As patient payment responsibly has increased, so have challenges for practices who wish to maintain a quality revenue cycle. More High Deductible Health Plans and more self-pay patients mean that practices need better patient collections to maintain the same provider revenue that used to come (with their own challenges) from commercial payers.

You can optimize patient collections by first collecting co-pays and communicating fees as thoroughly and quickly as possible. Well-trained front office staff are vital to the success of initial patient collections. The more they understand patient financial responsibility, the clearer they can communicate it to your patients. Tools like the MacPractice integration with TSYS allow them to collect credit card payments or even accept mobile payments right in the MacPractice Ledger. Less redundant data entry means more time to focus on patients.

Eligibility verification allows you to access real-time eligibility and benefits information so that you and your patients know what to expect from the start. No one likes unaffordable surprises! Establishing benefit eligibility at point of service reduces cost, ensures appropriate care, and increases lets you know how you can plan to be reimbursed. The sooner you have checked a patient’s eligibility for a service or procedure, the more quickly you can improve claim accuracy. 

Appointment Reminders can help streamline patient payments, too. No-shows cost your practice a lot of money. Patients are more likely to keep their appointments or reschedule beforehand when they receive text, email, or phone call reminders. By automating this task with 

AutoRemind, your practice staff can focus on other important clerical tasks, like answering phones in a timely manner and providing exceptional service to your patients. Patients that have been reminded are more likely to show up to their appointments and come prepared to pay their out-of-pocket costs. 

Perhaps the most important part of maintaining a quality patient collections workflow is generating efficient statements for your patients. With MacPractice, you can choose to print your own statements or use our eStatements services to automate the process. On top of that, MacPractice works with Transworld to offer you profit recovery and increase your cash flow with proven, more diplomatic patient collections services.

Better patient collections starts with having cost-effective point-of-service patient collection tools and strategies to help maintain a healthy revenue stream of patient payments coming into the office with your patients, and a healthy revenue cycle management system for collecting more revenue once the patient has left.