This January thousands of patients will step into physician offices fully unaware of their financial responsibility to pay their bill. Increases in deductibles and high deductable health care plans are responsible for the confusion. According to Red Gillen an analyst with the consulting firm Celent, 18 percent of patients with insurance had deductibles of at least $1,000. This year he expects the number to increase significantly. The results: reduced cash flow, more collection headaches and a painful prescription for bad debt write-offs.

William Jessee, MD, president of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) said a recent survey revealed, “73 percent of practices are concerned about operating costs and revenue, up from 68 percent in 2008. Data has been showing a steady increase in the age and amounts of accounts receivable partially due to the increase of out of pocket patient expenses.”

Gillian said, “Insured patients see a doctor, leave a co-pay and then watch a series of insurance and physician bills come through the mail spanning weeks to months. Finally one details an actual amount to be paid by the patient.” Now, new programs compute both insurance coverage and the day’s charges. They provide a patient estimate and often full adjudication of the bill.

How Will This Impact Your Practice?

mPay Gateway and Credomatic, a General Electric subsidiary, are helping physicians, clinics and hospitals escape the debt collection trap. Their new portal shows service providers and patients exactly what their financial responsibility will be when the patient leaves the facility. Patients like the system because they don’t have to wait weeks or months to find out how much they owe. Providers love the system because it eliminates the expense of multiple bills and accompanying write-offs.

The Web-based program works in conjunction with most billing and patient management systems. mPay Gateway maintains an extensive list of insurance providers and reimbursement rates by area. It estimates the patient portion of the bill at check out and authorizes the remaining balance on a credit card. When the insurance carrier funds the provider, the patients remaining balance is charged to the card.

There is no expensive software to purchase or long term contracts to sign. Gray Mason of mPay Gateway said, “My biggest obstacle to providers using the system is they don’t know a simple solution exists for billing and collection problems.”

Christopher Nielsen your local expert has spent 27 years serving, physicians, clinics and hospitals and is an active member of the CFLMGMA. Contact him at 407-314-5758.

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