Patients Will Reward Providers with Loyalty When Offered Same in Return

Almost all hospitals and doctors today affirm that patient-pay revenue is a larger part of their billable accounts receivable.  According to Visa, it represents 25% of every revenue dollar booked.  However, for every eleven (11) patients billed, only one (1) patient will pay the provider within the first billing cycle.   This performance (or lack thereof) applies to patient accounts of all shapes and sizes.  In fact, whether uninsured, Medicare or balances after private insurance, more than ½ of balances less than $100 are headed to bad debt status and more than 90% of patient accounts greater than $500 are still unpaid after 90 days. And once an account is sent to collections, pennies on the dollar are the best result providers can expect.   All in all, 50% or more of all patient-pay revenue goes uncollected.

So, what should healthcare providers do?  Hospitals and doctors provide exceptional healthcare, save lives, cure disease, fix injuries, and yet, when they send a bill to patient for their services, many patients won’t pay it, and they may actually hate them for it. 

We’ve talked to hundreds of hospitals and doctors, and researched the issue of patient medical bill payments in-depth, and here’s how we see it. To begin, the problem is getting worse, and will continue to worsen.  Patient bad debt is growing on practically all healthcare provider balance sheets.   And at the same time, we will continue to see a greater percentage of healthcare costs being shifted to the patient even with the launch of healthcare reform.  So let’s start to dig a little deeper and try to uncover what works and what doesn’t when it comes to patient medical bills, and how and when they pay. 

It is important to first recognize that the use of the Internet to remit payment for household bills is a widely-accepted practice.  According to Checkfree, 75% of consumers pay their bills online, and the average household pays 11 out of 16 bills online on a monthly basis.  But there seems to be an obvious disconnect within healthcare, as only about 25% of doctors, and about 40% of hospitals, accept online payments from patients.  Quite simply, when hospitals and doctors bill patients and do not take online payments, they are already handicapping performance, because from a consumer’s perspective, online patient-payment options are virtually mandatory. 

We also know that Americans LOVE a good money-saving deal, and that the majority of us are influenced by sales and discounts.  An interesting growth trend to follow closely is the broader practice of patients successfully negotiating the price of a medical bill.  This practice is rapidly becoming more mainstream.   Popular websites with millions of users like Angie’s List now rate medical providers and their willingness to negotiate with their patients.  It’s even being used to advance political ambitions, and patient bill negotiations were actually a point of focus in the senatorial race in Nevada.

And what other consumer industries have shown is that increasing the volume of revenues and payments can impact the bottom-line the most.  Priceline’s Jay Walker taught the hotel industry that it’s not about selling rooms at a lower price, but rather filling up all the empty ones.  In a consumer-driven marketplace, the cost of a product or service has to be correlated to what the market will bear and what consumers can and will pay.  Technology and the Internet have armed the consumer with more information, transparency and the ability to be empowered.  And as more costs have been shifted directly to the patient, many hospitals and doctors are now looking at a lot of empty hotel rooms in the form of unpaid medical bills.

Many healthcare providers look at this challenge and see their patients as debtors, not consumers, and are tempted to step-up more aggressive collection practices. But healthcare providers can’t afford that risk in today’s consumer-driven environment.  Traditional debt collection practices may be necessary in some cases, but these are not strategies to increase patient satisfaction and loyalty.  It is very expensive to recover a dissatisfied patient, and it costs lots of money to attract new patients, versus just keeping existing patients happy.   More importantly, should a healthcare provider find themselves battling a negative perception of their hospital or practice locally or in social media, it can take a LONG time to change that image.   In today’s age of social media and instant information, you may find yourself fighting a losing battle.

Let’s face it, patients are consumers.  They are smart, savvy, informed and there are certain rules that need to be followed.  Hospitals and doctors must find a way to apply these consumer-driven rules or face worsening financial performance.  Consumers want to be rewarded for their loyalty and payment – it’s that simple.  It’s not enough to just provide your service and get paid.  You have to provide your service, then offer as much value as you can on the price, and then more will pay. Providers must take online payments.  And above all, consumers want control of their price.  They now know that insurance companies and government reimbursement programs have a seat at the negotiation table, and they want one too and will not pay you if they don’t get that seat. The price of healthcare charged to consumers cannot just be a cost plus margin formula.  The price is only what the market will bear determined by what patients will pay.  That’s the new financial reality for hospitals and doctors when working with patients today.  

Growing Medical Bills Threaten Patients in 2011 and Beyond

There are many reasons why medical bills are more expensive than ever. The year 2011 is no exception.  Here are some important reasons why medical bills will continue to rise at the peril of millions of patients across the country.  

Human life is extraordinarily precious
Humans have an inherent love for life and self-improvement, increasing demand for medical services to not just cure diseases but also for elective beauty procedures and to maintain a healthy well-being. Therefore, growing demand for medical services will always be there. And the demand for medical service is more than what the medical field can actually supply. And with the onset of baby boomer retirement, as this large group of Americans grows older, it will inherently increase demand for medical services.

Don’t Allow That Medical Bill Go to Collections

Yes, it is quite unfortunate to be hospitalized and then receive a medical bill you cannot afford to pay. If you are like most, you have personal, home and family expenditures that you need to prioritize. So, what do you do? Should you just let that medical bill go to collections?

