Dive Brief:
- Less than 35% of money owed by patients is being collected up-front at physician practices, according to a new study from Availity.
- This is in spite of the fact that 90% of providers think collecting money on-site is important and 85% say that patients' financial responsibility is on the rise.
- Hospitals, at 19%, collect even less money before or at the point of service. 80% of respondents reported recent investments in staff and software to support on-site collections.
Dive Insight:
Providers have good reason to be concerned about unpaid bills. Silver and bronze plans available on the state health insurance exchanges may come with deductibles as high as $5,000. And 41% of employer-based plans have deductibles of $1,000 or more.
Methods of how to go about this vary. The most aggressive hospitals are asking for as much as 70% of the amount due ahead of time. Others are merely calling ahead to patients and letting them know what kind of bill they can expect, while walking them through options that might help pay the bill. Regardless, the goal is to chase money ahead of time rather than after-the-fact.
"One of the key insights is that the conversation with the patient has to start early—at or before the point of service—if providers are to reduce the amount of bad debt they're currently experiencing," said Availity CEO Russ Thomas.
