One of the biggest factors behind 38% of Americans delaying necessary medical care is “they couldn’t afford” the healthcare cost. While the medical costs are increasing, what makes it even more challenging for most patients is the fact that approx. 26 million people in the U.S. are uninsured. This does not include those who had insurance but still had to delay care due to insufficient coverage.
But it’s not just patients who struggle—healthcare providers also feel the impact. Rising costs and delayed payments create cash flow issues, leading to a longer average revenue cycle. Although the ideal average revenue cycle for healthcare facilities should be 30–40 days, for most it is generally over 50–60 days. It means many facilities have to wait almost 2 months to receive payments. This puts the financial stability of healthcare facilities at risk. This is where patient financing for providers can be the solution. Let’s dive into how it is so!
After reading this blog, you’ll know:
♦ What Is Patient Financing?
♦ Why Should Healthcare Practices Offer Patient Financing?
♦ What Are the Benefits of Patient Financing for Providers?
♦ How to Enhance Patient Financing While Ensuring a Seamless Patient Experience?
♦ What Are the Benefits of Implementing Denefits Patient Financing Solution?
What Is Patient Financing?
Patient financing for providers opens the door for patients to opt for flexible payment options. This allows them to settle medical bills in easier-to-manage monthly payments. Hence, it provides patients the convenience of paying over time while the healthcare practice enjoys timely recurring revenue and sustainable financial stability.
Why Should Your Healthcare Practice Offer Patient Financing?
1 in 10 Americans struggles with medical debt. As most people live paycheck to paycheck, they more often than average avoid healthcare visits due to the high upfront costs. Hence, flexibility in payments is the demand of the hour for many patients.
Understanding the importance of healthcare practice patient financing can help providers address affordability challenges and ensure patients receive necessary care without financial stress.
Understanding the Need for Patient Financing
♦ Burden of Medical Bills on Patients
With out-of-pocket costs higher than ever, even those with partial insurance coverage feel burdened with paying off their medical bills. In fact, nearly 3M people in the United States owe more than ten thousand dollars in medical debt.
♦ Limited Access to Healthcare
The fear of accumulating more medical debt makes many reconsider and forego the needed care. Lack of personalized financing options leads to limiting access to needed healthcare services for patients.
♦ Financial Difficulties for Providers
To recover the outstanding medical bills, practices must place considerable strain on their resources to recover the sum. Additionally, most of these bills may eventually be written off, costing lost revenue.
One of the key ways to tackle these challenges and enhance patient financing is by offering flexible payment solutions that cater to diverse patient needs. For Instance, giving patients an alternative to paying their medical bills, such as Denefits, can prove to be an efficient solution to offer patient financing for healthcare providers.
Find Out How Payment Plans Can Enhance Both Patient Care and Your Practice!
What Are the Benefits of Patient Financing for Providers?
Integrating a healthcare practice patient financing platform can benefit healthcare facilities as well as patients in many ways:
1. Revenue Boost
When patient financing is available, more patients feel comfortable visiting healthcare professionals. This approach is integral to enhancing healthcare access while boosting revenue generation for the practices.
2. Better Access to Healthcare Services
Flexible financing with easy payment plans empowers patients to confidently manage their finances. Hence, they don’t need to forego the treatment or delay it for long when they know they can afford it in smaller monthly payments. As a result, practices build a stream of recurring revenue while patients enjoy easier access to needed care.
3. Streamlined Payment Collection
Offering patient financing reduces financial bottlenecks for healthcare providers. It minimizes the need for manual follow-ups for collections as the automated system handles the grunt work while the staff can focus more on patient care.
4. Stable Cash Flow
By offering financing through flexible payment plans, practices can enjoy stable cash flow through recurring monthly payments. This strengthens the financial stability of healthcare facilities and helps ensure continuous and predictable income flow when managing facility expenses.
5. Improved Operational Efficiency
Financing solutions like Denefits can also help automate the key payment processes, reducing the operational burden on the staff. When payment plan management is automated, it frees up the staff's time to focus more on patient care, while the payment tracking and collections are handled by the automated system.
6. Competitive Edge
Offering flexible financing also helps providers stay competitive and stand apart from the competition. When you remove financial barriers and make care more accessible, you not only attract more patients but also improve patient retention, giving your practice a competitive advantage over competitors.
