Advanced Patient Pay Solutions That Drive Results in 2022

Patient pay solutions continue to evolve as hybrid care models gain popularity with patients. Read here what options drive results now.

As healthcare evolves, patient pay solutions must follow suit. Patients are quickly becoming consumers who want frictionless digital payment options for their medical bills. This article explores the benefits of advanced patient pay solutions and how you can leverage this technology to drive results in your practice right now.

How Advanced Patient Pay Solutions Can Benefit Your Practice

Advanced payment solutions offer benefits to patients and providers alike. Here are just four areas where you can expect to see improvement in 2022.

1. Increased Speed to Collection

Practices need to be able to collect payments quickly to maintain a healthy cash flow and avoid bad debt. Yet many practices still rely on paper bills. This greatly affects the rate of speed to collection. In a recent study, 70% percent of providers said it takes more than 30 days to collect payment via mail. 

With advanced patient pay solutions like Mend, you can expect a faster revenue cycle. As soon as a patient has an outstanding balance, they receive a sequence of texts and emails prompting payment.

2. Increased Patient Satisfaction

Patients appreciate the option to make payments quickly and easily. One study shows that 60% of consumers expect their digital healthcare experience to mirror that of retail. 

Yet paper bills, apps, and portals often create friction points in healthcare. With an advanced pay solution, patients can pay their medical bills in just a few clicks. This creates a more positive patient pay experience.

3. Increased Patient Retention

Even if you provide excellent medical care, you know that patient retention is not a guarantee. 

As patients become more like consumers, they want to be in the know when it comes to their financial costs. One study shows that 49% of patients said having clear information on out-of-pocket costs before receiving treatment would impact their decision to use a healthcare provider.

By adopting a payment solution that helps patients clearly understand their responsibilities before and after a visit, you can expect to see an increase in patient loyalty and retention. 

4. Reduced Manual Labor

Manual payment processing creates a burden on front desk staff. It can also create bottlenecks that disrupt the flow of care. Manual processes also leave room for error. This can result in uncollected payments and lengthy delays.

With an advanced pay solution, you can automate all billing and collection processes. This will free up staff time while reducing overhead costs.

How to Automate Patient Payments Now

A simple and effective payment workflow is key if your practice wants to drive faster revenue cycles while reducing staff burden. Here’s how we do it at Mend.

Frictionless Payment Processing System

Hybrid care is here to stay. That means your practice needs a method for capturing patient payment for both in-person and virtual visits. It all starts with a frictionless payment process.

Mend integrates with your practice’s medical billing system. It connects to the source data for outstanding balances using flat files, API endpoints, or HL7 feeds. Whether the appointment is in-person or virtual, the system can automate payments before or after the visit occurs. Once set up, the system triggers a sequence as soon as it detects an outstanding balance. 

Patient Has Outstanding Balance

Once Mend detects an outstanding balance, the system sends an automated sequence of texts and emails to prompt payment.

Our team can customize this sequence to match the needs of your practice. For example, the system can collect co-pays before a visit as part of the digital check-in process. If a patient still has a balance after insurance claims, the system will send secure links for the remainder.

Patient Gets Alerts via SMS & Email

Text messages between healthcare teams and patients are legal — and the preferred method of contact by many patients. With Mend, as soon as a patient receives a payment notification, they can confirm their identity with their DOB. This allows patients to securely access their outstanding balances without taking time away from your care teams.

Not only is this easy for patients, but studies have shown that text and email are stronger methods for engagement. According to one report, 45% of patients would pay faster if notified by email, text, or phone call.

Mend Collect Consents from Patient

Whenever your practice needs to collect consent from a patient, Mend can help. Our platform collects consent for text and email to help comply with Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and other regulations. 

Mend can also collect consent to authorize payment procedures. This includes storing and auto-charging a card on file for quicker revenue cycles.

Post Payment Collection to Medical Billing System

Once the patient pays their expense, Mend can notify the medical billing system that payment is complete. 

This frees up staff time from chasing payment and record-keeping: it all happens automatically and at a high success rate. Seventy-two percent of patients complete payment forms on Mend. Forty-four percent complete the payment forms within just 24 hours.

Conclusion

Many businesses have gone digital for payment processing, and healthcare should be no exception. Advanced patient pay solutions are already possible with companies like Mend. Explore today how Mend can help you get paid much faster, reduce overhead, and increase patient satisfaction scores.