Patient collections for radiology services take up valuable time. Whether you are collecting from true self-pay patients or patients waiting for compensation from their insurance companies. It eats into your bottom line. There are ways you can maximize patient collections. So you don’t miss out on getting the full amount of money due for your services. Here are some helpful tips.
Imaging Centers
Image centers should have an accurate picture of patient responsibility estimations, so you are able to increase patient collections when they are at their appointment. Your options in this case include:
- Contact the patient’s insurance plan to see how much your patient will owe at the time the service is provided. Present the bill to them prior to them going in for their images.
- Pre-authorize payment and or confirm the amount covered by the insurer prior to the patient’s appointment. This way the patient can be told how much they will pay before their appointments or at the time of service before they go in.
- Discuss full costs with true self-pay patients prior to service to discuss financing terms, especially for more costly imaging.
These options all establish the amount owed by the patient so you can collect payment at or before the time of service.
Patient Collections in Hospitals
If you have a hospital-based practice, volume can prove a challenge. It is not unheard of that radiology bills get lost amongst the other treatments the patient might receive at the hospital. They might also give you inaccurate information following the services you provide. The longer you wait to bill a patient, the less likely it is you will be successful in your collection attempts. It is not a good idea to use deductible holds. This provides a pre-determined period for the patient not to receive their bill to allow other organizations to receive the deductible denials. This doesn’t work because:
- Incorrect insurance information provided by the hospital can interfere with the collection.
- Presenting a relatively inexpensive radiology bill to a patient will be more affordable when compared to the other treatment they will receive at the hospital. This means they would be more likely to pay it when you present them with the bill
- The faster you can complete the relatively simple process of receiving the study, coding it, submitting the bill, posting the payment and sending the bill. The less likely you are to be questioned about what the bill is for.
Patient Tickler and Technology
The patient tickler allows you to prioritize high dollar studies. You can discover whether or not self-pay patients actually have unreported insurance coverage. You can also work with the patients most likely to pay first, so you can be more successful at collection. This also saves time.
New technology allows you to avoid manual, time-consuming processing work such as posting patient payments. Instead, patients have the option to pay online based on the payments auto-posted each night by your system.
A proactive approach in hand with new technology allows you to easily provide payment information to the self-pay patients. So you can increase your net collections. Call Accelerated Medical Billing at 727-781-8460 or contact us online to speak to patient collections professional today.