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BUSINESS ADVISOR
Martha R. Colen, RN, MBA, CASC
Collect Every Dime Your Patients Owe
Strategies to get them to pay their share — in full and on time.
T
oday's patients are
responsible for
footing larger portions of their surgeries
than ever before, making
it critical to the financial
health of your facility
that you collect co-pays,
co-insurance and
deductibles at the time of
service — and later, on
IN-HOUSE COLLECTIONS Collect co-pays, co-insurance and deductibles at the time of service.
the back end and with the same diligence, collect patient balances in
full. If that sounds like a lot to collect from patients, you're right. But
I'm here to tell you that it's doable, especially if you make a staff person responsible for your collection efforts.
Last year, our front desk collected about $100,000 in time-of-service
collections from our 3,000 or so patients. That's $100,000 out of a possible $110,000 (yes, some patients got away with, ahem, leaving their wallets and pocketbooks in their cars). In the weeks and months after surgery, we collected about $15,000 a month — $180,000 a year — from
patients to settle their accounts after we'd filed claims with their insurance carriers. Here are 3 keys to our success.
Advise patients of theirfinancial responsibility beforehand
Get a sense of each patient's financial landscape before the day
of surgery. If a patient truly cannot pay his obligation, for example, find
out on the front end and react accordingly (if the patient can't pay,
maybe your facility isn't the right location for this patient). Verify their
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O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | J U N E 2013
