The Time is NOW to Implement a Mobile Billing Strategy
Collecting open balances effectively from patients in the healthcare space has proven to be extremely difficult. This is made evident by an average collection rate of only 18% before giving a patient balance to a collections agency or writing it off. So why don’t patients feel the need to pay their healthcare bills?
Perhaps that’s the wrong question to be asking. Our data shows that the majority of patients are wanting and willing to pay their healthcare bills as long as they can understand what they owe and why they owe it, coupled with options for receiving and paying them. So instead of asking “what’s wrong with the patients?” instead try asking “what’s wrong with our strategy?”
80% of the time, you already have a key piece of info that can be used to improve: a patient’s mobile phone number.
There is a growing percentage of your patient population who will ONLY interact with your organization in a timely manner if they are able to handle everything from a mobile device. In fact, a 2019 study* found that over 70% of patients prefer electronic statements even though only 17% of medical groups offer electronic solutions for billing and payments. From receiving a text to viewing their bill to making a payment, the process must be easy for the patient to understand and use and there MUST be options for how to handle the payment.
It’s becoming impossible to ignore the numbers that a mobile-forward strategy can bring to your patient collection efforts. After just 3 months of implementing a new process involving proactive and more frequent electronic communication, a high-volume healthcare billing organization has realized the following results:
60% of electronic bills that were sent were paid online
63% of these payments were set up on a payment plan with an average installment of 9 months
58% of payments were the result of purely electronic communication (no paper statement sent), resulting in a 60% total reduction in paper statement volume/costs.
What does this tell us? That an omni-channel patient billing strategy with an emphasis on text and mobile capabilities, along with traditional paper and IVR offerings, really works.
So, providers and their third-party RCM partners should look beyond the concept that patients are slow to act. Instead, take a look at your billing strategy to determine if you are utilizing the necessary tools for offering the most effective patient financial experience.
*Jill Frew, Cain Brothers Industry Insights, April 2019
Implement your mobile billing strategy with PatientPay, today.