What Every Patient Payment Portal Should Have

If you’ve made it to the point that you’re considering using a patient payment portal to improve your collection of the patient yield, you’re in a great place. Study after study on revenue cycle management and medical billing shows that patients prefer an option that gives them transparency, confidence and convenience, and are receptive to paying under these conditions. Basically, they want the ability to pay comfortably and securely on their own terms.

In order to meet these desires and truly appeal to the contemporary healthcare consumer, which means a large increase in collections for medical providers, there are some elements an effective patient payment portal needs to feature. We break them down below, with explanations as to why each part is crucial to increasing collections from patients who are footing the bill for healthcare.

[CHECKLIST: TEN QUESTIONS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR PATIENT PAYMENT PROCESS}

Ease of Use

Patients demand a platform that isn’t hard to figure out and operate. Without ease of use built into the process, patients will prefer to do things the old way -- which isn’t working for most of today’s practices. Intuitiveness is a trait that brings a platform to the next level. Since we’re discussing consumer considerations, think of the iPhone -- what it lacks in power or top-of-the-line technology it more than makes up for in simplicity and ease of use. That’s why it’s nearly ubiquitous, because consumers simply prefer to use it over other options.

Eligibility Verification

Though this one may be more suited for providers than patients, it also enables patients to pay once the bill comes. This is a way to avoid rendering care to patients who aren’t able to pay in the first place -- it’s important to ensure eligibility in order to break the bad debt cycle and avoid selling debts to collectors for a fraction of the original bill. Since you’ve verified insurance eligibility, you then have information to facilitate billing between payer and patient, which will expedite the collections process.

Cost Estimates

Since consumers love transparency, it’s important to give them a cost estimate whenever popular. While there is a margin or error and you can’t know if every circumstance what type of care will be rendered, for opportunities like regularly scheduled appointments or specific check-ins, let consumers know what they’re going to be paying before delivering care. This sets expectations and has a psychological effect on consumers -- since they know what they’re going to be paying and accepting care, they feel it’s a “fair” transaction and are more willing to pay once the bill arrives.

Security

Finally, any patient payment portal can only be effective when it provides total peace of mind in every transaction. Without cutting-edge security for payment encryption and account information, your portal may be vulnerable -- and any healthcare professional knows the importance of keeping patient information private. Within this category it’s also worth mentioning compliancy -- a ready-to-launch platform is already HIPAA complaint.

Now that you know what to look for in a patient payment portal, you’re more prepared to make an informed decision and evaluate products. If you need any help with your decision or are considering the HealthiPASS patient payment solution, click here to schedule a demo with our friendly sales team.