By Crystal Ewing, Product Manager, Waystar
Twitter:Â @Waystar_RCT
Did you know that patients who receive a cost estimate are more likely to recommend your practice to a friend?
Not only does a cost estimate increase your referral rates, but it can also motivate up to 46% of your patients to pay their bill faster. Arming your front-desk staff with the right resources, like estimates, can not only help patients pay their bills, but can reduce denial rates and increase referrals and repeat visits.
To meet these goals, your staff should have the ability to:
- Provide patient estimates. One of the biggest reasons patients don’t pay their bills is because large medical expenses are difficult to budget for. Offering estimates at the time of service improves patient satisfaction by helping patients understand what they will owe. Using an estimation tool that draws in your fee schedules is the best way to provide accurate estimates.
- Detect patient insurance coverage and eligibility verification. Automated coverage detection can make a big difference in how much you get paid – and how quickly – as ineligible patient insurance coverage is one of the leading causes of payer claim rejections and denials. A quick check using a coverage detection and eligibility tool allows your staff to find coverage that the patient may not be aware of and other necessary information such as co-pays, deductibles, inpatient days used, and more
- Collect balances due at the point of service. Providing a variety of convenient digital payment options, like a credit-card-on-file system, automated payment plans or online bill pay, is a good first step. Further, training staff to be comfortable collecting balances due from patients in person can help improve collections and prevent patients from worrying about billing and payments after their visit
Ultimately, improving your front desk and patient access teams’ competence in collecting at the point of service begins with giving them tools and strategies for success.
This article was originally published on Waystar’ Daily Practice Blog and is republished here with permission.