6 Best Practices for Collecting Payments From Patients

April Sackos, CASC, director of business operations at Meridian Surgical Partners, offers six best practices for collecting out-of-pocket payments from patients in ASCs.

1. Educate your staff. Provide front-line staff with clear instructions on all aspects of your payment policy. "Staff should be able to communicate these expectations in a nonthreatening, but firm manner," Ms Sackos says.

2. Clearly explain your payment plan. Educate patients on expectations and terms of your payment plan. "Communicating the policy to the patient in a clear and timely manner is essential," Ms. Sackos says. "Be upfront about your rules, clear on how you will handle non-payment and direct with enforcement."

3. Introduce your policy early. "Your policy should outline what portion of the patient financial responsibility is expected prior to surgery," Ms Sackos says. Provide your surgeon's practice with pre-surgical information packets that can be handed to the patient at the time of the surgical consultation. The packets are "an excellent opportunity to include billing policies with other information about your facility," Mr. Sackos says.

4. Offer financial counseling. "One of the best ways to improve back-end collections is to have a strong financial counseling process in place," Ms. Sackos says. Before the day of surgery, communicate and set your expectations with the patient regarding their estimated responsibility. This information should be documented in the computer system so that admissions staff can reference it.

5. Provide a variety of payment options. Your ASC should be able to accept a variety of payment methods, including personal credit cards, personal checks, debit cards and Web-based payments. Credit cards can be used to bill for monthly installments and payment plans as long as signed authorization is provided.

6. Offer alternate payment methods. There are a variety of alternate payment methods in addition to the traditional ones. For example, your ASC could accept healthcare credit cards, such as those provided by CareCredit, which provide payment in 3-5 business days. "This eliminates the time involved in monitoring the account and reduces risk of the patient defaulting," Ms. Sackos says.

Learn more about Meridian Surgical Partners.

Read more practical guidance from April Sackos:

- 6 Common Collections Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

- 3 Steps to Identify and Reduce Collections Problems

- Two Quick Tips to Maintain an Effective Collections Process

© Copyright ASC COMMUNICATIONS 2012. Interested in LINKING to or REPRINTING this content? View our policies by clicking here.