Getting Paid in 2022 – How to Boost Your Patient Collections

Want to speed up patient payments? Reduce accounts receivable? Cut collections costs?

With the healthcare industry changing so quickly, it’s often hard to know how to best streamline your billing operations. And with 2022 right around the corner, it’s imperative to be knowledgeable about new regulations, trends and technologies that could improve your bottom line.

Here is what you need to know now:

Capture Your Telehealth Revenue

“The past year has seen widespread adoption of telehealth, a necessity during the pandemic,” says Aimee Heckman, CPB, CPPM, a healthcare business consultant. “Everyone loves the accessibility, the convenience and the time-savings of remote care. However, it’s much more difficult to chase down payment from patients when they don’t come into the office. Since telehealth is here to stay, independent practices and billing companies must adopt new collection strategies to stay afloat.”

Aimee presented in Kareo’s free webinar in December, what independent practices and billing companies need to know about getting paid in 2022. You can view the webinar here.

What are some of these strategies? “Kareo has a number of innovations that really help,” Heckman explains. “First, it’s essential to use a HIPAA-compliant telehealth system like Kareo Telehealth so you can be reimbursed. The public health emergency declaration is coming closer to an end. This means we can expect the prohibition of improvised telehealth solutions like FaceTime , which is neither secure nor compliant. The sooner a practice gets on a full-featured system, the better it can ensure patient confidentiality, track telehealth visits and guarantee proper billing.”

Switch to Electronic Billing and Payments

She also suggests setting up your practice like a business. “Patients are increasingly acting like consumers. They want the same payment options for healthcare that they’re given for other expenditures. They expect timely and accurate invoicing, considerate reminders, and easy ways to pay with a credit card.”

“Kareo Patient Collect has a new Automated Patient Billing feature that handles these tasks,” says Kevin Clinton, Kareo’s Sr. Solutions Manager, Payment Solutions. “The system takes a digital first approach by delivering text and email statements first, which trims a good two weeks off the normal paper billing cycle. The patient can then pay by credit card or services like ApplePay with a single click on their device."

Clinton pointed out that most people open their text and email messages within a minute or two and pay right away. "In fact, one of our customers brought in $23,000 of receivables within two weeks of launching Kareo’s Automated Patient Billing, without having to do a thing," Clinton says.

"Since patients have been known to switch healthcare providers based on their payment experience, practices must make transactions as painless as possible," he adds. “People move around a lot these days, and physical addresses are often less reliable than emails or phone numbers. Also, it’s often hard for patients to find a checkbook, envelope, and stamp to pay by mail. Papers pile up, and people forget. That’s why electronic notifications and payments make so much sense. But the very best reason is the fact that patients prefer them.”

Kareo has also upgraded its payment terminal to allow for Apple Pay, Google Pay, contactless payments and for cards to be stored on file, further streamlining the payment process for patients. In-house, a new payment dashboard breaks out total revenue collected, showing which type of communication resulted in payment, and highlighting any bounce-backs for immediate rectification.
 

Adapt to an Ever-Evolving Landscape

Because the industry is transforming rapidly, it can be tricky to stay abreast of new regulations – or the technologies that can help you cope.

But Kareo can help. Check out our December 2021 webinar that informed independent practices and billing companies that want to stay in the know of patient collections for the coming year.

“Getting Paid 2022: Adapting Your Practice to Thrive Within the Healthcare Evolution” is a free Kareo webinar featuring guest presenter Aimee Heckman, CPB, CPPM, who has been helping physicians and medical billers increase profitability for 30 years.
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In this important webinar, you will learn about:

• the state of the industry
• how to realize telehealth revenue
• what tools improve patient collections,
• best practices to prepare for 2022 including MIPS, security audits, deductible resets, assessing deductibles, and verifying telehealth insurance eligibility

Click here to hear the webinar recording. Make sure that you’re collecting every dollar your practice earned in the coming year!