Online UPDATES

Speed collections and please patients at the same time?

The Patient Friendly Billing Project has published a new brochure with updated guidelines on how to create a more comprehensible billing and collecting process. In addition to ensuring more-accurate billing statements, the group contends, patient-focused physician billing and collections can speed cash flow, boost patient satisfaction, and create better-informed and more-medically compliant patients.

The recommendations are available from the group's Web site at www.patientfriendlybilling.org , where you may also access sample letters and bills, a patient glossary of billing terms, and a financial communications flow statement developed from the patient's perspective.

The project is a nationwide initiative led by the Healthcare Financial Management Association in partnership with the Medical Group Management Association and the American Hospital Association.

For more on how to make your billing patient-friendly, see "Practice Pointers: When you ask for payment, do it right!" (Jan. 10, 2003).

Maybe you should try the phone

Almost one-third of the country's 100 largest companies don't bother to answer online inquiries, says a study conducted by the Customer Respect Group, a research and consulting firm. High tech firms generally rated the highest on an index that measurers how well companies treat online customers in terms of privacy protection, ease of Web site navigation, and responsiveness.

Which long distance company pleases more customers?

Online UPDATES.

Medical Economics

Aug. 22, 2003;80.