Articles

 

Economic Downturn Impacts Patient Insurance and Collections

 

About 11.1 million Americans were unemployed in December and the unemployment rate rose to 7.2% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of unemployed has increased by 3.6 million since January of 2008. A study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that for every 1 percentage point increase in unemployment, an additional 1.1 million people nationally become uninsured. For each person who loses their health insurance, on average one spouse or child loses protection as well.

The economic downturn is just the latest in healthcare trends which have increased patient responsibilities for healthcare costs. The introduction of high deductible health plans previously has led to increases in the amount of self-pay balances for most physicians which in turn have fueled the percentage of bad debt.

 

Our Clients want to ensure that the outstanding funds owed by patients are collected. At the same time, Clients want to preserve their relationship and reputation with patients. The ability to improve collections and patient goodwill can only be accomplished by a firm who understands that a consistent process must be coupled with a patient advocate approach. ProSperus uses a time-tested, technology-driven process that yields maximum results.
 
“Making sure that we have submitted claims correctly and that all claims are adjudicated properly by the insurance companies is only the first step,” according to Tom McBride, President and CEO of ProSperus. “Patients will not pay if the cost should be covered by insurance.”
 
“When we have the true patient portion, we move quickly to the first and second statement,” notes Tom. “If we don’t have success with these, we find that one effective tool is the early collection letter. We introduced early collection letters about two years ago. Before we formally turn the account over to the Client’s preferred collection agency, a letter is sent by a collection agency on our behalf notifying the Client that they account has now been turned over and that they have an opportunity to pay the account before additional collection action is required.”
 
Tom relates that the introduction of the early collection letter has made a tremendous positive impact. “We pick up a significant amount before the accounts are actually turned over to collection agency. That’s a tremendous improvement in payment and we avoid having the collection agency take any additional actions. This approach brings additional money in during the normal AR process, saves our clients money and preserves patient goodwill.”
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
© ProSperus, 2009
This site is powered by the Northwoods Titan Content Management System