7. Reduces Risk of Lost Revenue
The option to pay at a schedule that fits the pace that feels comfortable for patients can significantly help reduce the risk or revenue loss. A patient-oriented financing system reduces the risk of defaults and unpaid bills. By making care more affordable and accessible to a broader range of patients, they are more likely to pay on time. Hence, it helps maintain stable cash flow and increases patient retention.
8. Improved Patient Experience
Patients’ financial experience is a critical factor in their healthcare journey. So, if you offer quick and easily available financing options that perfectly fit their needs, it can significantly impact them, helping foster trust and develop positive long-term patient-provider relationships.
9. Higher Patient Satisfaction
Financing that prioritizes patient care and considers patients’ payment preferences to reduce financial strain makes them feel supported. This often leads to higher satisfaction rates and also helps boost the healthcare practice’s reputation.
How to Enhance Patient Financing While Ensuring a Seamless Patient Experience?
In the medical setting, offering financing to patients can be the lifeline they need to get the treatment they may not have been able to afford otherwise.
However, offering financing may be easier done than you think! Here are the steps:
► Identify Patient Financing Needs
The first step is to assess and narrow down which problems the patients are facing. For instance, many patients are unable to qualify for medical financing due to poor credit scores, which is often a requirement for providers like CareCredit. It is also one of the reasons they may not be able to get healthcare insurance. So, a payment plan solution that offers “no-credit-check-financing” like Denefits can be the ideal choice.
► Choose the Right Financing Platform
You also need to explore a range of patient financing options for providers to determine which ones can cater to the specific needs of patients and your healthcare facilities. Nowadays, most providers offer multiple financing options (minimum 3–4 types) with a mix of traditional and innovative flexible financing options that require ‘no credit check’.
The Top Patient Financing Companies as per the latest data include:
- Denefits
- CareCredit
- Momnt
- Compassionate Finance
- AfterPay
- PatienFi
- Sunbit
- Wells Fargo Healthcare Financing
- Finance Your Care
► Implementation
It's best to choose a financing solution that can fit into your existing workflow smoothly. For instance, Denefits can be readily integrated, working alongside your existing traditional financing options and providing personalized financing solutions for patients who may not qualify to pay via other methods.
What Are the Benefits of Implementing Denefits Patient Financing Solution?
- No Credit Check: Patients can qualify for flexible payment plans without any negative impact on their credit score.
- Quick & Easy Process: Without credit checks, the process is much quicker with faster approval rates and instant access to the healthcare services they need.
- Predictable Recurring Cash Flow: Denefits ensures timely payments and also offers payment protection to safeguard practices against missed payment risks. This makes it a great solution to enhance patient financing and create predictable recurring revenue.
- Automated Payment Plan Management: The automated system manages and monitors payment plans in real-time, sending timely reminders, collecting payments, and ensuring secure transactions for seamless finances.
- Automated Debt Recovery: Lost revenue to bad debt is the worst-case scenario for any business. However, by automating the debt recovery process, you can recover missed payments more efficiently without aggressive collection tactics or straining patient relationships.
- Less Stress, More Revenue: When you have to spend less time chasing payments, you can focus more on patient care and practice growth.
Bottom Line
Providing patient financing is a win-win approach for providers. It not only helps practices ensure long-term financial success but also helps enhance access to a wide range of healthcare services for patients from any financial background. Implementing the right healthcare practice patient financing solution, can transform your practice and positively impact the lives of your patients.
If you want to know how Denefits can help open up the doors to accessible healthcare and tap into potential growth opportunities for your practice, sign up today!
FAQs: Answering Top Queries on Patient Financing for Providers
1. How to Offer Financing to Medical Patients?
Simply partner with a third-party financing provider like Denefits, CareCredit, or whichever fits your practice’s patient financing needs. You can also offer multiple financing options so patients can choose the one they find most convenient.
2. How to Choose the Right Financing Option for My Practice?
It depends on your patients’ financing needs, your practice’s financial goals, and a range of factors. For instance, whether you offer high-cost healthcare services or cosmetic dentistry, a wide range of businesses can benefit from offering flexible payment plans to customers.
3. What Are the Best Financing Solutions for Providers Looking to Enhance Patient Financing?
Denefits stands out as a leading patient financing solution for medical patients with its ‘no-credit-check’ payment plans, automated payment plan management, seamless integration, and innovative features. Other financing solutions include CareCredit, Compassionate Finance, Sunbit, Wells Fargo Healthcare Financing, AccessOne and Finance Your Care.
Make Your Services Accessible to More Patients
