This is an excerpt from our webinar “Prioritizing Patients Accounts Receivable”, part of Rivet’s Revenue Cycle Webinar Series. Watch the webinar on demand here.
Every practice has open patient balances that need attention. We get it. The trouble is, you can’t expect to be efficient in collecting on those balances if you don’t have a prioritization method in place with your team, and making a plan isn’t always easy. In many practices, a rep sits down with a large number of accounts and works them without a plan, which can result in suboptimal collection rates. While, in an ideal practice, a rep would start the day with their accounts in a queue based on the highest priority as determined by their team. We want to help make the ideal a reality, so, to help you determine what plan might be best to apply to your practice, we’ve outlined the pros and cons for potential options.
With this option, reps would work the highest dollar accounts and work their way down, which would mean collecting larger sums of money. The hang-up here is that highest dollar balances are some of the hardest to collect and remain unpaid for a reason. It’s also the case that the amount of touchpoints and discounts often go up for these patients.
Working accounts by age helps practices get closer to the date of service, which is a great goal. You may find, however, that you still have low collection rates with this option.
This option generally has the most effective collection rates because your system has defined them as the most likely to collect. However, putting this system in place requires more upfront investment and is one of the most difficult to develop (What balance thresholds are you going to use?, Are you going to do a soft credit check?) and is the most work to maintain (typically requires a vendor).
(Hybrid of high dollar/age of account and developing a risk level) This system assigns a risk score to each account so there is a standard risk index and would require an internal discussion on balance threshold with your team (What do you want to optimize for? Dollar? Age?). Additionally, some accounts may not enter into a clear risk level that doesn’t hit the workflow frequently enough, which could result in older accounts.
With these options in mind, the question becomes, how do you make the transition from the way you are working accounts today to your ideal patient-collections process? A good place to start would be to set reasonable expectations. These will not be overnight changes, and can be painful to apply at times, so, setting clear, reasonable expectations can help eliminate some of the stress that comes with this type of transition. From there, ensure that all stakeholders involved align on the problem to be solved (i.e. We want to be better at patient collections, We want to be better at open patient A/R, etc.). Then, set a collection rate target. Where do you want to be? (i.e. Improve collection rate %, Reduce cost to collect, etc.) Set goals to achieve this target.
Once goals have been set, get your team onboard. Communicate the goals with them, ensure that they align with your goals, and then, start small. Lay the foundation of achieving your targets brick by brick, keeping in mind what you want to achieve eventually while considering what you need to do to get there. Test different strategies, and then standardize the most effective processes across the entire team, making sure you are consistent.
When prepping to make a transition into a new workflow model, you’ll want to do some “spring cleaning” first. We recommend employing a few tactics to help you quickly clean up A/R components, and to avoid bringing dormant, non-collectable accounts into the new work flow model.
Some ideas for A/R hygiene include:
We understand that making systematic changes can be challenging, even daunting to consider. However, by setting reasonable expectations and goals, communicating those goals with your team, and making smart, thoughtful changes, the ideal can become a reality for your practice.
For more tips and resources during this transition:
