Today’s health insurance plans include larger co-pays and higher deductibles making patients responsible for a larger portion of their overall health care costs and most importantly your revenue stream. Making sure that you collect these self-pay balances needs to be a key priority to increase cash flow. Using an online patient portal will enable your practice to get paid faster!
A well designed, easy to use, patient friendly web portal offers 24x7 convenience and allows patient’s to pay their bills, safely and securely using either a check or a credit card.
Additional benefits of providing secure online access to financial and clinical information are:
- Increased patient satisfaction
- Faster collections
- Reduced operational and postage costs
- Increased patient engagement
We live in an on-demand, consumer centric society - people and patients of all ages increasingly demand online access for shopping, banking, bill pay and entertainment. Even older patient’s rely on online social networking to stay connected to remote family members.
Health care is no exception to the convenience and access that patient’s expect in service. Offering online bill-pay keeps your patients satisfied, but it will also help you get paid faster.
A recent survey found that more than half of providers say that their primary revenue cycle concern is tied to patient collections. Offering bill-pay solutions through your portal gives your practice and your patients a win-win situation. You’ll get paid faster, reduce errors, save staff time for more pressing duties, and lower costs by saving paper, eradicating mailing and postage, for a more organized approach to payment management.
Reports show that a majority of patients are confused by their healthcare bills and that 50 percent of consumers are open to switching providers who will offer more clarity and convenient payment methods.
How a patient Portal Can Improve your Practice
Using a patient portal with a secure online bill pay function as one of its many features can play a significant role in achieving the most seamless and efficient stream of work in your practice. You should choose a patient portal and practice management system that is integrated with an elegant EHR and/or billing system. Make sure you do your homework to find the most state-of-the art solution, and one that is best suited to your practice and specialty workflow.
Interested in the NextGen Office Patient Portal?
