Patient Collections - Preparing Your Technology, Your Staff, and Your Financial Policy

Presented by Aimee Heckman

June 28, 2017

Kareo Confidential

Agenda

2

Agenda

2

• Introductions

• Welcome to the Patient Collections Boot Camp

• The Building Blocks of Successful Patient Collections

• Patient Collections Assessment

• Beefing Up Your Financial Policy

• Technology Inventory

• Preparing Your Team

• How Kareo Can Help

• Your Questions

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How to Participate Today…

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Kareo Confidential 55

Discover Kareo’s Role

• PAHCOM has approved 1 CEU credit.

• Each attendee will receive an email today

with a link to request certification.

Certificates will be emailed within the next

few days.

• Attendees must be logged into the webinar

to receive credit.

• You’ll be asked at the end of the webinar if

you want a CEU certificate.

“…Make Your Practice a Best Practice!”


Aimee Heckman CPPM, CPB

• Healthcare Business Consultant and President at Ease RCM Solutions.

• Certified Professional Biller (CPB) and Certified Physician Practice Manager (CPPM)

• More than 25 years experience in Medical Practice Management, Revenue Cycle Management, PM/EHR implementation, and business development.

Kareo Confidential

Agenda

7

Agenda

7

• Introductions








• Your Questions

Welcome to Boot CampWhat does patient collections have to do with a boot camp?


Welcome to Boot Camp

How to get the most out of this Boot Camp

• Set realistic expectations to avoid becoming discouraged part way

through the process and giving up.

• Pick what seems doable for you right now, give it your best effort and

keep moving forward, even if it’s baby steps.

• Take the amount of time you need to in order to complete all of the

“weeks” of Boot Camp.

• Follow a modified path that you can easily handle all the way through

and then repeat the Boot Camp again to implement additional items

that you weren’t quite ready for.


Why a Boot Camp?

39.1% 54% 90% 30%

Privately insured individuals under age 65

with HDHP

HDHPs

Increase in HDHPs since 2010

Increase

HDHP purchased on exchanges and the

open market

Bronze/Silver

Percent of revenue attributed to patients

Patient


The Patient Collections Journey

Bill Payer/Patient

Submit claims immediately, post

payments promptly and send statements

frequently

Validate and Collect

Confirm all financial information at each

visit and collect copay and any balances due

Gather Data

Collect all demographic info needed to verify insurance and patient

responsibility when scheduling the appointment

Effective patient collections begins long before the patient sets foot in the office. Each step in the process is

an opportunity for success and will directly impact your net collections.

Follow-Up

Stay on top of patient balances and be pro-

active before accounts reach 60 days

BeforeVisit

AtVisit

AfterVisit

FollowUp

The Building Blocks of

Successful Patient CollectionsFinancial policy, technology, staff training


Patient Collections Assessment

Workout Set 1


Assessing Your Current Financial Fitness

• You can’t improve what you haven’t measured.

• Be honest in your answers. It does you no good to overestimate

the effectiveness of your current process.

• If you can’t immediately answer a question without having to

think about it, you probably need to answer “yes”.



Question 1

Are more than 5% of your rejections and denials due to eligibility?

Why it Matters

Eligibility is the #1 cause of rejections and denials and it is the most

preventable of all denials.



Question 2

Are more than 50% of your patient responsibility balances greater

than 60 days old?

Why it Matters

Accounts with balances aged greater than 60 days become

increasingly less likely to be paid in full without significant effort. If a

patient has received two or more statements with no response, they

are unlikely to respond to further statements.



Question 3

Do you collect less than 95% of copays and past due balances at the

time of service?

Why it Matters

Your best chance of collecting from a patient is when they are

standing in front of you, especially if they have not yet seen the

provider. Collecting becomes exponentially more difficult once a

patient walks out the door.



Question 4

Have your bad debt write-offs increased in the last 12-18 months?

Why it Matters

Increasing bad debt write-offs mean a decrease in net collections.

Repeated bad debt write-offs encourage bad habits in patients.



If you answered yes to more than one of the preceding questions,

you may want to take the full assessment available in the Event

Resources:

http://app.get.kareo.com/e/er?s=1035727210&lid=3558&elq=<span class=eloquaemail>recipientid</span>



Financial Policy Workout

Workout Set 2


Beefing Up Your Financial Policy

Your Patient Financial Policy is:

• No longer something you simply get signed and file away.

• Something that all members of your staff must be familiar with and

must be prepared to explain to patients

• An agreement between your patients and your practice which

outlines the responsibilities of both parties

• One of the most important documents for your practice



Best Practices for Creating or Revising Your Financial Policy

• Use clear patient friendly language.

• Use bullet points and section headings that guide patients through

the entire document.

• Include multiple places for patients to initial to encourage reading

the entire document.

• Provide a glossary of terms to ensure that patients understand their

true responsibility .

Don’t assume that patients understand insurance jargon.



Example of a Strong Lead-In to a Financial Policy



Structure the document so that it addresses both self-pay and

insurance patients. Begin with items that apply to all patients.

Topics for All Patients

• No show/cancellation policy and penalties

• Collections policy

• Dismissal for non-compliance financially

• Options for financial assistance

• Payment methods accepted



Clearly define patient obligations related to their insurance. Don’t

assume they understand how insurance coverage works.

