30075 Greenfield Rd., Suite 100
Southfield, MI 48076
Phone: (248) 290-2940
Fax: (248) 290-2941
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July 2007 - Cash
Collection is driven by Insurance Verification and setting expectations
with your patients
Though offices may have had the policy to collect co-pays with their
patients, the new world of payor rules has created an entirely
different situation. You no
longer have a set renewal timeframe, no common
“rules” for co-pays or deductibles. And
some patients have chosen high deductible plans or Health
Savings plans which require you to have the ability to process a credit
card transaction.
Do you have the tools to do online verification for your
patients’ payors? Many payors only will provide
insurance verification checking via their web pages. There
are services you can contract with such as Emdeon or Blue Cross/Blue
Shield so your staff can complete the necessary verification.
In the current Michigan economy, the volume of self-pay
patients is increasing. Do you have adequate policies and
procedures to ensure that you collect self-pay monies? Or are
you finding yourself with an increase in bad debt and collection agency
fees? Many consumers place a lower priority on an unsecured
service bill such as yours than on their monthly credit card bill,
further complicating collection.
The other critical success factor is clearly setting expectations with
your patients before their service. Once you have verified
their benefits and determined their obligations, communicating to the
patient what they are expected to pay at time of service or
prior to a surgical procedure prevents many issues.
Best-practice offices we work with often use these tools to improve
cash collection performance:
- Establishment of a pre-patient
arrival readiness checklist
- Routine insurance verification including
co-pay/deductible determination
- Consistent patient notification of
financial obligations
- Establishment of minimum payment for
self-pay patients at time of
service, often including a percentage discount for payment in
full at time of service. (Be creative in getting your monies
earlier in the collection process!)
Assets your office should have in place include:
- secure internet access
- credit card or electronic check processing
- an office policy on cash collections
Contact us at NMS for other ideas to ensure your financial success
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