Patient due amounts are a growing portion of independent practice A/R. Some studies estimate it can be as much as 30% of practice receivables today. This is a big change from ten years ago, and the shift is having a big impact on the billing companies that support these practices.
You need simple, affordable tools to help you ensure a streamlined and effective patient collections process so that your practices and your billing company can collect every dime. Ideally, these solutions should add efficiency for billing companies and practices while offering options for patients like print or electronic statements and pay-by-text or email.
In this webinar, we’ll introduce you to new and enhanced solutions from Kareo that can help:
- See the new, easier to understand patient statements
- Learn about PatientlySpeaking, an automated solution to help enhance management of patient A/R
- Get a refresher on integrated credit card processing, online billpay, and credit card on file
Register now to learn how you can implement these solutions to help your practice customers succeed.
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How to Participate Today…
Type your questions
Download today’s resources
View today’s presentation
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Connect via Social
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How to connect:
1) Follow @GoKareo on Twitter
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twitter.com@GoKareo
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Speakers
Lea Chatham
• Content Marketing Manager, Kareo
• Nearly 20 years in healthcare and
health IT
• Speaker and author
• Published in leading journals including
Physicians Practice, Medical Practice
Insider, PAHCOM Journal
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Agenda
• Patient Collections Challenge
• A Best Practice Approach
• New Solutions from Kareo & Partners
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• Patient due amounts now make up as much as 25-
35% of a practice’s A/R
• Number of patients with high deductible plans has
increased 40% in 6 years
• Premiums and employee contributions also up
• 1/3 of patients will walk out the door without ever
paying their bill
• 53% of practices now say biggest RCM challenge is
patient collections
• Only 52% of patients say they understand they
understand their bill
Patient Collections Challenges
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Best Practice Approach
• A best practice approach requires buy-in from everyone
- Patient financial policy
- 100% eligibility verification
- Strategies to ensure accurate demographic data collection
- 100% copay collection
- Patient alerts to show due amounts at check in
- Credit card on file
- Electronic statements or mailed statement at time of ERA/EOB
- Payment options: Phone, mail, online/mobile
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Problems Areas
• These are just some of the problem areas
where you can lose the chance to get paid
fully and accurately
- The practice doesn’t set a clear expectation
for payment
- Staff enter data inaccurately
- No consistency in collecting at time of
service
- Coding problems
- Sending statements on a set 20 or 30 day
schedule
- Lack of consistent follow up
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Quick Stats
93% of patients would pay online if
given the opportunity
Credit card on file can reduce
collections costs to under 5%
Credit card on file can reduce days in
A/R to 35 days
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Credit Card Processing
• Integrated credit card processing is easy to set up and affordable:
- Sign up in Kareo account
- Take cards in person, on phone, and online
- Keep credit cards on file
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Best Practice Roll Out
• Educate and train staff (written policies, role play).
• Have a communication/marketing plan.
• Educate patients with financial policy.
• Provide CCOF authorization form to sign.
• Set a reasonable limit, usually $100 - $200.
• Charge copays at time of service along with any
other known or estimated charges. Charge
balances on receipt of ERA. Charge self-pay
patient at checkout.
• Send the electronic receipt to the patient.
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Quick Stats
Patient statements help reduce costs
and save time ($0.28 First page + postage, $0.12 per page after)
New patient-friendly paper statements have been
shown to improve patient collections on average 6%
Intuitive, patient-friendly statements can reduce
customer calls & patient billing questions by 50%+
Translates to an additional $7,000 per provider per
year in collections
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New Patient Statement Mailing Service
• Key elements of redesigned patient statement:
• Patient friendly design makes statements easier to read and
understand
• Duplex printing format, with most relevant information on the
first page
• Use of colors and font to emphasize most important points to get
across to patients
• Dunning messages to patients is prominently presented on the
first page (supports up to 356 characters)
• Procedures are grouped by encounter dates to align with how
patients recall their doctor’s appointments
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Patient Statements
Comparing old format vs new format
• $5-$7 per statement
• Use a manually-intensive
print and mail process
• Send generic black and white
statements
• Increase calls from patients
about statements
• Reduce patient collections
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Patient Statements
Comparing old format vs new format
• $0.28 per statement plus
postage
• Save time – just press send!
• Send intuitive, patient-
friendly color statements
• Reduce billing-related
questions by 50%
• Increase collections by 6% -
that’s $7K per provider per
year!
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Quick Points
Patients are much more likely to pay if provided
easy options to make that happen.
Reports produced by practice and overall to show
activity by time of day, day of week, amount, etc.
With automation you can achieve a 40% reduction
in FTE effort on patient A/R improving ROI.
Because of frequency, options, and off hours
capability, results show a 20% increase in revenue.