Topics for Insured Patients

• Establish when copays, coinsurance, deductibles and unpaid balances are

due

• Remind them that ultimate responsibility for their bill lies with them

• Explain why copays/deductibles cannot be waived

• Encourage patients to review their plan benefits and be familiar with what

is and is not covered under their plan

• Provide a list of the plans you participate with, not just the payer names,

especially if you only participate in PPO, or all but HMO, etc

• Instruct patients to notify you of any changes to their benefits immediately



Clearly define patient obligations related to their insurance. Don’t

assume they understand how insurance coverage works.

Topics for Insured Patients

• Consider including a patient friendly glossary of insurance terms

To get you started, you can download our Glossary of Essential Health Insurance Terms from the Event Resources.





Self-pay doesn’t always mean “no insurance”. Be sure to address

non-covered services in your financial policy.

Topics for Self-Pay Patients

• Clearly outline what is expected regarding payment at time of service

• Include a sample self-pay fee schedule

• Offer prompt pay discounts

• Provide multiple payment options

• Encourage patients with HDHPs to review self-pay policies, as many times

they end up falling under more of a self-pay category



Best Practices Tips

• Include your billing and front desk staff in reviewing and updating

your financial policy. They can provide valuable “real world” insight

into where your current policy falls short.

• Once you have reviewed your current policy and updated, modified,

reworked and finalized it, be sure to run it past your healthcare

attorney to make sure that it is legal and enforceable



Establish a protocol to update and review financial policies

• All established patients should be asked to review the financial policy

at least annually.

• If a patient changes from self-pay to insured or vice versa, make it a

policy to have them review the financial policy again and initial and

date it to make sure they are aware of the differences in their

obligations.



Use our Financial Policy Checklist to review your

current policy and update it with any missing or

inadequate topics.

More Best Practices for Making Your Financial Policy Work• Post on you website• Send to new patients prior to first appointment• Give patients a signed copy• Require new patient paperwork to be returned prior to appointment




Patient Collections Technology Inventory

Workout Set 3


Taking Inventory of Your Technology

The Basics

• Scheduling and appointment reminder software

• Eligibility verification

• Billing/Practice Management System

• Clear and professional statements

• Payment processing system

• Patient Portal

Access our Patient Collections Technology Inventory in the Event Resources.


Taking Inventory of Your Technology

Features that will take collections to the next level

• Credit Card on File (CCoF)

• Payment Estimator

• Online Payment Portal for both eChecks and Credit Cards

• Mobile Bill Pay

• Automated Payment Plans

• Appointment reminders via text and email

• Electronic Statements


Prepare Your Team

Workout Set 4


Preparing Your Collections Superstars

Everyone in the office should be trained to:

• Explain the practice’s financial policy

• Provide patients with the payment amount due

• List the payment options available

• Collect payments at the time of service and over the phone

• Provide payment alternatives if full payment can’t be made

• Offer financial counseling resources

Patient collections may not be the primary job of everyone in the practice, but it is the job of everyone to work as a team to accomplish your patient collections goals.


• Review and revise your current financial policy.

• Educate your staff on your new financial policy, payment pathways,

and their role in patient collections.

• Identify technology you may need to upgrade or acquire to improve

time of service collections.

• Set a goal to collect greater than 95% of copays at the time of

service. Remember, collecting just two more copays a day can result

in thousands of dollars a year in increased patient collections.


Patient Collections Webinar: Part 2

Optimizing Collections Before, During and After the Visit

Free Live WebinarThursday, July 13, 201710:00 AM Pacific | 1:00 PM EasternRegister Today!

http://www.kareo.com/resource/we_7891/webinar-patient-collections-boot-camp-part-2-optimizing-collections-during-and-after-visit/

Kareo Confidential

Agenda

38

Agenda

38

• Introductions








• Your Questions


Awards and Rankings

Growth awards The speed at which medical practices

are moving to Kareo and referring it to other providers.

Analyst reviews3rd party

recognition, driven by direct customer feedback, equals

trust and credibility.

Best places to workHappy, engaged employees stay

longer, have more experience and

offer better customer service.


Kareo Platform

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• Comprehensive dashboard

• Simple charting

• Easy ePrescribing

• Convenient eLabs

• Specialty templates

• Electronic Superbill

• Integrated Patient Portal

• Secure messaging


Kareo Platform

Kareo Billing

• Centralized A/R Management

• Intuitive Billing Analytics

• Easy & accurate charge capture

• ICD-10 Ready

• Smarter billing/patient collections

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Kareo Platform

Kareo Managed Billing

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• Simple scheduling/calendar

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• Nationwide Billing Rules Engine

• Claims tracking

• Billing Tasks

• Billing Analytics

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Kareo Platform

Kareo Marketing

• Marketing and front office

automation

• Online visibility and SEO

• Online appt. scheduling

• Email, text & voice recording

appt. reminders

• Post visit patient reviews

• Practice analytics for ROI

• Patient communications

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Patient Collections - Preparing Your Technology, Your Staff, and Your Financial Policy

Healthcare

Transcript of Patient Collections - Preparing Your Technology, Your Staff, and Your Financial Policy