Reducing Patient Debt - (Part 1)
Bad Debt Should Be Under 3% of Net Patient Revenue
From the Hospitals' Perspective
1. Since 2000, hospitals have provided $620 billion dollars in uncompensated care.
2. Uncompensated care increased over 8% from $10.8 billion in 2017 to $11.7 billion in 2018.
3. 68% of hospitals with less than 50 beds attributed their organization’s bad debt to one or more of the following:
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Higher patient co-pays and deductibles
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Ineffective RC management processes
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Industry-wide RC management complexities & regulations
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Changes in reimbursement models
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High poverty rate
4. Medicare bad debt increased 17% between 2012 and 2016. Yet only 17% of all responding hospitals were ready to blame patient non-payment for their bad debt.
5. And…1% to 5% of self-pay accounts that are written off as bad debt actually have billable insurance coverage.
From the Patients' Perspective
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Most patients say they actually want to pay their out-of-pocket charges.
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81% of patients report some frustration with their medical bills due to: Complicated bills that are not understood Lack of transparency...unexpected charges No financially viable payback program.
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Between 2012 and 2017, the average financial obligation after insurance for commercially insured patients increased 67% from $467 to $781.
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In the same period, Medicare beneficiaries’ average balances owed increased 118%, from $144 to $314.
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Patient out of pocket payments now account for more than 33% of provider revenue. That is seven times as much as in year 2000.
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Average patient balance after insurance grew 67% from 2012 to 2017.
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42.9 million Americans are estimated to have a health care bill in bad debt collections.
For more information, contact Medical Recovery Services
(816) 229-4887
Medical Recovery Services is a full-service revenue cycle company assisting
hospitals and surgical centers in achieving their full earning potential since 2004.