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Healthcare

Patients are increasingly more responsible for paying their medical bills outright. High deductible health plans, for example, have made it more common for patients to be responsible for a much larger portion of their medical bills, and some people have no insurance. This means there are more people who need to make payments directly. For providers, self-pay or early out…

As your healthcare practice or business grows, there is a need for added support to manage your medical billing. Yet, even in a small practice, it is now more difficult than ever to ensure you have enough people putting the right amount of time into each aspect of your office management. Often, billing is a thorn taking up too much…

Unfortunately, the healthcare industry faces a massive labor shortage, extending beyond clinicians and nurses to the back office. The back office is the part of a medical practice that patients rarely see. The “business” side of the practice deals with medical coding, debt collection, and insurance claims. Shortages of crucial staffing positions, such as claims specialists, affect every aspect of…

According to the United States Census Bureau data, 19% of American households had medical bills they couldn't pay for right away. The median debt is $2000 — however, only 39% of Americans have sufficient savings to cover an unexpected $1000 expense. Why is this important? With these figures, it becomes clear that medical collections are a critical issue faced by…

Patient financial responsibility for healthcare costs has grown rapidly over the past few years, rising from 5% to 35% in two decades. Today, patients are now the third-largest payer behind Medicare and Medicaid. This increase in responsibility can be challenging for healthcare providers when it comes to collecting revenue. However, it is also challenging for patients. High-deductible health plans continue…

Patients are now responsible for a larger-than-ever proportion of healthcare bills than ever before. Patients now have larger deductibles and have to pay closer attention to their costs. With this new swing toward the patient-as-payer, healthcare providers need to do more to keep patients satisfied and avoid patient bills from going into debt collection. Healthcare providers today face many challenges…

While many patients are surprised by the sticker price of healthcare, they should also be shocked by the administrative costs created in a healthcare revenue cycle. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a study that found that the average cost of insurance claim processing and billing for a single primary care provider is $99,000. The study found…

Positive healthcare culture is a critical part of remaining competitive in an industry that's increasingly driven by patient satisfaction. But what is healthy healthcare culture, and how can you cultivate it within your practice? About healthcare culture A healthy healthcare culture supports an environment in which you and your employees are fully empowered to deliver patient-focused care. When you and…

From reducing medical errors, staff turnover, or increasing patient collections, there are common areas that hospitals tend to focus on when wanting to reduce errors and improve their bottom line. But one area that is often overlooked is hospital culture. Culture is hard to define but is essentially the collective behavior of your workforce. It is the behavior your hospital…

Healthcare revenue cycle management is a complex process that involves the management and improvement of all parts of the revenue cycle. Many healthcare providers struggle to find the time to efficiently and accurately manage their own revenue cycle because healthcare revenue cycle management requires a fair amount of training and expertise in the areas of billing and coding. For this…