What Are the Lost Revenues When Patients Don't Pay?
Jaeme Adams, cofounder and CEO of SwervePay, has an interesting take on improving the 
reliability of patient payments. He lists three very good reasons to take seriously what he calls an “illness” infecting Healthcare provider offices across the country:
- $32 billion could be recaptured annually if the patient billing and payment process was simplified. This can be done by eliminating paper statements and streamlining manual low-tech billing processes.
- 30 percent of a physician practice’s total revenue is comprised of patient responsibility payments. Rising deductibles and co-pays are increasing patient payments and cost twice as much to collect as do payments from payers.
- 92 percent of insured consumers are able and willing to pay out-of-pocket medical expenses, yet 15 cents of every dollar is lost on claims processing, payments, billing and revenue cycle management, totaling a nearly $300 billion loss for the healthcare industry each year.
Mr. Adams lays a great deal of the blame on the payment interfaces created to allow patients to pay their bills “easily.”
A whopping 66 percent of hospitals reported no patients attempted to access the portals implemented as part of the Meaningful Use programs and less than two percent were using mobile apps
If you read between the lines, two major messages are intertwined in this article:
- Programs for patient payments must incorporate a marketing “flavor” in order to encourage adoption…manage it like a new service offering, not just a payment process!
- Providers aren’t streamlining revenue cycle functions, including explanation of benefit (EOB) forms, correspondence letters with denials, billing processes, denials management, etc.
Read his insights here and see if you recognize some of the mistakes he identifies in mobile apps and online access.