While technical advances in medicine are helping to save lives, tech advances in medical revenue recovery are helping to save hospitals. Here are two ways that improvements in the medical IT field have helped medical providers stay afloat in an ever-competitive healthcare environment.
Outsourced Revenue Recovery
From chargemaster software to collections agencies, outsourcing the recovery of revenue from patients with overdue balances is a crucial role to play in the life cycle of medical care. While healthcare is typically viewed as a non-profit and humanitarian occupation, the fact of the matter is medical care requires substantial amounts of money. In order to offset the cost of treating those who cannot afford emergency medical care, it is essential to retrieve money from patients who are able to pay their bills without major issues. Since this isn’t a role that a hospital physician can feasibly play with a busy schedule, hospital billing departments are tasked with revenue recovery. To make this process easier and less costly, many hospitals outsource this task to software companies that can automate the bill payment system.
Patient Portal Solutions
The rise in software solutions for communication with patients has made revenue recovery even simpler. Hospital bills that are uploaded onto the patient portal can be easily accessed by both patients and their providers, allowing patients to communicate directly with billing departments regarding possible issues without having to wait for the third payment demand to come in the mail. Easy access and easy payments make it more likely for medical care providers to recover revenue in a timely and consistent manner.
As technology improves and the healthcare system adapts to new forms of communications with patients, hospitals are more likely to be able to retrieve essential revenue in a more cost-effective and time-effective way. While the problem of rising healthcare costs is going nowhere fast, new technological solutions are making it even easier for patients and doctors alike to cooperate on payment for medical care.
