Boosting hospital margins through co-pays
Does your facility collect co-pays and deductibles before patients receive elective services? If not, then you're missing a golden opportunity to lower your rates of bad debt, according to two consultants specializing in revenue issues. To put such a policy in place, you'll need to get your board, physicians and staff prepared for the change in advance and provide customer service training and scripts for registration clerks. Still, doing this is worth the trouble, particularly as patients carry more of their own costs under high-deductible plans, Eben Fetters and Ron Luke say. Article