A statistic from “2011 Trends in Healthcare Payments Report” reveals that
65% of patients felt that every healthcare organization should offer patient
payment plans! While most organizations are adhering to this demand of
their patients, in hopes of boosting their revenues, they are also coming
across many challenges in this regard. While payment plans are a great way
to raise revenues for the healthcare organizations, but the collection of such
payments is not always simple. Many healthcare organizations across the US
are still struggling with this new payment type. So, here are some best
practices that you can use to simplify the payment process for patient
payment plans.

Automate the Payments:  Managing a calendar for each patient, making
calls when the payment date approaches and then reminding him/her to
make the manual payment is such a waste of effort. The best policy in this
respect would be to automate the payment process, whereby installment
amount gets deducted automatically from the patient’s account. Pre-authorized
payments can cut short the unnecessary follow-up needs.

Automate the Communications:  There are many instances when
automatic deductions can lead to confusions. The patient who has already
pre-authorized his payment forgets this fact completely. He gets a shock
when checking the bank statement and calls you up with an intention to
quarrel. You can save such unpleasant instances by sending automated
emails before the payment is deducted.

Create a Rule:  It is good to offer payment flexibility to the patient. But
the patient payment portal should also have a set of rules too. You need to
set the parameter for minimum monthly payments as well maximum time
limit for complete payment (against the billed amount).

If you need any more help, please refer to our ChoicePay service in regards to
the patient payment plans. It would help you manage the payments easily.