based on Your Zodiac Sign” or discover “Do You Know More About Donuts Than Your Friends?” but what do you really get out of it beyond losing several minutes of your time your will never get back?

No one likes an unfinished task. One might even say that “a job half done is as good as none.” That’s got to make you wonder-- why are providers only taking half-measures towards fixing a broken patient revenue cycle?

It has been a whirlwind few weeks at Health iPASS as we have been making final preparations for the National MGMA 2018 Conference. There’s nothing quite like finally seeing our custom-designed booth on the trade show floor, our check-in kiosks that are redefining the patient revenue cycle set up and ready, our new video looping on multiple TVs in the background, and our team’s smiling faces, pumped up and ready to share the Health iPASS solution with conference attendees (gazes wistfully into the distance). Ah well, I’m sure you’ll forgive me if I wax poetic.

In terms of business finance, there are few things as frustrating as bad debt. The product has been delivered, or the service rendered, but when it comes time for payment, nothing. Recent studies have shown that medical practices accumulate roughly $66 billion in bad debt per year, and this statistic only grows over time as patients bear a larger burden of their healthcare costs due to the prevalence of high-deductible healthcare plans. When factoring in poor patient net collections and aged A/R, the big picture is bleak-- depicting a healthcare industry that is hemorrhaging money, forcing small to mid-sized practices to close their doors forever. What can providers do to staunch the flow of uncollected revenue and start putting money back in their pockets, where it belongs?