How to Effectively Collect Patient Payments

Medical payments are confusing: Explanation of Benefits (EOB) statements, co-pays, prescription coverage, Medicare plans, separate bills for doctors vs. labs, HDHP, HSA, FSA. The list goes on. It’s no wonder that recent surveys found nearly 40% of Americans are confused by medical bills.

 More than half of private sector workers in the U.S. are enrolled in high-deductible health plans (HDHPs). Plans with higher deductibles have lower monthly premium payments, but consumers are responsible for paying for their care before insurance pays any benefits. With rising costs for essentials like groceries hitting consumers hard these days, there may be little money left over in the budget for healthcare spending. 

The shift to HDHPs and the increasing cost of goods and services make it more difficult for medical practices to collect payments. In a recent survey, 74% of providers say it takes more than two statements to collect a balance in full. Nearly 20% of middle-class Americans have unpaid medical bills. That’s a massive chunk of change your practice may never receive.

Here are our recommendations for making it easier for patients to pay their bills on time, which will increase productivity and improve cash flow at your practice.

Make Patient Payments Flexible and Improve Cash Flow

Does your practice make it easy for patients to pay in person, online, over the phone, and through digital invoices and recurring payment plans? Consider these patient billing options:

1. Allow Patients to Pay with their Preferred Method—Patients expect the freedom to choose how to pay for goods and services. Those with HDHPs must have Health Savings Accounts and often use their HSA cards to pay. Many consumers with Rewards cards enjoy earning points to exchange for cash, flights, lodging, and more. Debit cards continue to be the top choice for younger generations. And ACH makes it easy to pay via direct bank transfer. These methods are fast, secure and efficient.
   Benefits for your practice:
   • Improve patient satisfaction
   • Reduce transaction declines by offering multiple payment options
   • Increase cash flow vs. traditional paper checks
   • Reduce costs with ACH
2. Use a Customer-facing Terminal for In-Person Payments—Patients prefer the convenience and speed of paying for services with a dip, tap or swipe of their card, phone or wearable device. It’s faster and more secure than handing a card over to be manually keyed by staff patients the option of a payment plan alleviates the financial pains of a higher deductible. Ensure timely payments by setting a payment schedule that suits both your patients and the practice. Collecting an agreement stating the set payment schedule and terms binds the patient to pay as expected.
   Benefits for your practice:
   • Eliminate keying errors
   • Qualify for lower transaction rates (vs. key-entered)
3. Send Digital Invoices to Collect Remote Payments—67% of consumers prefer digital and electronic payment options. Customers appreciate the convenience of electronic invoices since they are faster and more secure than mailing payments or reading card numbers over the phone. A typical transaction goes like this: 1) the client receives an email with a request to pay the amount due; 2) they enter payment details into a simple form; 3) they press “pay” to send it along for processing.
   Benefits for your practice:
   • Eliminate expensive, time-consuming paper-based processes
   • Get paid faster
4. Include a “Pay Now” button on your website—Turn it into a convenient place for clients to pay for services from their desktop, phone or tablet. Hosted Checkout adds a simple “Pay Now” button to your website that directs customers to a secure billing page where they enter their payment information.
   Benefits for your practice:
   • Eliminate phone tag of collecting payments
   • Improve cash flow
5. Set up Recurring Payment Plans—The last thing you want to do is put someone in a position to delay a much-needed surgery or elective treatment because they cannot afford to pay for it all at once. Offering the option of payment installments as short-term financing removes a stress barrier and becomes a lifeline. You can set up a payment plan by storing secure card details in patient records and automatically processing payments based on an agreed-upon schedule. If your practice offers wellness and Rx-based services, you can automatically bill patients on a custom schedule.
   Benefits for your practice:
   • Gain peace of mind by treating patients in need
   • Streamline accounting with predictable payments
   • Get paid on time, every time

Increase Security and Productivity

Fraudsters have set their sights on medical practices. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 541 security breaches were reported in 2023. Here are ways to protect data and free staff to focus on helping doctors, nurses, technicians and patients:

Use Cloud-Based Payment Processing—Connectivity via the cloud eliminates sensitive card details from traveling across your local networks and systems. This protects your practice from a hack and simplifies PCI Compliance. Work with a Visa-registered payment service provider (PSP) like PayJunction, which operates a PCI DSS Level 1 data center.

Secure Payment Details On File—Use tokenization to replace payment details with a string of random data that is useless if stolen. Cardholder data is protected and your practice can confidently use the tokens to recharge accounts, issue refunds and set up recurring payment schedules.

Integrate Payments with your Practice Management Software—Integrated payment solutions create a unified platform that allows payment information to flow directly between your practice management system to be securely stored with patient records. PayJunction can help you integrate payment features within any cloud-based software platform in minutes using our free Chrome extension.

Implement Credit Card Surcharging—Credit card surcharging saves merchants money by passing some of the credit card transaction costs to customers. Typically, surcharges are set to a maximum of 3% and can be applied to in-person, keyed, online and recurring transactions when a customer pays with a credit card. Customers can avoid the fee by switching to cash, check, debit card, prepaid card or ACH bank payment.

Don’t Wait for Patient Payments

Medical practices typically focus on providing the best care. With patients facing increased financial responsibility, healthcare providers stand to lose a lot of money if they don’t adapt to the current changes rocking the industry. By improving services around patient payments, practices will be able to collect all dues in a timely manner, keep patients satisfied and remain secure.

Think It’s Time to Improve Patient Payments? Evaluate Your Provider Today!

What are your thoughts on these methods of keeping your patients safe and expediting your payment processing? We'd love to hear from you!