Atlanta-based Georgia Hand Shoulder Elbow's patient pay yield sits in the top 10 percent of healthcare organizations across the athenahealth network, according to Athenainsight.
Here are five things to know:
1. Patients pay 13 percent more for surgeries today than they did in 2013, according to athenahealth data.
2. Practices must balance the need to collect payments from patients with maintaining a warm, friendly office atmosphere.
3. GHSE's solution is to shift patient payment collection from the front desk to surgery schedulers.
4. After reviewing a surgeon's recommended procedure, the patient's insurance coverage and deductible, the schedulers create a spreadsheet showing costs and relevant billing codes before reviewing the information with patients in a waiting area.
5. Patients appreciate the presentation's clarity and have reported being glad to know their financial responsibility upfront.
Georgia Hand Shoulder Elbow CEO Lynn Wolff said, "It's a straightforward conversation…The scheduler says, 'This is the procedure we plan to do, this is our charge, this is what your insurer will pay, and this is your deductible amount. And we need to collect that before we schedule the surgery."
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