Automating Your Payment Plans
Kathy Mills Chang
MCS-P, CCPC, CCCA
The most modern and effective chiropractic practices insist on efficiency and cost-effectiveness. One area that many practices overlook is installing payment plans. Come on, let's be honest. How many of us know the exact cost of our house or car? But we all know our monthly payments, don't we? The reason is that working something into your budget means you can have it. Many patients would worktheirchiropracticcare into the household budget if given the option. In turn, practices that take the next logical step of automating payment plans feel the freedom from insurance dependence and time-of-service payment hell.
"How so?" you may wonder. When Sally the front desk CA has to collect from every person the office sees in a given day—full payment or copayments—it amounts to as many as 40 to 50 separate entries in the computer, as well as items that must be balanced and deposited at day's end. Furthermore, if 40 to 50 patients stop at the front desk to pay, then there are 40 to 50 opportunities when they consider continuing care each time they pull out their wallets to pay.
The biggest and best reason to automate payment plans is to allow your patients to receive the care they need, particularly when a $40 copayment three times per week might not allow them to do so.
66 When Solly the front desk CA has to collect from every person the office sees In o given dayfull payment or copayments—It amounts to as many as 40 to 50 separate entries In the computer; as well as items that must be balanced and deposited at day's end.33
A number of circumstances may lead patients to question continuing care in your office. The simplest example is that when their pain subsides, they may believe they no longer need care. Another patient concern arises when a patient loses insurance or runs out of annual coverage, and as a result, they suddenly "feel better" rather than continue to incur out-of-pocket costs. These issues are easily resolved by estimating patient responsibility for the care recommended and then breakingthat responsibility into affordable payment options that are compliant and legal. If offered and explained well, most patients are happy to choose one of these budgetfriendly payment options:
• An appropriate pre-payment plan, managed in
accordance with your state law, and delivering a small discount incentive.
• A reasonable down payment toward their estimated financial responsibility plus manageable monthly payments until the balance is zero.
• Convenient and automated monthly payments applied to their balance, managed directly with auto-draft from a credit card.
ííThese issues ore easily resolved by estimating patient responsibility for the care recommended and then breaking that responsibility into affordable payment options
that are compliant and legal.99
When patients must think about paying for care, patient retention falls. Regardless of other matters, money is often the greatest concern on your patients' minds, meaning they will be less likely to continue treatment because of money worries. Understanding patient concerns and implementing these simple steps will assist you with the installation of an effective, automated payment plan in your practice:
1 Manage Each Patient's Expectations from the Beginning of Care. If insurance is accepted at your practice and in use by your patient, the first step is to gain a solid understanding of the quoted insurance benefits in order to estimate the patient's responsibility for copayments, coinsurance, deductibles, and any services not covered before you attempt to create a financial plan acceptable and helpful for your patients.
2 Ensure Your Patient Understands the Recommended Treatment Plan in Terms of Time and Content. When explained by the doctor, the patient's estimated financial responsibility should follow logically, often explained by a CA. In addition, offering legal discounts for the self-pay portion of the care plan, such as using a discount medical plan organization (DMPO), estimates all of the recommended care, not only the portion covered by insurance.
3 Once a Plan Is Chosen, It Is Crucial to Create a Payment Plan for Your Patients That Is Easy to Use for Your Patients and Your
Practice. Automating your patient's payments in your practice means they will have a set amount agreed upon to be charged each month. These charges will be applied to a credit card, which you keep secured on file, and your system will run the charges each month. This way your patient isn't constantly reminded of the payments, and your staff doesn't need to keep track of those who need to pay. If your patient wants to pay at each visit, keep the credit card on file with his or her signature authorization, so that your staff accesses the account and charges the card on file each time the patient visits. In the office, you probably already perform a similar process for insurance. After all, you don't ask your patient for his or her insurance card at each visit, do you? You simply have the card on file and automatically bill the insurance for the services rendered.
4 Ensure Your Practice Receives the Maximum Benefit from the Automated Payment by Using a Reputable System to Manage the Process, Like the Cash Practice (www.Cashpractice. Com) System. Gone are the days when your office could keep a file boxfilled with hand-written cards containing each patient's credit card information. The rules have changed. Your system must have all of the components necessary to meet your practice's needs. Perhaps most importantly, your system must be payment card industry (PCI) compliant, a mandatory requirement for auto-debit systems. Merchants at every level are required to follow the standards of PCI to ensure that cardholder data remains protected, reducing the risk of credit card fraud and allowing patients to feel secure.
It's unreasonable to assume patients can always afford to get all of the recommended care and be able to pay in full at every visit along the way. Payment plans can transform your practice and your collections. Furthermore, automating your patients' payments brings order to often chaotic front-desk collections, and it helps patients feel confident in your practice as they receive the care they need.
Kathy Mills Chang is a certified medical compliance sPec'a^st (MCS-P) and certified chiropractic professional coder (CCPC), and a certified clinical chiropractic assistant (CCCA). Since 1983, she has provided chiropractors with reimbursement and
compliance training, advice, and tools to improve the financial performance of their practices. Kathy leads a team of 21 at KMC University, and is known as one of our profession ’s foremost experts on documentation, Medicare, and billing. She or any of her team members can be reached at 855-832-6562 or info@ KMC University, com.