Integration with Kareo eliminates many tasks that
ultimately free personnel time and resources.
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Patient A/R Courtesy Calls/Texts
• Drastically reduce the cost of handling Patient A/R
• Increase percent of receivables collected
• Provide concrete evidence of collection efforts for each practice
• How many calls made
• Percentage of interactions generated
• Be able to handle payments after hours unattended
• Pay by phone capability
• Pay by Text Capability
• All patient payments are automatically posted to Kareo
• Loaded into unapplied payments
• Daily payment report generated
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Patient A/R Courtesy Calls/Texts
• Workflow Control
• Manage Daily Processing
• Establish maximum calls to be handled by day
• Cancel individual calls or whole practice for the day
• Receive and route Daily Transaction Reports by practice
• Pre-call reports for review each morning
• End of Day processing for review of performance
• Business process rules by practice
• Establish rules for making calls/texts
• Incorporate statement date/last payment date/collection category
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Patient A/R Courtesy Calls/Texts
• Pricing
- $39.00 One Time setup fee per practice
- $49.99 per month – 150 calls/texts included in the base fee
- $.20 per call/text above 150 in a month
- Per payment processed: Interchange Rates+.5% of payment
plus $.20
- Credit Card Vault: if elected $6.95 per month
- Recurring Subscription/Vault payments: additional $.08 per
transaction
- No Application Fee, No Annual Fee, No AVS fees, No Gateway
Charges
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Awards and Rankings
Growth awards
The speed at which
medical practices are
moving to Kareo and
referring it to other
providers.
Best places to work
Happy, engaged
employees stay longer,
have more experience and
offer better customer
service
Analyst reviews
3rd party recognition,
driven by direct
customer feedback,
equals trust and
credibility
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May Launch of a New Kareo Platform
Web and Mobile Integrated Modules (Products)
Best-in-Class Technology and Value Delivered Through Your Brand
Kareo BillCo Edition (2.0)
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Practice and Billing Company Access
Practice Platform Access
Easy, Integrated, Flexible
Billing Company Access
Medical Billing Experts
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Enabling Your Success with Kareo
• Kareo Connect Program (Formerly Medical Billing Partner
Program (MBPP)
• Partner Resource Center & Co-branded Collateral
• Client Friendly Product Microsite
• Referral Program
• Sales and Educational Tools
• Dedicated Training, Onboarding, and Support
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How to Participate Today…
Type your questions
-- Questions After the Webinar --
888.775.2736 x1
sales@kareo.com
36. Connect with Kareo
Stop by and say hi!
Kareo @GoKareo GoKareo Kareo
3353 Michelson Drive, Suite 400
Irvine, CA 92612
(888) 775-2736
Editor's Notes
And there are a lot of places in here where things can go wrong.. Some examples
Here’s how it works. Ask patients to sign an authorization to charge a credit card for copays, deductibles, and coinsurance up to an agreed upon amount, often in the range of $100 to $200. You can then automatically charge the card at check in for the copay and charge any coinsurance or deductible amounts as soon as they are known. For patients who are entirely self-pay, you can charge the card for the visit at check out. Send the patient an electronic receipt and you are done.
Navigate to Payment Settings
Hover over the User icon in the top right of your screen and click Practice Settings to open the Practice Settings page.
On the Practice Settings page, click Payment Settings in the left menu. The Payment Settings page opens.
Activate Patient Payments Feature
Click Set up Patient Payments.
Read the terms and click Accept Terms & Continue to agree to the terms of use.
Allows for offices to communicate with their patients via email and text, create custom email templates, and send mass communication to preset and custom patient groups. Patients will now be able to respond to any automated communication they receive from their healthcare provider's office via text and email.
Allows for offices to communicate with their patients via email and text, create custom email templates, and send mass communication to preset and custom patient groups. Patients will now be able to respond to any automated communication they receive from their healthcare provider's office via text and email.
Kareo has received extensive industry recognition, including the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, Inc. 5000 and Black Book’s #1 Integrated EHR, Practice Management and Billing Vendor.
Easy and accurate charge capture
Eliminate lost or missed charges using our multiple ways to capture charges
Get your client’s paid
Efficient tools to help you collect more for your clients
Insightful billing analytics & reports
At-a-glance view of their practice’s financial heath
Integrated
Superbills are automatically sent to you
Smarter charting
Flexible note types, templates, shortcuts, and favorites
Mobile anywhere access
iPad and iPhone app makes it easy to access anywhere with less effort
Better reputation
Increase and socialize reviews that will drive new patients and referrals
Increase visibility and web presence
Makes it easy for patients to find their website
Improve patient experience
Online scheduling, appointment reminders, and patient recalls
Get the features you need, the tools practices need, and make it your own