A patient statement is a medical invoice that is sent to the patient through either regular mail or the Internet. If your medical practice offers healthcare services, a considerable portion of your budget likely goes towards sending out these patient statements. In some cases, you might even have administrative personnel dedicated to managing medical billing tasks.

By utilizing patient statement services from Revenue Cycle Rx, you can enhance the presentation of these statements and make it easier for patients to understand what steps they need to take to settle their bills. This improved efficiency can help your office manage costs more effectively.

Strategies for Enhancing Patient Statements to Improve Patient Collections

As Patients emerge as a new Payer, providers face the crucial task of enhancing their approach to sending patient statements in order to optimize payment collection. With the prevalence of high-deductible insurance plans, patients have become more cautious about settling their share of medical bills.

To address this challenge, we can help providers revamp how they educate patients about their financial responsibilities, which includes improving patient statements among other tools for securing payments. By enhancing patient statements and guiding patients through the payment process, providers can expect to see an increase in timely payments.

Here are five tips we use for improving patient statements and bolstering patient collections:

1. Transparency: Given the inundation of credit card offers and advertisements that patients receive by mail, it’s vital to ensure that your identity is unmistakably clear on your patient statements. Many individuals mistakenly discard paper patient statements, assuming they are junk mail, without even opening the envelope. To combat this, it’s essential to prominently display your name and branding on both the envelope and the statement itself, ensuring that patients do not inadvertently discard them. Additionally, using colorful text can capture your patients’ attention and signal right away that this is a medical bill.

2. Accessibility: While paper statements have been the norm for many providers for decades, modern patients expect more convenience. The majority of bills, from cable to electric, have transitioned to digital formats with online payment options. Medical providers should follow suit by providing not only paper statements but also digital access through patient portals. Research indicates that digital access to information enhances patient engagement with their healthcare, including managing medical bills. Therefore, it’s imperative to make patient statements available online while continuing to send paper statements for added security.

3. Card Payments: Just as most everyday bills are paid online, patients often prefer using credit or debit cards for payments. Although paper patient statements have historically included credit card coupons at the bottom as an option, this can pose a security risk for patients’ banking information during transit. Providers should offer a secure online card payment option through payment integration on their patient portal. This facilitates quick and accessible card payments and can significantly boost on-time payments. Your patient statement should also clearly list all available payment methods.

4. Eliminate Confusion: Even when patients receive paper patient statements in the mail, they sometimes delay payment due to confusion. Medical bills can be perplexing, especially for patients unfamiliar with the terminology. To address this, providers should make it crystal clear what portion of the bill the patient is responsible for. While it’s important to display what portion the insurance provider covers, providers should prominently highlight the patient’s share. By eliminating any ambiguity regarding their financial responsibility, providers can reduce challenges associated with patient collections.

5. Education: An essential strategy for reducing difficulties in patient collections is to empower patients with information about their medical bills. Increasing transparency and accuracy in patient statements, while also eliminating any confusion about their financial responsibility, can boost timely payments. As medical bills can escalate, particularly with high-deductible health plans, it’s crucial for providers to ensure that patients are aware of their options. Providers should educate patients about available payment plans, payment resources, and the consequences of missing a payment deadline. This education empowers patients to make informed decisions when facing unexpected medical expenses.

Implementing these strategies into your billing workflow can significantly enhance patient collections. To learn more about how to integrate these tips and tools into your processes,  request a demo with the Revenue Cycle Rx team.