Empathy Doesn’t StopWith Doctors And Nurses.

Once insurance has paid out and the claim hits the patient’s responsibility the clock starts ticking. As the clock ticks, the ability to collect that patient balance is decreasing at the same time. With recent changes by the credit bureaus to report delinquent balances, it’s more important than ever to have a solid strategy in place to engage your patients and discuss payment options early.

This strategy should include investments in technology and people. Merely sending statements or basic emails and texts are strong notification tools for those that just need to know what to pay.  But what about those patients that receive a bill that they can’t pay?  The ones that you need to proactively reach out to in order to help them navigate through this?  This kind of patient requires strategy, psychology and consistent empathy.

Eastern knows that every client solves their account puzzles in different ways.  Some may not need anything more than statements going out every thirty days until write off.  Others may have an internal customer service team handling all patient calls.  Some may be sending texts and automated messaging.  At the end of the day, Eastern doesn’t offer a one size fits all solution.  Instead, we will help fill in the gaps.  Whether that’s outsourcing everything from day one of patient responsibility or maybe it’s an outbound contact solution to supplement your internal team.  Whatever it is, we want to learn more about what you need and help create the missing puzzle piece or pieces.

Increased cost of healthcare insurance premiums and increased out of pocket expense for your patients are making it difficult for them to pay their balances.  Pair that with the fact that 80% of patient’s medical debts will never affect their credit, it’s safe to say that bad debt is going to increase. So, now more than ever it’s important to have the right collection partner servicing your portfolio.

What’s the right collection partner though?

First, you need to be empathetic.  Your patients didn’t intend on getting sick or injured. They might not be prepared to deal with a large balance after insurance. They could be stressed over owing the balance.  Our financial solution providers (that’s right we don’t call them collectors) are there to listen, explain and provide solutions in a caring manner.

Second, your collection partner needs to be forward thinking and investing in the best technology.   Despite almost every adult carrying a cell phone, it’s becoming harder and harder to connect with people and have a conversation about their balance.  We also understand that people can be embarrassed about being in collections and might not want to talk about it. For these reasons we offer as many ways as possible to communicate with us. Web chat, text, email, mail, phone, we offer it all. We also provide a number of self service solutions through our IVR and website which allow customers to resolve their accounts on their own, 24/7.

Technology and strategy must also be used in order to locate patients and make sure we are contacting them at the right time and through the appropriate channel. And we do just that. We also provide a number of scrubs on your patient data: Bankruptcies, deceased, Medicaid eligibility, Insurance eligibility, presumptive charity care scoring. We then scrub that data to tell us how likely they are to pay.

Third, once your collection partner makes contact with your patient, what next?  Our team is highly versed in medical billing processes and procedures and is prepared to talk logically and confidently about your patient’s balance. On top of that, we are experts in payment negotiations and are able to offer solutions to fit the patient’s budget. Payment plans, settlements, future dated payments, we are flexible and understanding. That’s Eastern.