Payments > Patient Billing

Insurance vs. Patient Pay

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gurumedbill:
I just want to throw my two cents in on this topic...
What the office charges a patient is completely up to them.  They can essentially charge anything they want.  With that said I believe they should get the best price out there.  If you ask any doctor they will say they have all wish they were a cash only practice (and by cash I just mean no insurance).  I do bill for one office like that and as you can imagine it is a breeze.  Sure the more offices that don't deal with insurances means it is less likely they will need our services but that doesn't change the fact that cash patients are the easiest to bill for. 
In a nutshell...they can charge whatever they want...but in my opinion they should pay less than any insurance out there because of they cost the least to bill.
Of course there are those that are deadbeats but that is for another thread all together.

PMRNC:

--- Quote ---What the office charges a patient is completely up to them.  They can essentially charge anything they want.  With that said I believe they should get the best price out there.  If you ask any doctor they will say they have all wish they were a cash only practice (and by cash I just mean no insurance).  I do bill for one office like that and as you can imagine it is a breeze.  Sure the more offices that don't deal with insurances means it is less likely they will need our services but that doesn't change the fact that cash patients are the easiest to bill for.
In a nutshell...they can charge whatever they want...but in my opinion they should pay less than any insurance out there because of they cost the least to bill.
Of course there are those that are deadbeats but that is for another thread all together.
--- End quote ---

I agree, however if you have an all "cash" practice, what you charge won't mean squat if your not collecting 100% up front. I converted a practice to all cash last year and it was NOT a breeze. One of the things we made sure we did was post notices, mail every patient a notice (MORE THAN ONCE). 6 months in advance (for BCBS Contracts it was longer). When the "magic" day came their staff confirmed appts the day before and each patient was told what they were to pay in advance. Payments were collected prior to entering the exam rooms. This was NOT easy and the office staff did have a few bleeding heart moments but after about 3 months they had a 97% cash collection rate.. still working on the other 3 %.  There are patients that will still have hardship cases and we have the staff go the "route" with hardship agreements including a complete breakdown of all their income/bills to be fair to all patients. We have someone on staff who reviews these to be sure a hardship case is justified.  It takes a LOT Of dedication to run a cash practice, I think it's actually more disciplined on the staff/doctor than billing insurance where you have some lead-way with patients and balance.  One of the hardest things to do was to keep the doctor OUT of any payment talk aside from discussing care/future care, he let the office staff have full lead on the money issues so that he would NOT be tempted.   Also cash practices rely 80% of the area in which they are located too.   I'm pretty proud of this conversion, I am on a consultants salary only now as I only do follow up on the ones with payment plans, and any other compliance/policy issues the practice has.

Buglet10:

--- Quote from: DMK on August 02, 2012, 02:24:39 PM ---You can have a cash price for patient's with no insurance.  It should be fair though. Our cash price is based on the average "allowed" amount of the insurances we contract with.  If we can take the cut from the insurance company, we should take it from the patients who don't have insurance.  We don't want our care to be out of reach, financially, for our patients. 

Just a side note, I will say that the patient's who have to pay out of their own pocket appreciate the doctor SO much more than people who never get a bill. Worker's Comp patients have a tendency to be the most abusive of care since their job "owes it to them".  They flake on appointments and we can't charge for the missed appointment.  Just a pet peeve of mine.   :-[

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