How to Make Billing Simpler for Your Patients
Billing is one of the more complex parts of the experience patients have with healthcare practices. It’s also one of the ones that gets the most complaints. More and more patients are expecting practices to make it easier to pay their bills, and may change practices if it becomes too much of a hassle. So how do you go about making billing simpler for your patients?
Stay Organized
A disorganized billing department only causes trouble for everyone, the practice and patients alike. Disorganization tends to lead to mixups and billing errors that can take a lot of time and effort to sort out. It shouldn’t be your patients’ responsibility to make sure your billing department is doing an accurate job, but it can end up feeling that way when billing errors are made. Ultimately it can cost your business in lost money and reduced patient retention. Make sure you have a system that facilitates billing organization. Hire staff who already possess the necessary organization skills. Handle records and paperwork in such a way that the opportunities for human error are reduced and staying organized is effortless.
Go Paperless
If you don’t have paper bills to keep organized, it’s that much harder to lose them or get them mixed up, both as a practice and as a patient. Going paperless with your billing can be a huge step toward improving your patients’ billing experience. Most patients under 40 expect healthcare providers to have an online presence. The opportunity to pay bills online often goes hand in hand with that. Have a portion of your website that allows patients to easily pay their bill from wherever is convenient for them.
Source: https://www.podium.com/article/6-ways-to-attract-and-acquire-new-patients/
Offer Personalized Solutions
Not all payment solutions work for all patients. Providing a card to pay with every time you show up to an appointment can be a hassle for patients. Some may need help with financing their bills. Improving convenience is key, so offering personalized payment solutions has benefits to patients and practices. Patients will be able to select the payment method that is most convenient to them, and practices will reap the benefits in an increased ability to collect patient payments. Consider options for when to collect payment and choose those that will improve the level of convenience for your patients.
Source: https://www.physicianspractice.com/view/should-you-collect-payment-or-after-you-see-patient
Making billing simpler for your patients can do good things for your practice in terms of successfully collecting payments and improving patient satisfaction. Staying organized, going paperless, and offering personalized payment solutions are just a few ways your practice can go about doing this. Take a closer look at your billing process and see what areas you can stand to improve in.
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