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Four Ways to Add Value to Your Practice
Using Patient Messaging
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Every medical practice has patients who have missed appointments (no-shows), not paid their bills on time, forgotten essential information for their appointments, or called unnecessarily for lab results. The quandary you face as a medical practice is how to manage these patients while also providing quality service in a cost-effective manner that doesn't place extra pressure on staff. By investing in a patient messaging system or services (by phone and/or email messaging), your medical practice can efficiently and effectively remind patients of their obligations without having to dedicate staff to such tasks.
Decreasing Office No-Shows
Patient no-shows disrupt your office's work-flow, cost your practice money, and leave open time slots in your schedule. The majority of these missed appointments are the result of patients' losing their reminder cards or simply forgetting. Automated patient messaging allows your office to contact a list of patients by using personalized messages. Decreasing your no-show rate will increase revenue to the practice and let you reassign office staff to more essential tasks.
Past Due Account Recovery
Past due accounts have a way of creeping up on medical practices and patients. Insurance companies and Medicaid can take time to pay claims while patients may not even realize they owe anything. Many practices are forced to hire outside agencies to call patients for payments. The stigma of being called by an outside agency usually has the desired effect of immediate payment — but consider the effect on your patient relationships. Automated patient messaging presents an alternate and more personal solution. Your patients will prefer a call from you (rather than a contracted agent) and their payments will increase your accounts receivable.
Patient Pre-Registration
Patient pre-registration is an innovative concept and can be a significant timesaver in conjunction with an automated patient messaging system. A practice can have its system call newly-scheduled patients with instructions to contact the office with insurance and medication information (some systems go even further, offering the option to transfer to office staff during the automated call). Patients appreciate the efficiency of easy check-ins, having been engaged proactively to have positive office visits.
Lab Results Management
Many practices approach lab result reporting with a “no news is good news” mindset – with only abnormal results warranting further patient contact. However, for patients, lab testing is often a cause for concern. Patient messaging systems with inbound call functionality can make lab results available by individualized PIN code, letting patients call in for results securely recorded on an automated system. Patients appreciate convenient access to their results, and office staff is freed from fielding these calls.
Automated patient messaging offers an effective and efficient way for your practice to keep in touch with patients. Some systems start making calls for a low as $99 per month, with costs varying depending on the amount of calls made, or number of providers making calls. For any medical practice already focusing on providing quality patient care, an automated patient messaging system can be a perfect complement to operations — increasing patient satisfaction, helping staff, and improving profitability.
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