Are You Offering Multiple Payment Options?

4/15/2020

Did you know that the more payment options you offer your patients, the better your chances of being paid?

If you’re not offering multiple payment options to patients, you should!

Are You Offering Multiple Payment Options?

Offering Patients Multiple Payment Options
Improves Chances of Getting Paid

Did you know that the more payment options you offer your patients, the better your chances of being paid? If you’re not offering multiple payment options to patients, you should!

Pick and Click

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We live in a “pick-and-click” world, where we’ve all grown accustomed to an “Amazon-like” consumer experience. Technology has made paying for goods and services incredibly convenient, resulting in an increased consumer demand for a variety of payment options.

Experts believe those options should also extend to healthcare.

“Physicians should give patients multiple options with payment channels and payment methods so that you can really meet patients where they already are,” says Deirdre Ruttle, vice president of strategy, for InstaMed, a healthcare payments network.

Let’s look at some of those various payment options which are becoming increasingly popular with American consumers.

Shall I Put That on Your Charge?

According to Mark Spinner, president and CEO of AccessOne, a patient finance company based in Charlotte, N.C., paying for healthcare is not just a problem for the low-income.

“The majority of the country has a [healthcare] affordability problem now. People with jobs, with families, with mortgages and auto loans, people who are credit worthy,” Spinner says.

AccessOne is one of several companies that offer “co-branded, personalized financing” for healthcare providers. These accounts work much like a department store charge account. Physicians can see their revenue, and patients can pay down their balances in a way that works best for them.

Within this framework, multiple types of accounts can be offered. For instance, plans can offer zero interest for a set period of time.

“Some accounts are built as part of deductible plans; some are built for catastrophic balances; some are built for partial charity or partial financial assistance recipients. Those different programs help the provider deliver a positive payment alternative for every patient that walks through their doors,” Spinner explains.

Alternative Payment Plans

Many physician practices offer standard payment plans. But according to Kevin Fleming, CEO of Loyale Healthcare in Lafayette, Calif., these plans are only moderately successful in obtaining revenue.

On the other hand, Fleming has seen better success by offering a prompt-payment discount for paying within a certain time frame. “You’d be amazed at what a simple discount of 10 to 20 percent will do to the psychology of the whole transaction,” he says.

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Increasing the payment period is another strategy. In traditional payment plans, the bill is broken down into monthly payments over a certain time period, such as a year. But increasing the length of payment time can often prove more successful.

Fleming explains, “When the patient just can’t afford say $200 per month, they might need three-year financing on something like an emergency room visit or cancer [treatment].”

Another option is to allow patients to set the payment parameters, within reason. “When patients self-construct plans, selecting an amount and the period that works for them, they’re able to keep up their end of the bargain and pay.”

Pre-paying is another possibility. Paying in advance before a large, planned medical expense cam be a huge help to both patients and provider.

Take childbirth, for instance. Today in America, the total average cost of having a baby is almost $11,000. Even with insurance, the average out-of-pocket expense is $4,500. (Costs vary somewhat by state.) Pre-payment circumvents this debt; by the time the baby is born, the bill has been paid.

Flat-Rate Self-Pay Options

For uninsured patients or those with very high-deductible insurance plans, you may wish to consider offering some basic services at a flat rate. For these situations, it would be important to let the patient know that payment would be expected at the time of service.

This option is advantageous to both patient and provider:

The patient knows what he’s paying up front, with no debt hanging over his head.
The provider saves the expense of attempting to collect the debt.

Still another low-cost way to make payments convenient for patients is to combine an in-office credit card swiper with a “tokenization” process. This service allows the provider to securely store credit card data for future use. Patients can then authorize payment over the phone using the stored data.

Apps and Portals

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With patients now shouldering a greater burden of their healthcare costs, more providers are seeing a demand for mobile and online payment options.

Payment portals are probably the easiest method, according to Craig Cooper, product manager for AdvanceMD, a medical practice management company based in Utah.

When a portal is accessible through a patient’s mobile device, he can receive a text regarding a balance due and immediately respond to make the payment, Cooper says.

But experts caution that the kind of mobile app or payment portal you choose should be thoughtfully considered. A tight integration between your payment app and your practice management system works best.

Bear in mind, too, that many cash apps do not secure patient information like a payment portal would. They may also result in HIPAA violations, as some of them indicate the address of the physician’s office where the payment was made.

The Bottom Line Is…

By making bill paying as easy and convenient as possible for your patients, you’ll provide them with a good financial experience, and improve your own bottom line.

Reliant Financial Services recognizes managing extended or alternative payment plans can be cumbersome and time consuming for any business office. Let us partner with you and be an extension of your business office, allowing you to focus more efforts on taking care of the important aspects of your complex revenue cycle.

A SPECIAL OFFER FROM
RELIANT FINANCIAL SERVICES

We’d love to be your business partner!
For a limited time, Reliant Financial Services is offering a FREE Revenue Cycle Efficiency Review to the first 10 healthcare providers that sign up with us.
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contact Reliant today!

Sources:
Featured Image: Adobe, License Granted
Medical Economics
MedPro
PaySimple

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