Patients are forever dependent on the healthcare industry for their physical and mental health and well-being. With the passage of years, diseases of the body and of the mind are becoming as common as ever. Besides, with the multiplication of diseases and the emergence of a whole new range of diseases, like the novel coronavirus disease, the patients now have to ensure whether they are near trusted healthcare clinics and practices or not.

Now, as the patients of today are growing to be more dependent on the practices, the practices are equally dependent on them and their payments. The patient payments they receive are the sole largest source of revenue for the practices of today, on which depends the growth of the practices.

As per the recent reports over 40% of the providers fail to collect $31K+ a year from their patients, which makes it a significant loss of revenues for the practices. These failed payments surely restrict the overall growth of the established healthcare players while making it an uphill journey to pursue for the new startups and hospital chains that are currently looking to build a market out of the healthcare industry. We will learn all about healthcare payments and the best ways to improve patient payment collections here in this article but before that, we need to know why patient payments are important for the practices. So, let's dive in:

Boosts morale

The reception of adequate revenues and receiving them timely is never less than joy. Similarly, in the healthcare industry, healthcare payments are largely relied upon by doctors/physicians, practice managers, owners, and other medical workers, where adequate patient payment collections always resonate highly and boost the overall morale.

Leads to practice expansion

Practice revenues, which are significantly made up of the patient collections that they receive, are used to a great extent for the growth, development, and further expansion of the practice. This includes the attraction of more new patients, retention of the older patients, and the general expansion of the operations of the practice.

Types of Payment Methods :

• Net Banking

• Mobile Banking

• QR Scan

• UPIs

Improves the quality of medical care

Proper patient collections for the practices help them address more patients in ways that are as effective as possible. The medical industry is now witnessing a new era of medical care that is provided with the help of new-age software, tools, and technology from reliable medical office software providers like GrowPractice. All of these are actively playing their part along with the innovative and effective patient payment collection methods to improve the patient payments effectively.

Helps attract more patients and retain them effortlessly

More income for the practices would mean that they can also invest more in experienced staff, upgrade systems, and provide the best possible care for the patients without any worries.

Surveys conducted in 2020 reveal that the practices have lost over $16 bn in revenues in the same year. The loss of practice revenues is due to a range of reasons and a significant portion of it is due to the decline of the patient payment collections.

The patient payments were earlier made only via cash at the practice itself but this has changed quite a bit with the introduction of credit and debit cards, online methods of payments, and more. All of these have made patient payment collections today less than a tough affair in comparison to what they used to be.

However, when it comes to payments, many other problems still remain constantly nagging the healthcare ecosystem. Here are some of the prominent problems when it comes to the collection of healthcare payments

Rising costs

Healthcare payments are becoming costlier each day with the rising prices overall. This is making it tough for the general patients to keep up with the rising expenses, which is eventually leading to reduced collections and heaping on the bad debts on behalf of the hospitals and practices.

Lack of online payments

Online payments are now a reality in every industry regardless of whichever direction you look at. The healthcare industry is also embracing the online options for payments in much the same way that the other industries are aiming at. However, many practices still lack the online patient payments in the list of their offerings, which can, in many ways be really helpful for the practices in boosting their revenues. Recent surveys show that over 68% of the patients prefer to pay their providers online, which is simply not satisfied still by many of the practices, and this greatly adds to their practice revenue losses.