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Surprise medical bills are unexpected charges for procedures or services conducted by out-of-network providers. Since 2014, nine states have enacted legislative measures that protect patients from surprise medical costs. In 2019, the President called for Congress to draft federal legislation on the matter. This move was due in part to regulatory roadblocks that hinder the scope of state laws. What Is Surprise Billing? Surprise billing is often the result of urgent visits to the ER, where patients may not have the time or cognitive ability to decline out-of-network treatments. For example, emergency care services, such as ambulance rides, are not always supplied by in-network providers, leaving the patient to cover the additional costs. Surprise billing can also occur after routine, in-patient procedures. Specialized services administered during scheduled treatments from in-network providers may not be covered by a patient’s insurance plan. For example, patients receiving

A significant amount of healthcare practices still use an outdated medical billing system. This only exasperates one of the most common issues facing medical practices today: getting patients to pay their healthcare bills on time — the key to  shortening the payment cycle  and ensuring healthy cash flow. Any error and delay will not only hurt your finances but also create a frustrating patient experience that can erode trust and hurt patient retention. As patients are now responsible for a larger portion of their medical bills, payment collection has become more complex and challenging. You have to cater to consumer expectations and behaviors, which is very different from working with insurance companies. To streamline your processes, minimize errors or delays, and improve the patient experience, you need to understand the top medical billing mistakes and learn how to prevent them. Top Medical Billing Mistakes and How to Solve Them Here are some common medical billing mistakes heal

Today’s healthcare payment system poses significant collection issues for the provider, especially with nearly  35% of revenue  coming from the patient. Practices are having a difficult time collecting the amount due from patients if receiving any payment at all. Credit-card-on-file systems are frequently used to collect payments in many other industries and are recently starting to gain traction in the healthcare sector. In fact,  78% of patients surveyed say they are willing to provide a card on file and authorize use up to $200. With so many patients supporting a card-on-file payment system, it is surprising to note that only 25% of providers are offering this service. As practices become increasingly concerned with collecting from patients, offering a card-on-file system will be essential. Let’s look at 5 ways the credit-card-on-file process improves the collection process. Receive Payments Faster First and foremost, offering a card-on-file service reduces the amount

It’s becoming increasingly challenging for today’s medical practices to maintain predictable cash flow, sustain their revenue cycles, and stay financially healthy due to the challenges in patient payment collection. With more and more patients using high-deductible health insurance plans (e.g., patients enrolled in high-deductible  plans  increased by 500%  between 2004 and 2014) or not covered by insurance altogether (i.e., self-pay), costs are mounting for patients, making it increasingly difficult for providers to collect payment in full without delay. Even with conventional health insurance coverage, the new value-based reimbursement model that will soon be adopted by many insurance providers will shift more payment responsibilities to patients. Uncollected patient payments are affecting the financial health of many medical practices. Physicians only manage to collect less than 16% of fees owed once patient accounts are sent to collections, and  83% of physician practices  cons