POS Payments and Processing
If providers take a proactive approach, collecting from patients at all points of service, they can keep this self-pay revenue from falling away.Healthcare providers are expected to provide healthcare, and they must also collect payment for it. Unfortunately, once patients leave the hospital, the chances that they will pay their portion of the bill drops dramatically. If providers take a proactive approach, collecting from patients at all points of service, they can keep this self-pay revenue from falling away.
It is estimated that healthcare benefit costs will increase an average of 8.9 percent in 2011, up from an average increase of 7 percent in 2010. Smaller employers project even greater costs. Eighty-six percent of respondents to the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers’ 2010 Employee Benefits Market Survey said prices increased for small employers (those with 50 or fewer employees), with more than half the increases in the 11–20 percent range. Ninety-three percent of medium-sized employers (51 to 500 employees) had increases, with 58 percent seeing increases in the range of 6–15 percent. Traditional collection methods focus on recouping payment after treatment, after the patient has left the hospital or practice. With the rise in self-pay, hospitals must adopt a different approach: Collection at all points of service. Technology will play a pivotal role in making that possible. Patients bill prioritization is not income driven — patients’ income levels do not relate to how likely they are to pay their healthcare bills. According to a recent survey, consumers were more likely to pay the mortgage, insurance, loans and utilities before their healthcare bills. They’re also more likely to pay for cable TV, Internet, lawn care and the newspaper. |
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RKB model uses technology to improve self-pay at all points of service.
For this reason, RKB advocates a radical new approach to the administration of medical transactions. This approach calls for the assembly of best-of-market solutions that are designed, implemented and tuned to meet the specific needs of providers, payers and others in the healthcare ecology.
In many ways, RKB functions as an objective, technology-agnostic partner who can help medical providers evaluate, select and deploy the right solution mix to meet their specific administrative and transaction processing requirements.
In many ways, RKB functions as an objective, technology-agnostic partner who can help medical providers evaluate, select and deploy the right solution mix to meet their specific administrative and transaction processing requirements.