How To Simplify the Payments Process for Your Medical Practice
When you run a medical center, your first priority is making sure your clients and patients get taken care of every time they visit. No matter how thorough your doctors, nurses and support staff are, you’ll still need to process payments for every service you render. Processing payments is a challenge even for the largest and most established medical centers. There are so many elements that can delay getting the money you need that staying on top of things can feel almost impossible. Here are a few proven ways to make payments easier for medical centers to manage and collect.
Work With a Dedicated Consumer Banking Specialist
One of the easiest ways to improve your payment process is to work with an experienced professional from the very beginning. Partner with a dedicated consumer banking service provider and let them streamline your payments team’s process. Most service providers can assist with accounting, bookkeeping, data migrations and even late payment collections. This frees up time for your core staff to focus on providing stellar customer service and support rather than worrying about complex administrative work that they may not fully understand.
Accept Different Forms of Payment at Time of Service
One of the biggest issues you’ll find when processing payments is not accepting the forms of payment your patients use most. For example, some medical centers can’t or won’t accept cash or checks. Others restrict the types of credit cards they can process. Instead of only accepting a few types of payment at your office, accept as many as you can. This will help you get paid more quickly and shows your patients that you’re willing to work with them.
Offer Payment Plans To Clients and Patients
Unfortunately, most patients visit medical centers when they’re feeling unwell unexpectedly. This means they haven’t had the opportunity to save up for treatment and may not have the money to pay you at the time they receive service. That doesn’t mean they’re unwilling to pay. They just need more time. If you can, offer payment plans to those patients as part of your standard bill collections procedure. When they see that you’re willing to work with them from the very beginning, they’ll be more willing to make those regular payments on time until the bill gets paid in full. Even better, you’ll make sure that your patients never feel the need to put off receiving medical care because money is tight.
Make Use of the Cloud
Keeping track of documents, files and outstanding payments can be one of the biggest drains on your team’s productivity. The more time they have to spend looking for information, the less time they have to get tasks done. Instead of relying on paper files, make the transition to cloud-based storage as soon as you can. The cloud makes storing all that sensitive information simple and can boost the security of patient data and information as soon as you make the transition. Even better, all data stored in the cloud is searchable. That means your team will be able to find files and keep track of payments quickly.
Stay on Top of Outstanding Invoices
No matter what you do, some clients and patients just won’t pay their bills. This can happen for many reasons ranging from a lack of funds to willful neglect. Instead of writing those unpaid invoices off, appoint a staff member to follow up on each overdue bill. The patients that truly can’t afford to pay them in full will be willing to work with you on a payment plan and the ones that are ignoring the bill will see that you’re serious about collecting the money. This decreases the likelihood of them ignoring future bills and increases your likelihood of getting paid on time.
Simplifying the payment process for medical centers is the best way to keep your facility profitable. Utilize these tips at your practice as soon as possible. Once you do, you’ll see a huge improvement in your bottom line.
