{"id":11356,"date":"2023-03-15T11:28:26","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T11:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/risefoc.com\/?p=11356"},"modified":"2023-06-30T18:23:39","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T18:23:39","slug":"best-practices-for-increasing-patient-responsibility-collections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/risefoc.com\/best-practices-for-increasing-patient-responsibility-collections\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Practices for Increasing Patient Responsibility Collections"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Patients are being increasingly held responsible for larger portions of their healthcare bills. Find out ways that healthcare organizations can navigate this challenge in the face of increasing economic pressure.<\/p>\n

Why is Patient Responsibility on the Rise?<\/h1>\n

A large portion of the revenue cycle is concerned with billing and insurance claims to receive money from payers. The portion of the bill that is left after all of that work is termed \u201cpatient responsibility\u201d \u2013 and is the most difficult to collect.<\/p>\n

HDHPs<\/h2>\n

High-Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs) are a way to reduce the monthly cost of health insurance, and as prices rise they are often the only affordable option for consumers.\u00a0 The IRS defines an HDHP as \u201cany plan with a deductible of at least $1,400 for an individual or $2,800 for a family.\u201d However, this isn\u2019t total for yearly out-of-pocket expenses. The limit for out-of-pocket on an HDHP, which includes deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance, is $6,900 for an individual and $13,800 for a family. This amount can increase drastically for out-of-network services.<\/p>\n

Increasing Healthcare Costs<\/h2>\n

Wages have not risen nearly as fast as healthcare costs have, leaving those costs to take a larger bit out of the monthly budget. These rising costs can be attributed to a lot of factors \u2013 the aging population, a rise in chronic illness and healthcare utilization, increasing rates of obesity, and higher pharmaceutical costs.<\/p>\n

Decreasing Reimbursements<\/h2>\n

As the pandemic has drawn to a close officially, the extra money that was injected into the healthcare system from the federal government ends. Eleven different federal payment programs are at some stage of reduction in payment rates to hospitals, totaling 218.2 billion by 2028.<\/p>\n

Most recently, doctors are seeing a 4.4% reduction in Medicare reimbursements under the 2023 Physician Fee Schedule<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the past, where Medicare goes, private insurances go also. In other words, it will not be surprising for commercial insurers to also lower their reimbursement rates for similar services.<\/p>\n

The More is Owed, the Less is Paid<\/h2>\n

Hospitals tend to collect significantly less money<\/a> from patients with higher out-of-pocket costs, which is becoming increasingly common. In fact, as amounts owed go up due to high-deductible plans, the payment collection rates go down.<\/p>\n