Patient A/R was the most labor intensive and time consuming money to collect for manager Brenda Kelly and her team at Monida Healthcare Billing Solutions. The reason: the entire process was manual, and while digital statements were a small part of the workflow, paper statements still made up the majority.
When Brenda came across Inbox Health at a billing conference, she was intrigued by the automated billing cycles, digital statements, and potential time savings for her team. Her team works in five different practice management softwares, so she was also encouraged by the long-term goal of managing all patient A/R in one place. Since incorporating Inbox Health into her team’s workflow in 2022, she has saved money, time, and expanded her business.
“Inbox Health is a game changer,” Brenda says. “Automation puts Inbox Health ahead of the curve.”
Fully automated billing cycles streamline workflow.
Inbox Health’s ability to fully automate the patient billing cycle was the main reason Monida Healthcare Billing Solutions adopted the platform. Manually reviewing every patient for billing was inefficient. Her team would have to pull a file, send the data to a printer, and mail statements, which was becoming more expensive as paper costs continued to rise.
Now, billing cycles start automatically, and her team doesn’t touch the process unless a cycle completes without payment, at which point, the patient moves to pre-collections and receives a personal phone call. And when personal intervention is needed, since Inbox Health is user-friendly, she is able to see all patients in precollections in one place on her dashboard without having to search for individual clients.
But with the majority of payments completed within the billing cycle coupled with reduced work on the front end of the process, her team has saved a significant amount of administrative time.
Digital payments result in skyrocketing collections and reduce costs and number of phone calls.
In the first month implementing Inbox Health, payments doubled. Both the volume of paying patients as well as payment speed increased. Brenda credits the astonishing results with the ability to pay easily online. The pre-Inbox Health scenario played out as follows: A patient received a paper bill but could only pay by phone or mailing in a check. The time her billing team spent on the phone collecting payments could have been delegated to other complex tasks. Today, with Inbox Health’s digital payments through the secure patient portal, phone calls for patients paying are nearly zero. Now, 90% of all payments are digital.
“I’ve been in this field for 35 years,” Brenda says. “I’ve done this long enough to know that digital platforms render quicker payment.”
Personal touch and fast support is an important element of patient billing.
Empathy and personalization throughout the patient financial process is very important to Brenda’s clients. Utilizing modern technology complements the personal touch her clients expect from her services. Digital support channels – text, chat, and email – allow her team to provide exceptional customer service. One of her employees dedicates time to checking digital inquiries, and all issues are resolved within 24 hours. An added benefit of digital support channels is that her team can be on hold with an insurance company while responding to inquiries that come through text, chat, or email.
Her staff is appreciative to have a tool like Inbox Health in its workflow.
“[Digital channels] make it easier for staff to communicate with patients, and it makes the workflow easy,” Brenda says. “They appreciate having the time to focus on other tasks.”
With Brenda’s staff’s extended bandwidth, she feels confident taking on new clients. “I have enough staff even if I take on two new clients because I don’t have all this exorbitant time spent on patient AR,” Brenda says. “It’s a standard part of our workflow for all new clients.”
About Brenda Kelly
Role: Manager
Company: Monida Healthcare Billing Solutions
Location: Missoula, MT
www.monidabillingsolutions.com
406.829.2380