As a medical practice, it’s important to offer your patients payment plan options. As any medical billing company with experience in collections will confirm, payment plans offer a variety of benefits to a practice. Here are three reasons why your practice should offer payment plans.
1. Reduce Collection Activity
One benefit of payment plans is that they can help reduce your number of collection activities. Payment plans help patients to better budget for medical expenses, especially in situations where a lump sum payment isn’t possible. If a patient feels overwhelmed by their payment amount, they’re less likely to make an effort to pay their balance, but payment plan options can be a great solution for helping them stay current on their medical bills. If you give patients a chance to pay their bills with affordable payment plans, they’ll most likely pay the bill in full. In fact, according to a 2019 survey by Flywire, 76% of patients paid their medical bills in full when they were offered payment plans.
2. Reduce Your Patient Attrition Rate
One of the biggest challenges for any practice to overcome is attrition rates. If a patient struggles to pay for medical care, they’re more likely to find a provider that offers the options they need to make care more affordable. However, offering payment plan options can help you keep the patients you have. When patients have convenient options for paying their bills, they’ll be less likely to leave your practice.
3. Attract New Patients
Word of mouth is one of the best ways to gain new patients. When patients don’t have to worry about coming up with a large lump sum payment at one time, they feel better about your practice and the care they receive. Offering flexible payment options to your patients will boost your reputation, and patient satisfaction will increase. As a result, your patients will be more likely to encourage their friends and families to visit your practice.
Operating a medical practice is difficult work, especially considering that the Medicare Conditions of Participation require records to be kept for five years, according to The Doctors Company. To keep your practice more organized, it’s wise to rely on a medical billing company to handle matters like record keeping, patient billing, collecting payments, and more. If you’re ready to take your practice’s billing to the next level, contact Sentinal Billing Solutions today.
