Hospital bad debt is responsible for many hospital closures across America. As more people with inadequate insurance arrive at hospital emergency rooms for treatment of serious illnesses, many hospital administrators are finding it increasingly difficult to recoup the costs associated with these treatments.
There is also a decline in patients with adequate health coverage visiting doctor’s offices, as illnesses tend to go untreated until they become serious. Many of these are minor and preventable illnesses, which if treated earlier would probably result in lower medical bills.
Its been found around the country that many of those patients are under-insured or recently unemployed. As the recession deepens, the number of patients able to cover the costs associated with hospital treatment is decreasing.
Patients don’t usually think about all the expenses and equipment costs connected with their treatment. They also don’t consider how the medical facility will pay the wages of all the staff during their time in the hospital.
With a lack of adequate debt collection strategies in place, many hospitals are delaying purchasing much-needed diagnostic equipment. Other hospitals are laying off personnel, while still others will probably have to close their doors unless they find ways to recoup hospital bad debt.
Below are 4 tips for reducing or recouping hospital bad debt:
1. Payment Plan
Many patients tend to fear larger debts, as the amounts involved seem insurmountable. By setting up an internal payment plan with patients and encouraging them to make smaller, regular repayments against their medical debts, hospitals are able to at least recover some of the debt owed to them.
2. Clear Payment Policies
Patients should be made aware that payment policies do exist within your internal collection plans. While patients are making an attempt to keep up with regular repayments, there is no problem. However once those regular repayments fall behind and become delinquent it needs to be clearly understood that the outstanding debt falls due in full and will be forwarded to third party debt collection agencies to recover the debt.
3. Offer Financial Counseling
Financial counseling offered to patients can improve the rate of repayment to the hospital, and reduce the overall amount of bad debt that would likely have been written off. Financial counseling can help patients with budgeting issues, and possibly even help them find ways to continue with their payment plans.
4. Third Party Collection Agencies
If you have patients with growing delinquent accounts, and no payments or arrangements are being made, its time to outsource these to third party collection agencies to recover these delinquent accounts.
Debt collection agencies are able to help recover any delinquent hospital, medical clinic, or doctors office bills from your patients in a professional, timely manner.
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