Increasing collections and improving patient satisfaction might sound like two things that will never go together, but they can blend impressively well with the right revenue cycle solution.
Increasing collections and improving patient satisfaction might sound like two things that will never go together, but they can blend impressively well with the right revenue cycle solution.
Topics: patient satisfaction
The patient experience is a critical factor that sometimes gets ignored in the hospital setting (or maybe not… but it DOES get forgotten). The primary focus of a hospital is to heal the sick and cure the injured. However, hospitals are also businesses interested in not only covering their costs but making a profit as well. As a result, the patient experience has to be kept as a (top) priority.
Topics: Patient Pay, patient satisfaction, hospital patient satisfaction, healthcare receivable management, patient experience
I’ve been asked the same question time and time again when I'm in the field talking about self-pay collections and bad debt - what question you ask? I'll get there. Collecting invoices from a stubborn or intentionally uncooperative patient for medical services can be enough of a problem, but when the patient seems to have “no money whatsoever” to pay the bill many hospitals and clinics immediately assume the case has to be written off as a loss. That's far from true, but unfortunately it seems like the only logical choice due to a lack of awareness (or wanting to keep the patient from filing a complaint!). In reality, there are a number of ways collections can be made if done in a smart, persistent fashion. There are some accounts that will take a while to get paid, but persistence does often pay off in the end (trust me, I KNOW persistence!) Finally, the question I get asked...
Topics: Patient Pay, patient satisfaction, Patient Deductibles, healthcare receivable management
The process of outsourcing a hospital’s accounts receivable or any other medical office for that matter, does not start with handing over accounts and waiting to see what happens next. Instead, accounts receivable management starts with a good amount of planning and understanding what benefits A/R outsourcing will provide a hospital in the first place. When accounts are actually transferred for management, the office will already have a clear plan on what to expect as well as how to redirect resources now freed up from managing accounts directly.
Topics: Patient Pay, patient satisfaction, vendor management, Outsourcing, Business Process Outsourcing
As parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act begin to roll out, it's important for healthcare providers to understand that healthcare in the United States is becoming increasingly driven by performance. I've said this before in previous blog posts, but it's something that needs to be overstated. Although giving out both incentives and penalties for the quality of care that institutions provide is still a relatively new cost model; this is our future and healthcare organizations must be prepared for this new reality - which I'm sure most of you reading this agree you already are (at least, I hope!). How exactly will healthcare organizations be able to estimate the cost of care based on the value they deliver versus the quantity they provide? This is one of the most pressing questions boggling the minds of many healthcare executives, particularly those who work in the finance and accounting departments of these organizations.
Topics: patient satisfaction, cost protection, Estimation
Outsourcing call center services can be a money saver but it can also cause the loss of valuable business and ruin patient satisfaction scores — IF you select the wrong outsourcing company. Outsourcing makes sense for many organizations because you can gain expertise in areas your organization doesn’t focus on, like patient receivables. Outsourcing call center services relieves you of training, supervision and turnover costs, allowing your core staff to focus on your core business – the patients.
Topics: patient protection, call centers, call center, patient satisfaction, Outsourcing
The days when patients went to the doctor’s office with very little knowledge and some semblance of understanding regarding their particular ailment, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment are loooong gone; everything the doctors said (or didn’t say) was once regarded as just the way it was and had to be. When patients left that 15-minute doctor’s visit they were armed only with the information and options that their doctor provided to them. For the doctors, the only real-time information they could provide was by drawing from what they knew from experience and then simply telling their patients that once the tests results came back, they’d be contacted.
Topics: healthcare technology, patient satisfaction, hospital patient satisfaction, healthcare receivable management, patients
It’s a mistake to think that formalized efforts to measure hospital patient satisfaction are just another government intrusion. Programs like the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey can not only bring you direct financial rewards (and who doesn’t want more of that?!), they can help your organization excel in the areas of ongoing growth and profitability.
Patient Satisfaction is a real hot topic in the healthcare industry these days. For obvious reasons, keeping patients satisfied has always been a top priority for healthcare providers. However, in addition to the already known risks of earning a bad reputation or losing patients to competitors, there's now the added risk of hazards like reduced reimbursement rates.
Topics: patient satisfaction, vendor management, healthcare receivable management, healthcare, patients, customer service
