Patient statements play a crucial role in hospitals' finances and should be a focus for these organizations, according to Nancy Lopez, a revenue cycle manager for the lost revenue recovery program at BillingParadise.
Ms. Lopez shared the following tip with Becker's Hospital Review.
"In my experience as a revenue cycle manager I've noticed that there is one aspect of the revenue cycle that healthcare organizations overlook — proper handling of patient statements. Patient payments contribute a significant chunk of revenue to a hospital's bottom line. It is about time that hospitals and physician practices change the way they handle patient statements. The first step is to vet out credit balances and identify low or zero balance accounts. Sending our patient statements for account balances that are below $5 is a drain on time and money. Running statements twice a week eliminates heavy backlogs. Consistent follow-up with patients is also essential to keep the wheel of progress going forward."
If you would like to share your RCM best practices, please email Kelly Gooch at kgooch@beckershealthcare.com to be featured in the "RCM tip of the day" series.