What is collections? Collections is the process where a third party collection agency has a business with the authority to collect the medical debt payments as the debt collector. The debt collections process may damage your credit, result in lawsuits, bankruptcy, and at best, result in harassing phone calls and letters from a third-party collection agency who will pursue this debt until repayment.

You may think that you really cannot afford to pay the medical debt that you owe; however, your healthcare provider will likely seek repayment. You have many other options to consider to help you afford to pay your medical debts, rather than have it referred to a collection agency.

Here are several reasons why to not let your medical bill go to collections:

• Collection Agency Phone Calls - You will likely be called by a collection agency – One of the many reasons that people avoid collection agencies is because of the phone calls to their home or even workplace. Consider this: if you are not present when the collection agent calls, you may receive phone messages that don’t provide the actual purpose of the call.

• Continued Conversations with the Collection Agency - when you answer the telephone call from the collection agency, you may be aggressively spoken to by the agent to pay the debt in a way you find offensive and impolite. You will have to go through this bothersome telephone call process by the collection agency until you have paid your debt. Collection agents were hired to collect debts, so it is a part of their job to be vigilant and follow-up. These agents will not stop calling you until they get what they are after—your medical debt payment.

• Illegal, Improper Threats from a Collection Agent - As mentioned earlier, collection agency may not stop from communicating with you until they receive the payment owed on your medical bill. There are times when untrained, unethical collection agents threaten you. They could either threaten you legally with filing a lawsuit for the medical bill that you owe, or worse, engage in illegal threats to divulge your unpaid debts to your employer, family, friends and others.

Therefore, with the stress and challenges that medical debt collections can cause you, it is only logical that you should not let your medical bill go to collections as an unpaid bill and do everything you can proactively to get it paid or work out payment arrangements. Medical bill collections adds stress to what may be already a bad health situation.

One of the best ways to pay-off your medical bills and avoid collections is to use a website like PaymentClinic.com to save money on your medical bills by getting a discount on your bill or negotiating your bill in real-time. PaymentClinic.com is a free online service that works with health care providers and patients to offer money-saving promotions on medical bills. Websites like PaymentClinic.com work well, because you can pay your debt anytime, anonymously, in the privacy of your own home.

Why to Negotiate Medical Bills

The cost of hospitalization is increasing.  Add to that the different factors such as:  the rising virulence of diseases and unhealthy lifestyle—you have the perfect formula for a person to be ill.  And not all of us have the extra money to pay our medical bills in full, especially with the hospital rates and professional fees spiraling upward.

In the present day, going to the hospital does not necessarily mean that you need to be cured of a disease or recover from an injury.  Sometimes, perfectly healthy people are hospitalized because they want to undergo a thorough medical checkup or for beautification purposes.

So, you see practically all of us get to visit the hospital or the doctor at least once a year and not one of us is exempted from that.  No one is spared from being hospitalized and eventually receiving medical bills not even a child, mother, father or grandparent.

Negotiating to decrease your medical bill may be unheard of to you and to a lot of people because you and others are intimidated by talking to your doctors and to the health care system, as a whole.  Most people are willing to pay any price just to save the life of a loved one and somehow this has been a rule of thumb.  Further, though individuals have not voiced this out, but it seems that negotiating with your medical bill is tantamount to negotiating with your life on the line.

However, this should not be the case.  Individuals should not be intimidated by their doctors and by the hospital into negotiating to lower the cost of their medical bills.  Negotiation here, should be as normal as negotiating the purchase of a car or house.  Especially when the cost of some medical bills can be more than a house!

7 out of 10 patients that negotiate their medical bills save.  So, why don’t you negotiate too?

Here is a list of some of the benefits from negotiating your medical bills:

5 Ways to Lower Your Next Medical Bill

Paying a hefty sum out of pocket for your medical bill is no joke.  Especially for the average income earner, seeing a staggering amount owed on a medical bill will really give you a headache.  You may add to that scenario your limited funds, other bills to be paid, life necessities to be bought or perhaps worse, the uncertainty of when you can get back to work.  I know why you are here because you are pulling yourself up, and are finding ways to reduce your medical bills.  Is it possible?  Yes, of course, and it has been done by many individuals.  So here are 5 ways that you can make use of in order to lower that future medical bill.

Don’t Overlook These Important Reasons Why Medical Bill Costs are Rising in America Today

In 2008, America spent $2.4 trillion on healthcare, equivalent to 16.5% of the country’s GDP, a 6% increase over the previous year.  Bureau of Labor and Statistics data from Sept. 2009 reveals another 2.3% increase in consumer prices for prescription drugs, physician and other healthcare services.  Hospital prices rose even faster, increasing  7.1% during that same time.  These cost increases are threatening the financial health of millions of Americans today who are under siege from rising medical debt.

What are some of the often overlooked reasons fueling the rapid increase in healthcare costs and medical bills?

Help on How to Save Money on Your Medical Bills During the Holiday Season

Millions of Americans are struggling this holiday season in tough economic times, and trying to find financial help so that their children can celebrate with gifts from Santa. It’s also the time of year when many patients are sending in letters to charities and hospitals, explaining how many medical bills they have and how their health issues have caused them to go into so much debt they cannot afford. However, many charities and hospitals are stating that they are receiving so many requests this year that they will only be able to help a fraction of the people that have sent in letters for assistance.

For many people, opening the mailbox can be scary and stressful, especially during the holiday season, when expenses are at their peak for most consumers.