Helping Patients Understand Hospital Bills
If you work in a hospital billing department, you know that one of the most challenging aspects of the job is helping patients understand their bills. You likely get multiple calls every day about this topic alone. To make sure that you are reliably giving your patients the best information, consider these three tips.
Use a Reliable Software
In order to explain billing to your patient, you and your staff must be able to understand the ledger first. If you are using a complicated software that makes viewing outstanding claims and processed payments difficult, you will likely have a headache relaying information to the patient. If you have a charge capture software that is easy to use, though, you will be able to walk each client through the billing process.
Allow for In-Person Meetings
It can be difficult to explain some things over the phone. While you likely stay busy at all times, it could be beneficial to set aside some time during the week for in-person meetings with patients concerned about billing. This allows you to resolve situations in less time than it would take in a lengthy phone conversation.
Provide Consistent Billing
Your patients will likely be confused if they are not getting bills consistently. You should make sure that you send out statements on the same day each month. This will make the entire department’s functions more efficient, and your patients will not be confused about a missing or duplicate bill.
Medical billing can be a difficult thing to master, but with these simple tips, you can help your patients understand exactly what they are paying for. In this way, you can help your patients receive the medical care they need without worrying about how to pay for it. When you learn to help your patients understand their statements, you can look forward to feeling more fulfilled in your work.