The same week I’ll be doing the presentation in Arlington, VA, on charge master issues, I’ll also be a part of a teleseminar being put on by HCPro on upfront collections. Along with a gentleman named John Kivimaki, we’ll be covering the pros and cons of setting up such a system in healthcare, as well as the training methods that might go into getting such a program to work well.
Why is this important? Most every business in existence gets its payment up front, then gives out its product. Healthcare is one of the few business where, often people are provided services, then pay later on. What happens is that the further time goes, the worse the treatment was in a patient’s mind. And, if the insurance company doesn’t pay on time, and it takes awhile to get your money from them, then you have to send a bill to the patient, it starts getting ugly because either the patient wants to gripe because they’re getting a bill they feel is late, or they don’t remember the services, or many other reasons. So, more and more healthcare entities are trying to set it up so that they’ll get at least part of the payment from the patient when they show up, the deductibles or co-pays. When one goes to most doctor’s offices, they have to pay before they get treatment, so why not hospitals?
So, there you go; it should prove to be interesting.
1 comment so far ↓
The event will no doubt be lively because healthcare is and will always be a lightning rod topic.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind if a hospital sought partial payment for services up front. I’ve had problems where a hospital didn’t apply for payment for three or more years after it provided me with services. Then, out of nowhere, the hospital wanted me to pay the entire bill because they didn’t seek payment from the insurance company, even though they had all information on file.
I look forward to reading your summary about the event and the consensus from attendees.
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