How HSA’s & FSA’s Impact Patient Payment Collections
Healthcare spend is always a hot topic in this industry. Lately, it seems that there is even more discussion on the patient portion, rightfully so, as many posts and articles continue to highlight the continued increase in high deductible health plans (HDHP) and the shift to more patient financial responsibility. Many discussions also call out the use of Healthcare Spending Accounts (HSA’s) or Federal Spending Accounts (FSA’s), which can only be used in conjunction with a HDHP.
Ultimately, these are dollars that are allocated for patients to use specifically for healthcare expenses. That means that it’s not if this money is going to get spent by patients, rather it’s when and how. Since these funds are readily available to the patient, they are the first to be used, and generally speaking should be the easiest to collect. So why do providers struggle to capture these funds? The answer is simple, providers need to be first in line. The best way to ensure that a request for payment is first is to communicate a balance and request for payment as soon as soon possible.
If your reading this thinking that sending a patient statement as soon as the patient responsibility is realized is sufficient, I have bad news. You’re most likely going to be last in line. Not only is a paper statement the slowest form of communication it is also proving to be the least effective. The fastest way to communicate with patients is by email or text. Clearly the time that it takes to send the text is faster than paper, but many people also do not think about the time that it takes to open the statement versus a text. Through text, 82% of recipients open the text message. Statistics are limited on how long it takes someone to open a paper statement, but we know it’s not instant and that there are about a dozen other competing documents of interesting vying for the consumers attention within the mailbox. Ultimately, our studies show that sending paper results in 22.5 days average delay over paper. That is 22 days too late, especially when the patient has HSA or FSA funds that they can use.
Patient Payments can be simple, especially when many (not all) patients do have the funds set aside to make them. We can help you be first in line, which will not only help you get paid faster, but we are convinced it will increase your total patient dollars collected. If you are willing to trust in our process, we are willing to guarantee the results. Email us at?[email protected]?for more information on how we can help you collect more patient payments.