Initial payment conversations between hospital staff and patients should occur at registration and involve sharing personalized information with consumers, advised David Shelton, CEO of PatientMatters, a revenue cycle management vendor.
He said these face-to-face payment conversations can be vague and may not involve sharing of personalized information, which can lead to patient dissatisfaction, staff frustration and low point-of-service collections.
But he recommended a different approach.
"By empowering registration staff with patient-tailored workflows, scripting and training, they will be prepared to engage with each patient based on their personal financial situation and effectively explain available payment options to help patients make educated financial decisions from the very start of the interaction," said Mr. Shelton. "This patient-tailored communication approach not only improves staff productivity and patient satisfaction, but also increases POS cash collections."
If you would like to share your RCM best practices, please email Kelly Gooch at kgooch@beckershealthcare.com to be featured in the "RCM tip of the day" series.
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