Better billing statements lead to faster payments
Keep it clear, understandable
The clearer and more understandable a patient’s billing statement and payment options are, the more likely you will get paid in time and in full. Here are some suggestions for improving the billing process developed by Bob Richards and Jeanan Yasiri of the Medical Group Management Association in Englewood, CO:
• Provide a line-item billing statement. Many health care billing statements still reflect the use of traditional balance-forward accounting, in which payments made by patients or payers are applied to the oldest balance on the account. This makes it extremely difficult for patients to determine later what specific charges account for a particular balance that still may be due. Instead, produce a billing statement telling patients on a line-by-line basis which charges have been paid and which ones remain.
• Provide a folder with monthly pockets designed to help with benefit coordination. Many people don’t pay immediately because they’re waiting to see how much their insurance plan or plans will pay. While they wait, they’re getting billing statements from their health care providers. A clear, easy-to-use billing statement, providing information that can be compared with insurance plan benefits, is a huge first step toward meeting the patient’s needs and expectations.
• Verify the patient’s address and insurance company information regularly to prevent mail returns and billing errors.
• Offer regular training for your staff about changes that affect coordination of benefits.
• Negotiate tape-to-tape claims adjudication with your clinic’s major third-party payers.
• Be willing to create separate accounts for children of divorced parents. Typical divorce judgments include provisions that hold both parents equally responsible for the health care bills of their children. If the clinic continues sending the child’s bill to only one of the parents, however, the parent who gets the bill can quickly find him or herself with an account that is difficult to decipher and quickly becomes past due. The other parent, meanwhile, gets only information filtered through the ex-spouse.
• Prepare information you can disseminate to community groups regarding your billing policy for children of divorce.
• Interact regularly with insurance and other government regulators regarding billing issues. Provide a means for patients to make co-payments on the day of their visit.
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