Most clinicians and administrators agree that the healthcare revenue cycle is both challenging and turbulent. Increasing regulatory scrutiny and declining reimbursement have made this work much harder. These trends have increased the role that healthcare debt collections play in the revenue cycle.
This article shows how an outsourced debt collections firm can help a small practice with its revenue cycle. How can Rocket Receivables help a practice improve its bottom line?
Outsourcing Debt Collection
In an era of high copays, it makes sense that debt collection would have a higher impact on the revenue cycle. HFMA says enrollment in high-deductible premium plans has tripled since 2009. Given that most patients wait for at least 30-days to pay out-of-pocket, there’s corresponding pressure on clinical cash flow. For small practices, this can create a real burden exacerbated by the efforts needed to conduct debt collection.
Outsourcing healthcare debt collection has been proven to improve the bottom line of hospitals, medical practices, and other ancillary providers. There are many benefits to selecting a third-party service for debt collection, including:
- A higher rate of return
Rocket Receivables offers a guaranteethat you’ll double the money invested. Our average debt recovery rate is 56% for our Stage One services, while the industry collection average is 14%. - Lower costs
Healthcare debt collections will pay for itself. One benefit of outsourcing is the savings from bulk processing and shipping of statements. This not only saves costs in staff time but also cuts the materials and postage bottom line. A more streamlined process will improve cash flow with a steady stream of increased ROI as well. - Improve the doctor/patient relationship
There are both regulatory dos and don’ts for healthcare debt collectionand an impact on patient quality scores that must be considered. Choosing the right outsourced debt collection partner will keep you practice compliant while preserving community goodwill. HFMA suggests that increasing competition dictates “keeping patients content is the best way to establish loyalty and prevent patient attrition.” - Reports at your fingertips
Rocket’s self-service portal will help your team gain an understanding of patient behavior. With a 360-view of inbound payments, written demand activity, statements mailed, and ROI. This online portal visibility can be viewed 24/7/365 and offers healthcare clients an inside view on all of their placed accounts. - Free up staff time
One of the chief benefits of outsourcing debt collection in the healthcare field is that it frees up staff to focus on other administrative or clinical tasks. Just eliminating the clerical tasks associated with mailing debt collection letters could free up internal teams to work on anything from insurance verification to copay collections – or any of the other myriad tasks associated with clinical practice today.
The rate of return on third-party debt collections is high for hospitals and ancillaries.
Outsourcing healthcare debt collections will have a correspondingly positive impact on the bottom line, whether in a solo practice or a multi-state hospital network. In an era of higher patient out-of-pocket coupled with increasing costs, outsourcing healthcare makes increasing sense as a way to improve the bottom line.
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