Billing technology: Make waste unnecessary

A. As new knowledge and technologies like online bill pay and automatic payments emerge our lives become more streamlined and therefore more simplified. Billing can be a hassle, but with new technology billing becomes a dream rather than a nightmare. 

Invoice history  

This is the biggest benefit of all. Many patients go back at tax time to collect healthcare bills they can deduct. Electronic invoicing makes this process easy for your patients and much easier on you. Your staff no longer has to go through the patient history to try to decipher which invoices to print, send and mail.

Saves money

More and more companies are moving to paperless billing. We live in a digital world where waste is unnecessary. Moving to electronic delivery of invoices eliminates costs associated with paper, ink, stamps and staff labor.

Faster delivery means faster payments

It's true. If patients get their invoice sooner, they are more apt to pay it before the due date—and what provider wouldn't prefer that?

User experience

Success is all about making and keeping your patient base happy. If you can offer this technology to the patients that desire it, you keep them happy. At that point it's only a matter of time before your other patients fall into that line of thinking with a bit of encouragement through marketing efforts.

Whether providers are ready or not, the HME/DME industry is rapidly moving toward a more technologically savvy, online realm. Choosing not to implement it is simply bad business.

Jennifer Leon is director of marketing and customer service for Strategic AR. Reach her at 913-744-3360 or jleon@strategicar.com.