Satisfied with your Practice revenues? This may surprise you

Despite some uncertainty in the last few years, it’s still a great time to be in the healthcare business. Between 2016 and 2025, CMS projects over 5% growth in health spending; by 2025, this will represent nearly 1/5th of the U.S. GDP. Though changes to healthcare laws in the last few years have made things difficult for some, many hospitals and practices are still seeing good revenue.

When any business is making money at good margins, it’s tempting to keep things the same so you don’t rock the boat. But if your practice or hospital isn’t being proactive about the rapid changes in the healthcare industry, your success could be short-lived.

The Rise of High Deductible Plans

Insurance deductibles today are more than 2.5x as expensive as they were in 2006. This trend isn’t only affecting the private market – the Kaiser Family Foundation reports that employee deductibles increased 67% between 2010 and 2015. Insurance companies are increasingly offering these high-deductible plans as a way to keep costs in line in the face of stagnant premium prices.

These trends collectively point to one major shift in healthcare that consumers and providers alike must be prepared for: Increasing out-of-pocket costs for healthcare patients.

The Future of Healthcare Costs

By 2019, it’s projected that providers will see a 50% increase in reimbursements directly from patients. If you’re not already preparing for this change, it could cause serious trouble for your medical practice, since patient revenues are much more difficult to collect than revenue from insurance companies and Medicare.

In fact, it’s estimated that around 30% of that increased patient revenue will go uncollected and be written off. This amount represents $200 billion in lost revenue for healthcare providers. To put it simply, if your practice isn’t constantly looking for ways to make patient payment easier, you could be in trouble sooner than you think.  

Adapting to the Future of Medical Billing

The best way to be sure your practice is prepared for the rise of healthcare payments from consumers is to create a system that adapts to their needs. An ideal patient billing system should be:

• Transparent. Like consumers in any industry, medical patients want to know how much they owe, when their bill is due, and how the costs were calculated.
• Convenient. It’s much easier for a patient to use a credit card while in their provider’s office, as opposed to waiting to receive a paper bill and then mailing a check.
• Easy to implement. Accommodating patients is important, but providers also have to consider their own costs, especially in a small practice. Patient billing systems should be cost-effective and simple to set up.

If you’re looking to get your practice up to speed on modern patient billing, click below to schedule a HealthiPASS demo and learn why we are the number one patient-centric billing solution on the market today.