Shortfall Collection Service
Easing the pain of patient shortfalls
Making light work of collecting shortfalls is never easy. We stepped in to help The London Clinic with “an extra pair of hands”. Well technically speaking our intuitive automated Shortfall Collection Service did the work for us. Find out how.
What they needed
The London Clinic is the UK’s largest independent charitable hospital with a strong reputation for world-class medical expertise and technologically advanced facilities. It specialises in cancer therapies and general surgery with over 900 clinicians and 1,200 staff. Delivering world class care was never the problem.
A significant number of the patients are funded by private medical insurers who are billed electronically using our Clearing Service. However, many of these bills are subject to shortfall amounts because the patient’s policy does not cover the total cost of treatment. Collecting the outstanding amounts from the patients themselves in order to balance the books was a time-consuming and tricky task for the hospital’s accounts team.
“As a charity we have a responsibility to provide value for money and make a surplus because we reinvest this in things like research, clinical trials and the running costs of a major hospital.”
Denise Turner, Head of Billing and Credit
Why Healthcode?
Fortunately, there was a more efficient solution close at hand. Our Shortfall Collection Service, in partnership with patientzone, was pioneered to automate the time-consuming process of identifying and recharging shortfalls and then give patients (and other payors) a convenient, easy and secure way to settle their account online.
The London Clinic were already benefiting from all of the other time-saving and efficiency features of the Clearing Service. They welcomed us as a trusted partner and were happy to be the first in line to pilot the service
How it works?
The sophisticated software scans electronic remittances using an integrated code set, automatically identifying any patient liability. After applying the patient's details, a collection instruction is passed to our partners at patientzone. Not only will patientzone send a London Clinic branded collection notice, but it offers a free and secure way for patients to pay. Then it’s just a case of a receipt to the patient and an electronic remittance back to the clinic. Case closed. Just like that.
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Impact on their business
The impact for both the operations team and patients has been crystal clear for The London Clinic. They now have an effortless and efficient way to manage identifying and collecting shortfall payments. With thousands of invoices now processed through the service, there has been a substantial boost to hospital funds for running costs and reinvestment.
“The key benefit has been timeliness. It’s been like having an extra pair of hands. And for the first time we were able to give patients the option to pay online and not have to worry about calling us to pay by credit card or arranging a bank transfer.”
Denise Turner, Head of Billing and Credit