Tips for Increasing Patient Pay and Reducing Collections  

Category: Practice Management

By Bob Richardson

Health care providers take great pride in providing much-needed service to patients.  While the business purpose is noble, getting completely paid is not always easy.  Many providers have focused heavily on insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid payments in the past as this was the bulk of the fees that they were trying to recover.  As the patient pay portion has increased over the last several years, many providers are finding it difficult to collect the patient's entire portion when the patient doesn't have the resources to pay all at once.  

To get better results, before services are rendered (if possible), it is a good practice to determine which patients are likely to pay you and which ones are not.  Obviously it's not an exact science, but for higher cost procedures, providers can use several mechanisms, such as credit reports, proof of employment, proo...