How an Integrated Payments Solution Can Improve Your Practice’s Cash Flow

During the first quarter of the year, many practices struggle with cash flow stagnation caused when deductibles reset and thus the whole burden of payment falls on patients. There is also a current trend of increasing health insurance costs such as higher deductibles, premiums and copays that will shift even more financial burden to patients and is likely to further exacerbate this issue for practices in 2021. This means it is more important than ever for practices to effectively manage their cash flow to ensure they are able to weather any unexpected financial issues that might occur throughout this year.

One way to improve your practice’s cash flow and avoid revenue bottlenecks is to implement an integrated payments solution. In this blog, we will look at a number of ways that such a solution can improve your practice’s cashflow.

Accept a Wider Variety of Payment Methods

These days, we are living in an increasingly cashless economy. Very few people are still paying their bills via mailed checks or with cash in person. In fact, according to research, 70 percent of consumers currently use at least three different methods to pay their bills each month. Another study found that 20 percent of online healthcare payments are made on a mobile device.

This means your practice needs to be able to accept whatever payment methods are most convenient for your patients to ensure they can pay their balances as soon as they are able and willing. This will reduce the amount of time in Accounts Receivable and improve cash flow.

Providing a Better Billing Experience = Prompt Payments

Perhaps one of the most important rules of a successful business is “Always make it easy for people to pay you.” Bad billing experiences can lead to delays in payment in an industry where payment collection is already difficult. In fact, one survey found 73 percent of providers report that it takes them one month or longer to collect on moneys owed from patients.

When your practice is able to provide patients with a simple and convenient billing experience, however, they are more likely to pay promptly. Research supports this, and one study found that over 75 percent of patients paid their bills promptly (in full or in stages) when they were satisfied with their provider’s billing experience. Having a seamless billing and payment experience that is user friendly for patients will allow for prompt payments.

Better Insight into Cashflow

For small practices especially, cash flow management can make you or break you. In fact, 80% of small businesses fail within a few years because of poor cash flow management. The use of an integrated payments solution helps streamline this process by reducing redundant data entry and automating the process of financial data capture.

To learn how Nextech’s integrated Payments solution can improve your practice’s cash flow, fill out this form and a member of our team will be in touch soon!