Medical Bill Negotiation - The Most Commonly Overlooked Medical Debt Solution

Many people that are underinsured and don't have means the means to pay their medical bills will normally try to deal with this debt using conventional debt relief methods such as debt consolidation, home equity loan or trying to settle their debt with the help of a debt specialists. Little do people know they can actually negotiate their medical bills. Did you know that insurance companies typically pay 60% less than individuals? If insurance companies can negotiate, there is no doubt that you can too. Just know that you will never get a discount if you don't ask, sometimes it can be easy as simply asking, other times you may have to use your haggling skills a bit.

An important thing to realize if you cannot pay your medical debt and your debt ends up going into collections, the hospital or doctor will end up collecting much less than you actually owe. When your debt goes into collections they typically sell your debt to the collection agency for a fraction of the full value and whatever the collection agency collects above that amount, they get to keep as profit. The hospital or doctor would much rather get set an amount with you that you can pay rather than lose money by selling what you owe to a collection agency. Also, negotiating with the doctor's office or hospital before the debt goes into collections will prevent you from dealing with harassing collection calls and problems with your credit score because of the debt going into collections. People not getting up the confidence to ask for a lower price is the most common reason people do not negotiate medical debt. It is a fact that of the people that do ask for a lower amount, 70% actually do receive a lower bill amount. It is important to go out asking for the lower amount in a courteous manner. It may be difficult to ask a physician that you have a relationship with and you don't want to hurt that relationship. You can start by talking with the billing office. The billing office sometimes will help you right away, other times you may have to escalate it to the doctor. Remember, doctors have gone through years of medical training and have likely been in debt or are still in debt and can see eye to eye with you. When it comes to medical debt, negotiation is one of the most commonly overlooked solutions. This most overlooked solution is also the most effective way for decreasing medical debt amounts. Depending on policies, it may be extremely difficult or extremely hard to come to an agreement, but if you are persistent and understand that it is in the best interest of the hospital or the doctor to negotiate, you will be able to decrease your medical debt significantly.

How to Increase Your Medical Billing Collections With These Six Important Steps

Medical billing collections use is growing, as many doctor's offices, medical facilities and hospitals confront ever-increasing past due debts from slow paying patients and back-logged insurance claims. Along with over 40 million Americans without any health insurance, a slow economy due to recession, and growing unemployment, means shrinking positive cash flow for medical professionals. Given that prognosis, there are a number of things you can implement to increase your internal medical billing collections. By putting these six tactics into place, you can greatly improve your financial bottom line.

1. Be sure you have a clear payment procedure, placed visibly at the front of your office. New patients need to understand clearly what, if any, payment is expected upfront, in regards to co-pays, etc. This should be understood BEFORE rendering service.

Collections

2. It's very important that you get accurate patient information during that first doctor visit. Get the patient's full name, address, date of birth, home, work and cell phone numbers. Get their work information: address, phone number(s), position/title, manager/supervisor, etc. Clearly, the more information you can get here, the better. While some patients may balk at giving their social security number, its still a good idea, especially if the account has to be turned over later to a collection agency.

3. If the patient has health insurance, its important to verify at this point. While a doctor's office can get quite hectic, this crucial step shouldn't be overlooked. Verifying coverage will avoid headaches later on.

4. In the initial patient application, be sure to clearly detail the patients' responsibility for payment. You might also consider including language that should the account have to be turned over to a collection agency for non-payment, the patient will be responsible for collection costs. In some states, the business can recoup their costs for hiring a collections agency, if it is stated in the patient-signed application upfront. (Check with your attorney about this, as state laws vary)

5. Allow patients to make payment arrangements for those going through financial difficulties. Because so many are either uninsured or under-insured, making reasonable payment arrangements via installments gives them more options, and greater peace of mind. It will also help generate cash flow to your practice.

6. Know when its time to relinquish those difficult problem accounts, and turn them over to a debt collection agency. As discussed earlier, many patients are facing greater financial burdens, because of higher unemployment, a slow economy and recession, making it increasingly difficult to pay for the high costs of health care.

Most people intend to do the right thing and honoring their debt obligations. But the reality is that some others are less responsible. By using the before-mentioned procedures, consistently and early on, you can better identify the patients experiencing temporary financial problems from the "problem" delinquent accounts. Payment arrangements, and continued communications can better address those problems. With that, the more problem, non-paying clients have to be identified earlier as well. These are the ones to be outsourced to professional collection agencies who are better equipped to handle these types of accounts.

Failing to do so means wasting valuable time, labor and money dealing with difficult accounts. You can't afford to waste time here, because the longer an account goes unpaid, the lesser the likelihood of getting paid at all. By placing these accounts earlier, you greatly increase your opportunity for getting a great deal, or at least some of your money. As a general rule, after 90 days of non-payment, medical billing collections should be turned over to a collection agency. These simple, but very important tips are very effective in shrinking your medical billing delinquencies. Put into consistent practice, you can greatly improve your medical billing collections.

How to Increase Your Medical Billing Collections With These Six Important Steps

David P. Montana has been a noted industry expert, business consultant and writer in business debt collection services for three decades.
He offers additional tools and solutions on medical billing collections.

Improve Your Collections and Get Paid Faster With Medical Billing Services

It is tempting, if you are running a medical office, to think that handling billing in house is cheaper. The truth is that it is not for a couple of reasons. First of all, when you handle it in-house you need to pay for employees, training, equipment, software, updates on the software, and postage. There is actually a great deal of postage, in fact. Secondly, you just aren't as likely to get the job done right in-house. You can actually improve your collections and get paid faster with medical billing services.

The first way you improve your collections and get paid faster with medical billing services is because they are experienced in hard to handle claims. Yes, in-house, your people would likely have no trouble handling a standard claim that the insurance company pays off. However, what do you do when the insurance company denies a claim? Professional medical billing services know how to collect the money on such bills. With a good service, no claim goes unpaid. That means your revenue streams remain steady and reliable.

Collections

Another way you can improve your collections and get paid faster with medical billing services is that they are highly accurate in their record keeping. Not only can a billing service collect payments efficiently, but also they know the ins and outs of the financial side of your medical business. They can act as collections, accounting, and as advisors for you about the business side of the office.

Overall, because they are trained to be accurate and efficient when working with insurance companies, a medical billing service will get you paid faster. Rare is the time an insurance claim will be sent back to your billing company. They have relationships with the insurance companies and are able to file claims and bills with perfect efficiency. If you tried to do the same thing in-house, you would spend a fortune sending employees to seminars, keeping up on the billing, and still maintaining other duties. The relationships would not be there for years, and in the mean time you would likely miss out on revenue.

Your medical billing service will also attend insurance seminars with the companies. That way, they can report back to the office and help the doctors and managers to understand what is going on in insurance. Through advising and informing, they can help you be as efficient as possible with billing and insurance affiliations. You will always have the "inside scoop." That is important to make sure that you improve your collections and get paid faster with medical billing services.

So you can certainly improve your collections and get paid faster with medical billing services. All you need to do is hire the right one and let them do their job. Because they are trained to get your money, deal with insurance, and keep impeccably organized records, they will more than pay for themselves when it comes time to make sure all claims are collected and on time.

Improve Your Collections and Get Paid Faster With Medical Billing Services

Kathryn Whittaker has an interest in Finance & Business and Medical Billing Services, for more FREE information and articles please visit Medical Billing Services Resources