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Roundtable: Collections and the ACA, Part III
Panel experts discuss training medical practice staff to effectively ask patients for money and why this may not be an easy task. Plus, they lay blame on the government for instilling a sense of entitlement in patients.
Moderator: Roger Fontes, MD Black Mountain Orthopaedics
Brian Bourke Honkamp Krueger & Co.
Health care principal
David Kantor, MD Neurologique
Medical director
Bill Hannah Dixon Hughes Goodman Health care principal
the Affordable Care Act
In part three of the roundtable discussion on collections issues at medical practices and , panelist Bill Hannah explains how staff can be trained to ask patients for money in more effective ways. Being able to effectively ask for money is even more important now, he says, because of the new group of patients entering the health care economy through the ACA.
“[They] … are armed with what they believe is an insurance policy or product or something that is going to pay for their health care,” he says. “And they don’t understand the concept that they now have some out of pocket responsibility. So having really good, effective processes and having your team trained up and educated on how to ask for and collect money is essential.”
However, sometimes the problem is within the staff, either because they are older and too used to the previous system rather than the new one of asking for payment upfront or because they are uncomfortable asking for money at all.
“And what I tell them is, ‘well, this may not be the job for you,’” panelist Brian Bourke says. “It’s part of the job.”
