Patient Revenue Cycle - The Challenge
The ChallengeThe Rise of the Healthcare ConsumerWhat We DoWhy We're DifferentWhat Are the Benefits The recent trend in health insurance has resulted in unprecedented revenue challenges for nearly every hospital and physician group. Patients' payment obligations have increased by over 300% in the last five years. As a result, many providers have been caught off guard by the devastating impact that this shift has had on their finances and operations. As consumer-driven products with high deductibles and high levels of coinsurance continue to gain traction with employer groups, patient payments as a percent of total provider revenue are projected to increase to nearly 40% by 2012. So why does this create problems? It's because compared with payments from health plans that arrive quickly and reliably, payments from patients are far less predictable or reliable, and require specialized software, practices and staff to manage and collect.
Compounding this fundamental shift in the financial landscape is the fact that point-of-service processes, thought initially to be a panacea, provide only a fraction of the solution. In fact, time of service co-pays represent less than 15% of total patient total financial obligations. Also of significant concern is the risk of patient backlash to mandating point-of-service payment collection. More about this topic is available in MedDirect Resources: The Perils of a Shifting Payer Landscape.
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