After talking to over 100 orthopedic surgeons in the last month (mostly at AOSSM this past weekend), there seems to be some commonality that many are experiencing in their practices…..increasing accounts receivable.

Since 2005, High Deductible Health Plans [HDHP] have become increasingly more popular among employers. So much so, they have increased by almost 600% over the past twelve years, and half of all patients are expected to be covered by these plans by 2018. [Note: HDHPs are defined as plans with greater than $2,000 annual deductibles]. In addition, according to an analysis by the Advisory Board Company, patients with a $2,000 or above deductible are delinquent on paying their responsibility greater than 39% of the time, while that number grows to greater than 50% if their deductible is over $3,500.

So what does this mean for us as physicians and practice administrators? With patient responsibility on the rise, we have tio take a closer examination of our processes, and how we operate from the front line [Patient Registration] to Surgery. So how do we do all of this, keep a busy practice operating, and make this a manageable task that we can both review but also hold our teams accountable? Try this:

Diagram your patient intake and flow

• Identify the points with which you can collect dollars from patients, and identify what percentage you are currently collecting at those points.
• Test your staff on their knowledge of:
  • Insurance Verification
  • Identifying how much patient deductibles are and how to identified what’s been applied against them
  • Role play with your staff in collecting from patients, and provide them the training they need to compassionately work with these patients while focusing on the bottom-line needs of the practice.
• Identify your insurance rejections, and create a tracking system which will allow you to review these at least twice monthly to make sure your staff is focusing on these dollars. [Note: Insurance industry data show that 20% of all filed claims are rejected, and 65% of those claims are never resubmitted].

Provide patients with a cost estimate of services

• We know what services will cost generally, and provide this to your patients. [Note: Think of yourself in this role, would you ever let the plumber come to your house and just provide him an open checkbook to ‘fix’ things without knowing their cost?]
• According to multiple surveys in healthcare, only 55% of specialty practices require deposits when scheduling surgery. Ideally, the pre-surgery deposit will account for half of the deductible
  • Be willing to work with patients to collect these deductibles. There are alternative options [carecredit©, automated recurring payments, and securing a personal guaranty with a promissory note]. There’s never an excuse for losing a patient to a deductible, they’ll have the same deductible no matter where they seek care.

Identify Accountability

• No matter how you decide to tackle these items, create a way for you to track these opportunities, and hold yourself and your staff accountable to make sure these hard-earned dollars make it to where they are supposed to!

For more information on how we can help you with your revenue and practice, visit us at www.codecollect.net or call Lindsey Wingate at 205.329.7514.