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6 Strategies for Lowering Bad-Debt Exposure
Jeff Elliott for HealthLeaders Media, September 7, 2010
- Segment patients by financial risk to determine their likelihood of covering their portion of the medical bill. With demographic and financial information provided by the patient, a hospital can decide how much and what type of collections effort to apply to individual patients.
- Implement sophisticated insurance eligibility verification tools and processes to validate patient and service eligibility in real-time. "While may not help improve total reimbursements, it can help speed the time that you receive your cash," according to Colton.
- Establish financing arrangements with a patient such as a basic payment plan that helps a patient see how they can settle their bill in a reasonable timeframe.
- Discount prices for self-pay patients. A good-will gesture of sorts, this will drive near term-revenue as well as create an incentive for the patient to return to your organization when future medical attention is needed.
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