collect the uncollectable: how advanced technologies are conquering ar jennifer leon director of...
TRANSCRIPT
COLLECT THE UNCOLLECTABLE: HOW ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES ARE CONQUERING ARJENNIFER LEON DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
OBJECTIVES
| Discover advances in technology that can assist in endeavors to change your current business model
| Learn best practices related to patient communication and ways to improve
| Hear examples of what other Providers are doing to encourage private-pay collections
NUMBERS
| It is estimated that 30% of patients walk out the door without paying a dime
- Double that for DME
| Collectability percentage of self pay receivables that linger more than 60 days = 50%
- What are you currently collecting? - How much does it cost you to collect?- Stay on top of receivables- Multiple opportunities/avenues to pay
- Out of pocket expenses for insured patients are expected to grow from $250 billion in 2009 to $420 billion by 2015
TECHNOLOGY
| ATM| Airport – Post office kiosks| Drive-thru grocery stores| Gas stations| Phones – Mobile – GPS | Medicine – Capsule Endoscopy| Microwaves| Wind turbines & solar power| TV-VCR-DVD-Netflix| Google Glass
COLLECT MORE
| Are you collecting up front?
| What are you currently doing to collect more?
| Has the standard way of collecting produced good results?
| How do you foresee it playing out for the latter half of 2015 and beyond?
TOOLS| Website – Patient Portal/Online Bill Pay
| IVR/Virtual Agent – Save time and labor resources
| Patient Invoices – Communication is key
| AutoPAY – Best Practice for recurring patients
PATIENT PORTAL
- Make your external website go to work for you- Self-sufficient patients = Patient Account Management’
- No more ‘can you send me every invoice’ call- Less time for your billing staff
- All major credit cards, FSA/HSA, e-check- NO EXCUSES!
- Offer functionality such as AutoPAY and eDelivery- Streamline the patient experience- Saves YOU money and time, cutting cost for follow-up and
paper
NUMBERS
According to a 2011 survey, a whopping 70% of patients are interested in making payments online using a self pay patient portal.
NUMBERS
Arizona Provider – in 2 years… | 10,800 registered users - $1,410,000| 50,000 one-time payments - $2,203,000 | $3.6 million just by offering an online solution!
California Provider – in 1 year… | 3,400 registered users| 7,200 one-time payments| $1,275,000 just by offering an online solution!
Pennsylvania Provider – in 6 weeks… | 958 registered users | 20,117 one-time payments| $240,000 just by offering an online solution!
CALL YOUR PATIENTS
Virtual Agent - Narrow down billing terms to HME/DME- Artificial intelligence creates engaging natural language in
conversation form- Constantly learning and improving on speech - Lighten the load of your staff- Reminder calls regarding patient balance
Time & Resources- Efficient – no more time spent making phone calls- Staff – empathetic, right people- Collect $11 for every $1 spent – comprehensive plan
• SAVES 35-45% for collection agencies
CALL YOUR PATIENTS
INVOICES V. STATEMENTS
Standard Statements are no longer effective!- Confusing, incorrect, and not timely- Often times EOB’s do not match- MICR/OCR codes
- Lockbox
- Past due follow-up – No due date = no consequences
Company branding- Logos- Online efforts- Advertising
INVOICES V. STATEMENTS
AUTOPAY
What it ISN’T:|A recurring payment plan of the same amount every month|Manual action to charge a credit card or bank account
What it IS:|A money transfer scheduled to pay a recurring bill on said due date|Insurance - 100% coverage, 97% of the time
BENEFITS
Provider •Patient DSO decreases
•Saves on past due follow up
•Time and labor resources
•No more 3rd party collections
•Rising hard costs such as postage
•Patient loyalty = return
Patient•No service charges/late fees
•Advance notice of charges
•On time payments = better FICO score
•Easy and convenient
•Caregivers easy to manage
•Card rewards/cashback
•Saves money on stamps
NUMBERS
Washington Provider – in 9 months… | 2,600 AutoPAY registrations = $250,000 in automatic
payments| 1982 emails of patients (saves on paper invoices)| It is POLICY, every rental is set up on AutoPAY or they
don’t take the business| Average collection rate went from 75% to 80% | ‘You can believe the hype, the risk is worth the reward’
NUMBERS
Pennsylvania Provider – in 6 months… | 1,200 AutoPAY registrations = $27,000 in automatic
payments| 90% of every new order is set up on AutoPAY | Incentive program for Intake and Billing staff - $5 per every
AutoPAY- Hands out CASH at the end of every week!
| ‘I only wish I would have started this sooner’
POLICY
What will it be and how will it play out?| What is the policy? Is it well established internally and
externally? | Exceptions. What are they and when will they be used?| Internal communication – staff training and continuing
education| External communication – patient notification via intake
and referral sources| Stop the bleeding!!| 45%..........72%..........98%..........What would you chose?
SCRIPTING
Script Example•Mrs. Jones it looks like we received your order from Dr. Brown and we can have your equipment out to you by the end of the day, I just need to verify a few items first.
• Insurance
• Address
• Payment• “Being that you will have this equipment on a rental basis we do
require a form of payment be kept on file via AutoPAY. We will still send you an invoice (eDelivery) but instead of sending in payment will charge the payment method on file when the invoice comes due. What card or bank account can we secure today?”
RECAP
| Develop not just an ‘up front collection’ process but rather an INSURANCE POLICY to collect patient-pay
| Technology is key in workflow efficiency and helping mainstream time and labor resources
| STOP BILLING YOUR PATIENTS!!!
“Companies are doing the same incremental thing that they did 50 years ago or 20 years ago. That’s not really what we need, especially in technology – we need revolutionary change.”
Larry Page, Google CEO
TED Conference, March 2014
