There are many unique challenges that Long-Term Care (LTC) Pharmacies face. However, the area that requires the most attention is patient billing. If your organization doesn't properly manage its accounts receivables (AR), you can expect a delay in cash flow. This is extremely difficult to recover from.
With over 25 years of experience in helping LTC Pharmacies streamline their revenue cash flow, we’ve assisted in many unique client scenarios. At the end of the day, many LTC Pharmacies still leave hundreds of thousands of dollars in AR due to employee error.
Some companies simply struggle with lowering their debt. Usually due to a lack of strategy and processes associated with tackling collections. As an LTC Pharmacy, it’s important to stay up to date on trends, practices, and software that’s specific to your industry. By doing this, you can hopefully avoid inadvertently bottlenecking your organization’s cash flow.
The billing department funds all other departments. That’s why it is important not to neglect these processes. In this blog, we will outline some tools and best practices that we regularly implement, which help drive collections to their organizations.
Table of Contents
The Future is Digital
Long term care communities often get accused of lagging behind the times when it comes to technological capabilities. There are many reasons for this.
However many LTCs fear that their customer base is just not ready to adopt new technology. Let's dive into what the data says about the technological literacy of our elderly community.
76% of Americans aged 65 and older own smartphones. While 90% of Americans aged 65 and older report using the internet. These numbers will continue to increase as the web-based population ages.
However, it is also important to note that tools around patient billing do not have to be mutually exclusive.
Etactics gives LTC Pharmacies the ability to print and mail patient statements. This gives the choice for those who request the more traditional delivery method. Avoid pushing anyone into electronic delivery services if they are not ready.
On the other hand, we do offer electronic delivery of statements for those who choose to opt in. This also comes with online payment options.
We also give LTC Pharmacy admins the ability to track clicks and opens for electronic delivery. So if an individual fails to review their online statements, Etactics can print and mail a statement to their physical address. Instead of guessing what percentage of your community is online, you can actually track and measure it yourself. And provide alternatives for those not participating in the online options.
When providing online payment options to the LTC Pharmacy community, the most important thing you can offer is simplicity. Limit the number of steps toward making a payment. Reduce the amount of options and unnecessary features.
Keep the process simple and to the point. The purpose of electronic payments is exactly that - quick, easy, and painless.
Print and Mail Best Practices
Because the LTC Pharmacy community predominantly utilizes legacy print and mail statements, it is important to incorporate tools to verify that your patient statements are being delivered.
The following tools can ensure that your patients don't miss any important financial communication coming from your business...
Email Tracking: The ability to track whether an email gets opened. And if an electronically delivered statement gets viewed.
Intelligent Mail Barcode: Track where your statements are while in transit. You can track the date and time a statement reaches any of the various USPS facilities. This helps make sure your mail gets to the patient in time.
Address Correction: Provides the ability to verify if the address you are mailing to is a valid address by the USPS. This allows you to identify outdated addresses flagged by the National Change of Address (NCOA). It also presents you with updated, recommended replacement addresses.
How does implementing payment solutions differ for LTC Pharmacies?
One area that many LTC pharmacies struggle with is targeting collections from guarantors.
As you may know, family members frequently assume financial responsibility for patients. The patient is not always assuming financial responsibility. Because of this, you need data collection and patient communication processes that accommodate whoever makes payments.
This requires a necessity for LTC pharmacies to offer reliable…
Statement delivery methods (email, SMS, mail).
Payment options.
Tailor options to the guarantor rather than the patient. For online payment portals, provide credentials to emails and names associated with guarantors. This is in addition to the patients.
Guarantors need the ability to review statements digitally, make and schedule payments, and set up recurring payments. Giving more options and visibility to your guarantors will provide them with customer satisfaction and peace of mind.
Another common theme we see with LTC pharmacies is how they manage billing to LTC facilities and their respective patients. In some cases, the pharmacy will bill the facility directly.
Statements, payments, and practice management systems need to reflect this form of billing. In other cases, the pharmacy will bill the patient but send statements to the facility.
This requires a process we call householding. Householding consolidates multiple statements within one envelope. Driving your postage costs down and limiting the possibility of mail going missing during transit.
With householding, you’re able to track, organize, and review statements/payments associated with their facilities and patients.
Last but not least, I always encourage LTC Pharmacies to ask their statement and payment vendors, “Are you familiar with my practice management system and how many clients do you have using them today?”.
If your vendors don't know who frameworks QS1, PioneerRX and SuiteRX, are, they probably don't know much about the pharmacy space. Or the nuances you deal with daily. It is important that those assisting with your billing also work well with your practice management of choice. If there is a problem and statements take weeks to send out, your ability to recover those payments becomes more difficult after 30, 60, and 90 days.
Takeaways
In summary, patient billing is the cornerstone of a productive and functional organization.
For LTC Pharmacies, it is important to know who your patient is. As well as who is financially taking responsibility. Also, prioritize providing communication methods that facilitate payments promptly.
As our society continues to adopt advancing technology, the LTC pharmacy space will see a greater dependency on electronic communication for collections.
It is nearly half the cost of print and mail and can speed up your recovery as digital and instantaneous. And for those who still request print and mail, it is essential to offer opt-in and opt-out options catered to your clientele's needs.
