When running a medical practice, being able to collect payment from your customers is essential to staying in business. It doesn’t matter how many doctorate degrees you have or what school you went to. Unless you can get your customers to pay for the services that you render, you will be able to stay in business. Because of this, patient financing is a topic that you may want to become familiar with.
One way that you can increase the chances of getting paid when you render services is to offer in-house patient financing plans. By doing this, you increase the chances of being able to collect when you treat a patient. Many people don’t have a lot of money lying around in order to pay medical bills with. If you will break it down into small monthly payments for them, they will be much more likely to be able to afford their bills.
Bringing More Customers in the Door
When you offer in-house patient financing programs, you may also be able to increase the number of customers that you get on a regular basis. When people know that you offer payment plans, they’ll be much more likely to seek out your services when they need them. Instead of putting off their medical care or seeking some other way to treat a condition, they will be more likely to come into your office. By making this small change, you can increase the number of patients that you have substantially over the course of a year.
Control
Another advantage of offering in-house patient financing is that you gain control over the billing process. You set up the terms with your customers right on the front end of the deal. You’ll know when to expect payment, and you’ll be able to reduce costs compared to working with a medical finance company. In many cases, patients simply set up their own payment plans based on what they can afford anyway. They just sporadically send in some money when they think about it. This may get you paid, but it’s not regular, and it can be a little bit frustrating. When you take the time to set up an in-house patient financing program, you can have more control over what payments are made, and when they are made. This gives you a little bit more regularity in collecting payments, so that you don’t have to worry about cash flow as much.
Considerations
There are many different payment plans that you could offer for your medical practice. Even offering 90 days to pay a bill can be a lifesaver for some patients in today’s economy. Being flexible will pay bigger dividends in the long run for your practice, and keep customers coming back.