Maximizing Upfront Collections With Your Receptionists: 6 Best Practices
Patient collection rates have fallen from 54.8% to 47.8%.
80% of appointments that go unbilled the first time are never billed again.
Missing collections can have a substantial impact on your practice’s operations. After all, how can your revenue cycle run efficiently if you need to play catch-up with outstanding balances and denied claims?
One of the most effective ways to prevent this is with upfront collections — and the best people for the job: your receptionists.
Here’s what you need to know.
Is It Legal To Collect Deductibles Upfront?
Legally, a provider can collect deductibles upfront. No existing regulations or statutes prohibit healthcare practices from getting upfront co-payment or deductible collections from their patients.
The problem, however, lies in two aspects:
- How patients feel when they’re asked to pay their deductibles at the front desk
- Having someone available to collect deductibles.
This is where your receptionists come into play. Aside from having the skill and availability to collect upfront, they can also approach patients in an encouraging, friendly way that would make them likely to pay. Overall, your receptionists can significantly improve your practice’s revenue cycle ROI by making your patients feel accommodated.
6 Best Practices For Maximizing Upfront Collections With Your Front Desk
1. Patient Experience
Your practice’s patient experience has an indirect yet significant impact on your upfront collection rates.
Patients who feel adequately accommodated by their chosen healthcare practice are more likely to reciprocate with expressed satisfaction and financial responsibility. These factors increase upfront collection rates and patient acquisition via word-of-mouth from each satisfied patient.
Since receptionists stand at the frontline of your practice, they’re responsible for making patients feel welcome from the moment they enter. In addition to facilitating check-in, scheduling appointments, and performing other vital administrative responsibilities, they can answer questions, guide patients from the waiting room throughout the facility, and — with sufficient training — help coordinate your patients’ treatment plans.
Altogether, your front desk staff can leave a lasting impact on your patients, encouraging them to pay upfront.
2. Cost Transparency
According to a 2019 study by Accenture, 65% of healthcare consumers consider cost transparency a crucial factor in patient satisfaction — so important, in fact, that HealthPay24 reported that approximately 40% of patients value cost transparency more than their relationship with their provider.
Patients want healthcare providers to actively inform them about the cost of their treatment. This instills a sense of security that they can afford the services. Plus, patients are more likely to trust a practice if it is transparent with its pricing, making them more likely to pay their bills upfront.
Assign your receptionists to provide each patient with the pricing breakdown of their treatment program. If the final price is unclear, they should give an estimate of how much it may be. Make sure to orient them about the pricing structure of your practice’s services.
For best results, your receptionists should mention your practice’s supported financing options. Letting your patients know they can be flexible with paying for their treatment encourages them to pay upfront, whether fully or partially.
3. Financing Alternative
The same HealthPay24 study found that 92% of patients said they’re more likely to return to a healthcare provider offering a loan program.
Offering multiple financing options allows your patients to be more flexible in paying their bills. It also promotes an image of your practice as accommodating and considerate, encouraging patients to pay their bills as soon as possible.
Your receptionists can help patients find alternative ways (e.g., credit card, online transfer) to finance their treatment. When discussing the patient’s payment method, they can introduce various methods with an amicable, hospitable demeanor to your patients. This ensures that your patients feel less pressured and reluctant to choose options outside of a full payment.
4. Health Insurance Verifications
Accenture revealed in its 2019 Digital Health Consumer survey that 39% of healthcare consumers select their medical provider based on the eligibility of their insurance.
Thus, actively verifying your patient’s insurance is essential not only to retaining patients but also to ensuring you can collect deductibles upfront.
While providers can handle insurance verification on their own, they may experience a great deal of stress and burnout from juggling patient care and administrative tasks. In the worst-case scenario, the verification process becomes compromised and patients may get frustrated when they hear their insurance doesn’t cover their treatment when it actually does.
Instead, you can assign your receptionists to perform insurance verification. With proper training, they can efficiently verify the coverage of a patient’s insurance plan. Besides achieving higher patient satisfaction, this ensures that you’re maximizing upfront collections and reducing bad debt.
5. Patient Reminders
51% of patients confirmed that they would pay their bills faster if they received a text message reminder, according to Salucro’s 2023 Trends in Patient Payment Communications Report.
Assigning your receptionists to manage patient reminders is ideal as they can create effective personalized messages that reflect your practice’s warm, considerate image. This is vital because, according to McKinsey & Company’s Next in Personalization 2021 Report, 71% of consumers expect personalized messaging from businesses — 76% would be frustrated if the messaging wasn’t personalized.
More importantly, you can send bill reminders not only in individual messages but also in appointment reminders. Including basic costs in your reminders gives patients a clear idea of how much their bill is, making them more likely to pay upfront.
Train your receptionists to talk to patients actively in identifying their preferred means of receiving reminders. Make sure that your workflow protocols for reminders consider patient data protection.
6. Being Considerate
Patients perceived as having high socioeconomic status are more likely to receive preferential access to primary care than patients perceived as having low socioeconomic status.
(Olah et al., “The effect of socioeconomic status on access to primary care”)
This perception must be minimized not only among your providers but also your receptionists.
Regardless of socioeconomic status, all patients must receive the same warmth, understanding, and compassion.
Providing equal, considerate treatment to every patient ensures that they will pay upfront and fulfill their dues in time. It will also speak volumes about your practice, improving satisfaction, retention, and acquisition.
That positive treatment starts with your front desk team. They can initiate a sense of hospitality and accommodation that continues with the rest of your staff. Even if the patient is unable to fulfill their dues upfront completely, they’ll be more inclined to finish it if they remember being catered to regardless of their situation.
Be Upfront With Elevating Your Receptionists
Your front desk plays an important role in your practice’s success. Besides helping maximize upfront collections, they can facilitate a positive patient experience, ensure smooth operations, and reduce administrative stress and burnout for your PTs.
If you want to find ways to improve your bottom line and other aspects of operations, consider putting your front desk at the top of your list.
One of the most effective ways of elevating your receptionists’ impact is using a remote front desk. Enter WelcomeWare’s virtual front desk software and hardware solution and PT virtual receptionist service, designed for physical therapy and healthcare practices. Learn how to utilize WelcomeWare’s video receptionist platform as a patient intake solution that will elevate your revenue cycle to greater heights!
Maximize upfront deductible collections with your front desk
Empower your receptionists with WelcomeWare so they can elevate your revenue cycle
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