Photo Credit: Julia Manga

Healthcare professionals should reframe collections as a continual process that commences before treatment instead of considering them one-off events.

Though they may sometimes appear insurmountable, burdensome patient collections are not an immutable problem. Clarissa Riggins, Chief Product Officer at Experian Health, suggests that healthcare industry professionals consider collections a one-off event. Instead, they should reframe them as a continual process that commences before treatment. According to an Experian Health survey, 40% of patients would opt to cancel or postpone care if they didn’t have prior knowledge of the cost details. As such, physicians must take the initiative to alter the collections process.

Riggins suggests beginning the task by making the patient’s experience more convenient via strategies like Interactive Voice Response (IVR), patient portals, and kiosks, all of which make the payment process smoother. Based on another Experian Health Survey, 72% of respondents stressed the value of being able to make online or mobile payments. Riggins also suggests instituting a system that identifies patients at risk of nonpayment, determining which patients will require financial help and who will likely be able to pay. Should a patient fall into the former group, this system would enable providers to offer solutions like personalized payment plans or suggestions for financial assistance programs.

According to a CNN report, over one million people no longer have Medicaid coverage due to the termination of continuous enrollment. To account for such changes, Riggins stresses that providers (and patients) are best served by noting any possible coverage gaps that might affect future collections.

Riggins also suggests employing specific strategies that may streamline challenging collections. For instance, providers should use automated processes and AI to screen out nonpayer or potential nonpayer patients via a high-performing collections team. Upon identifying patients in a suboptimal payer category, a collections team can respond by deleting these accounts or linking them with a specialty vendor. As a result, both efficiency and revenue reach their peak performance.

Improving patient-physician communication, especially through automated messaging, can keep collections running smoothly. Items like bill reminders can be effectively and securely delivered via cloud-based dialing software. Riggins also suggests touchless messaging, pointing out that it can maximize in-house collections and ensure providers abide by compliance standards.