Reducing Hospitals’ Bad Debt

Bad debt is among the biggest concerns that hospital administrators must face.  And, though the vast majority of patients in this country are currently insured, those insurance policies are often equipped with very hefty deductibles.  That means a lot of out-of-pocket expense for the individual.  In turn, it can also mean a lot of unpaid accounts for the hospital to contend with.  There are steps that can be taken to reduce the impact of bad debt.

1. Requesting advanced payment has become more commonplace and can, in fact, help to ensure that the bad debt doesn’t reach out-of-control proportions.
2. Better training for registrars who are responsible for managing the billing cycle and collection.
3. Automated systems for account tracking, which calculate unpaid sums, formulate monthly billing statements, and keep track of how many days overdue the payments are. These can even be used to send accounts directly to collections services.
4. Affordable financing options can make it possible for patients to pay back the sums owed without suffering on a personal financial level.
5. Procedure discounting for uninsured or underinsured patients.

While these steps may help alleviate the privately funded accounts of patients.  This will not always make the necessary difference where Medicare is concerned.

Approximately one of every five Medicare recipients is dual eligible, which is to say that they are living at low enough incomes to make them Medicaid eligible.  Depending upon the state where the beneficiary resides, Medicaid will generally cover a portion of the Medicare deductible, and a portion of the co-payments.  Unfortunately, it will often fail to pay the entire sum, which means that low income patients are strapped with medical expenses that they are unable to pay.  The unpaid amounts will typically become bad debt for the hospital, and that can be difficult to avoid and challenging to recover.

Fortunately, there are services, like that offered by R-C Healthcare, which can help alleviate some of the burden.  .  Although CMS allows for 65% of this bad debt to reimbursed, the constraints on recovering these funds have become more difficult   R-C Healthcare has developed the procedures and expertise to maximize these payments.

Contact Us today for more information!