Technology has a critical role in driving our national economic recovery – both from the impact of the pandemic and against the backdrop of the cost of living crisis. Technology will help businesses to operate efficiently, manage their income and seize new opportunities that arise. Find out how we can help you.
In the private healthcare sector, there’s good reason for the positivity about growth in the self-pay market. Surveys by the charity Engage Britain and Yonder (commissioned by PHIN) have shown that more people are ready to consider paying for medical treatment following the pandemic. A report by analysts LaingBuisson predicted that the self-pay market would expand by 10-15% by 2024.
However, it’s important to make sure that an increased level of activity translates into a healthier balance sheet. Having the right technology to manage you practice can make the difference between running a profitable business and running yourself into the ground. Here are just some of the ways we can help.
Invoice at the click of a button
You may be seeing more patients come through your practice but you still need to make sure you get paid. Efficient and accurate invoicing is the single most important thing you can do for your practice finances.
Our innovative technology allows you to create and send invoices to all the major insurers, self-funded patients and other payors:
- Time-saving shortcuts
Saving time can mean saving money and that’s great for your bottom line. Our invoice auto-population feature is a prime example. If you’ve treated a patient in a hospital setting, you can search for them on the system and generate an invoice with the correct details already completed. Simply track progress with our status updates.
- The Clearing Service
Submit invoices to all the major insurers from one place. Each is automatically checked against the relevant criteria. Errors and anomalies are instantly flagged to be corrected and re-submitted. Simply track progress with our status updates.
- Online Payments via patientzone
Practitioners and clinics who are registered with patientzone can send electronic invoices to self-funded patients. Provide the convenience of secure online payment. You can also benefit from sending shortfall letters, details of debt reallocations and payment reminders.
- Paper invoicing
We cater for you to be truly flexible. If you need a paper invoice, our template ensures that these are clearly laid out and meet industry standards.
- Mobile invoicing
Available on the ePractice iOS app. We know you’re always on the go. Now you can set up and send an electronic invoice from your Apple device.
Payment tracking and collection
An effective and efficient system for recording money received will allow you to focus on outstanding invoices. However, this process is not always straightforward. Insurer payments may cover several invoices and there will sometimes be a shortfall amount to be reallocated to the patient. With ePractice you can:
- Record and reconcile payments
The payment tracking section of ePractice Lite and Pro makes it easy to find and allocate payments to the correct invoices. Make sure your accounts are up to date. Where insurers send electronic remittances (AXA Health, Aviva, Bupa and Cigna), the system automatically analyses the remittance advice, generating a summary that assigns the payment to one or more invoices. Simply confirm with the click of a button. For self-pay patients or other payors, online payments are made via patientzone. Stay in the know – set up notifications so you can see when invoices have been paid. What’s more your ePractice is updated within 30 minutes.
- Reallocate debts
In the event of a shortfall, you can reallocate the debt and create a shortfall letter for the relevant patient. This automatically completes the invoice details and outstanding balance. Just register with patientzone and you can send these shortfall letters and payment reminders electronically.
Financial information
Every practice management system should provide a range of real-time financial reporting options. You need to monitor your practice’s vital signs. ePractice includes a variety of financial reports, all of which can be exported to other software. These can then be anonymised and shared as required.
Here are five of the most frequently used reports:
- Aged debt analysis displays outstanding debt by patients and segments by age bands (eg. 0-30 days, 31 – 60 days, 61 – 90 days outstanding). It’s an essential tool for credit control in any business.
- Outstanding invoices by payor shows all invoices with a current outstanding balance by payor type, including or excluding shortfalls. This makes it easy to see who requires a payment reminder.
- Invoice listing by payor provides a summary of invoices, by payor, for a requested date range. A filter allows you to view outstanding or settled invoices.
- The payment summary report shows the payments received, by invoice, within a selected date range. Now you can keep track of what has been paid and the payment method used.
- Financial snapshot provides a snapshot for the selected period, including the total number of invoices with values for payments, refunds and debts. It also provides a total of the debt outstanding at the start and end of the period.
Discover More
Find out how to invoice and track payments by signing up to our free Billing and Payments online tutorials with the Healthcode Academy’s team of Service Delivery Associates. They’ll guide you using your own data to make the training as relevant as possible.
To learn more about our ePractice features, see our guides in Help and Support.
To find out more about how ePractice can help make your business more profitable, contact our Business Development team.
