The health insurance crisis is causing just as many problems for providers as for patients.
Consumers have trouble coming up with cash for the portion of their bills that insurance won’t pay. At the same time, providers are losing revenue and getting burnt out because of uncompensated care.
Luckily, patient lending programs were designed to help. Health care loans assist revenue cycle managers in decreasing the burden of patient debt and improving your bottom line.
Want to know 3 healthcare services that can benefit from patient financing? Keep reading.
Dentistry
Current laws don’t consider dental coverage an essential benefit for adults, which is why many insurance plans won’t cover it at all. Meanwhile, low-price plans that do cover a visit to the dentist have high copay's and deductibles.
Dental care providers can improve collections and patient satisfaction with medical lending. In fact, the percent of dental clinics with an average AR over 90 days is 18%. Yet that number drops to 14% for clinics that offer patient loans.
Weight Loss
Most insurance companies offer weight loss coverage, but that coverage is usually limited. Nutritional counseling and therapy are partially covered in only 16 states. And payers’ definition of “counseling and therapy” rarely includes weight loss programs.
Offering medical loans to weight loss patients can help offset this gap in coverage.
Emergency Rooms
Almost half of the country’s medical care comes from emergency departments and 50% of that care goes uncompensated. This should be no surprise since 1 in 5 patients who seek emergency services don’t have insurance.
With such a high volume of patient spending, ER visits offer the potential to improve margins. Patient financing can help patients pay their bills and providers decrease the burden of uncompensated care.
Patient Financing to Offset Limited Insurance Coverage
Lack of insurance and under-insurance are big problems for healthcare revenues. When payers won’t cover procedures and services and patients just can’t pay, it’s provider incomes that suffer.
Yet there’s something you can do.
Epic River’s patient financing program helps uninsured or under-insured patients pay their medical bills over time. Meanwhile, our partner banks reimburse you upfront and in full for your services. Contact us to find out how you can start offering medical loans to your patients.