Collecting Co-pays on the Day of Surgery
6 keys to an effective patient collections program.
A
re you
col-
lecting
every dime of
what patients
owe on the day
of surgery? If
you're not
doing so
before patients
go back to the
OR, you're like-
ly leaving sig-
nificant money
on the table.
In this era of
high-deductible health plans that are forcing beneficiaries to cover
higher co-pays and deductibles of $1,000 or more, patient collections
can account for 20% to up to 40% of revenue for surgical facilities,
according to some estimates. Yet collecting from patients on the day
of surgery is not an easy task. Patients often assume that once they
pay their premium, there won't be any additional charges for their sur-
gical care. What typically happens when you send these patients a
statement after treatment with a patient balance on it? That's right,
they often ignore the debt, and hope you — and it — will go away.
Here are some strategies to get patients to pay up in full and on time.
3 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U N E 2 0 1 6
Coding & Billing
Prerna Gupta
• PAID IN FULL Strive to collect 100% of patient payments on the day of surgery to limit
your exposure to bad debt.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN
