HealthCollect
The premise of Consumer Driven Healthcare (CDH) – and its potential to drive down healthcare costs through consumer empowerment/increased accountability – has been a regular topic of discussion for some time now. Much focus has been placed on the necessary changes in the healthcare delivery and management cycle in order for CDH to become a reality.
However, CDH and the resulting shift of the healthcare cost burden to consumers has also had an acute impact on providers, who must now place an unprecedented level of focus on patient billing, collections, and overall revenue cycle management. Provider billing and collection processes are often slow, wrought with inefficient, manual and paper-based processes. Bad debt levels are already high – and increasing patient self-pay rates may drive those levels higher. Reconciliation of payments to claims is often a cumbersome process. Double-keying of information is often required in order for payment data to flow back into providers’ practice management systems. It’s clear, billing and collections is a challenge for many healthcare providers, and CDH is making those challenges more painful.
With HealthCollect, providers can offer patients the convenience of receiving medical bills electronically – while at the same time realizing significant cost savings from the elimination/reduction of paper bills. For patients that do not opt to receive bills electronically, HealthCollect includes bill/statement printing and distribution services – allowing providers to print and send bills more efficiently and economically.
Provider billing/collections challenges do not end when payment is received. Final posting of the payment requires the provider to re-associate the payment with the original claim – and ensure that the full cost of the claim has been received from the payer and/or the patient. Information must be updated in all relevant claims, practice management and financial systems. HealthCollect makes this process significantly easier for the provider. Deposit and payment information are transmitted back to the provider via a convenient dashboard or in a CSV file that can be uploaded into the provider’s account receivable system – ensuring providers are able to easily re-associate claims to payments.
The bottom line for providers is the bottom line. As the volume of patient payments increases, providers must take new steps to reduce costs, speed up cash flow, and improve collections. HealthCollect shortens the provider revenue cycle by streamlining bill creation, distribution, presentment, payment acceptance and reconciliation, freeing providers to focus on what matters most – patient care.
