Introduction

Patients who walk into your practice expect quality care—not unexpected payment issues. However, surprise bills often lead to frustration, dissatisfaction, and even a decision to switch providers.

As per an analysis released by the KFF Health Care Debt Survey, 41% of U.S. adults have some or the other type of medical or dental debts to pay, and 1 in 6 says they owe money to a bank or a loan provider or a collection agency, that they took for paying out their medical or dental bills.

Financial experience matters equally in healthcare as the quality of care does. Patients look for care providers who offer the best payment experience. Therefore, if your practice lacks solutions that streamline the billing and medical process, then you are far behind your competitors.

But don’t worry. In this blog, we will explore strategies to improve patient payment collection and the best solutions for patient payment management.

Common Problems in Patient Payment Collection & Solutions

#1: Patients Are Unclear About Their Payment Options Upfront

While some patients who couldn’t pay their medical bills, there are some patients who don’t understand their payment options. Without clarity, they may feel they can’t afford the cost of care.

In an environment where healthcare expenses vary compared to more predictable bills like utilities, groceries, or mortgages, it’s essential for patients to have some knowledge of their payment options upfront.

Do you know?

One study by Accenture found that 64% of surveyed patients said that cost transparency increases their satisfaction level with their provider. This implies that practices that want to maintain high patient satisfaction scores need a solution that allows upfront billing and breakdown of costs to educate patients about their financial responsibility and avoid confusion, disputes, and distrust.

Maintaining a high patient satisfaction score (PSS) or net promoter score (NPS) leads to better retention rates, improved trust, word-of-mouth referrals, and a strong practice reputation.

Solution:

Patients are more likely to settle their bills when there is clear communication about payment options or programs. When patients understand what they owe upfront (meaning practices offering cost transparency), it encourages them to pay off their balance and eliminate outstanding balances. 

By implementing patient payment solutions with CERTIFY Health, your practice can improve collection rates and patient financial experience. Our platform offers multiple healthcare payment processing options like Apple Pay, FSA, HSA, Credit Card on file, and more to make payments simple. Additionally, to reduce the burden of patients handling large bills, the platform provides configurable payment plans so patients can pay their bills over time. 

#2: Patients Don’t Understand Why They Owe What They Owe

Even when patients have good communication with their providers, they don’t understand the “why” behind their medical bills. When they’re unclear about the reasons for their charges, they often remain skeptical and uncertain.
Solution:

Patient payment solutions like CERTIFY Health have come a long way in offering transparency around billing. This level of transparency enables patients to clearly understand the breakdown of charges, insurance coverage, and out-of-pocket expenses. It promotes better financial awareness and enables them to make informed decisions about their healthcare costs.

CERTIFY Health’s insurance verification also helps reduce claim denials and rejections, ensuring smoother transactions and a more streamlined billing experience for both patients and providers.

Pro Tip

When patients know what they owe you and why, they are more likely to pay their bills on time, leading to a higher Account Receivable (AR) Turnover Rate. A high AR turnover rate means faster revenue collections and fewer outstanding balances, improving your practice’s financial stability and reducing administrative burdens.  

#3: Health Systems Are Continuing to Struggle with Staffing Shortages

Staffing shortages can wreak havoc on your patient’s experience because of longer hold times, inexperienced staff, and unresolved billing issues. These challenges can create frustration, affecting the overall care experience for patients.
Solution:

Your practice staff can finally put an end to phone calls with CERTIFY Health’s practice management system. Our platform helps practices to focus more on patient care, even with less staff. Patients can pre-register, complete their patient intake, check-in, verify insurance, and pay payments prior to visits, and eliminate wait times upon arrival.

Furthermore, handling patient payments becomes easy for your staff with payment options and automated reminders. You can provide patients with complete transparency on balances, and even collect co-pays during pre-registration, ensuring smoother payments.

With healthcare practice management system, you can simplify the entire patient journey and improve payment transparency . In addition to streamlining patient financial experience, this system helps eliminate the burden of staffing shortages.

#4: Billing errors make patients lose trust and switch providers.

Patients may receive medical bill with duplicate charges or charges for unknown services.  According to J.P. Morgan trends, 71% of providers still rely on paper and manual processes to collect patient payments, leading to billing errors. These medical billing errors often create confusion and frustration among patients and staff, and staff spend their time to solving these discrepancies, which can damage the patient-provider relationship. 

Solution:

Patient payment solutions provide clear and detailed billing statements, reducing errors and eliminating duplicate charges. Since there are no paper forms or invoices, the risk of billing mistakes is significantly lowered. Implementing CERTIFY Health helps practices improve billing accuracy and transparency for patients.

With CERTIFY Health’s electronic invoicing, patients understand their financial responsibilities, reducing confusion and preventing overcharges. This streamlined billing process improves patient experience and practice efficiency, ensuring smoother operations for both patients and staff.

#5: Lack Of Clear Financial Policies Leading to Delayed Payments

Healthcare practices face payment delays or missed payment issues due to unclear financial policies. Patients don’t know their payment obligations, payment methods, and due dates, which leads to further confusion and disputes. This underscores the need for clear payment policies to be in place, to streamline payment collections and prevent cash-flow disruptions.
Solution:

You need to create a well-defined financial policy that clearly sets an expectation of what patients must pay within specific periods, or they may face inevitable consequences. When you create a financial policy, keep in mind the following: outline payment obligations, payment modes available, and due dates; ask patients to review and acknowledge the payment policy; and offer staff training to ensure they are aware and can explain the policies to patients.

#6: Staff Playing Phone Tag with Patients for Patient Payment Collection

Another big challenge in patient payment collection is staff spending their valuable time on the phone playing tag with patients to collect dues. Repeated follow-ups and unanswered calls leave your staff frustrated, leading to burnout. This inefficiency delays your revenue and hurts your patient financial experience. Patients miss these calls due to busy schedules and get frustrated due to multiple follow-up calls.
Solution:

Without a streamlined approach, resolving this issue becomes challenging. A digital patient payments solution is essential. Platforms like CERTIFY Health eliminate phone tag by automating reminders and offering a text-to-pay option, making mobile payments quick and convenient. This not only saves staff valuable time but also ensures patients can easily view their dues and make payments directly from their phones.

Conclusion

Leverage Easy-to-use Patient Payment Solutions for Better Patient Engagement: 

With the above challenges and solutions, health systems can lower operating costs, address staffing shortages, and offer personalized communication. With CERTIFY Health’s contactless payments, practices can focus on delivering quality care, eliminating the payment challenges and reducing administrative burden. 

Ready to improve your practice efficiency with our contactless payments platform? Get started today!