Expand your patient offer with Patient Financing
At AMS we are always looking at the best ways to help independent physicians by consulting with them on different ways to increase their monthly revenue. 
One great way to do that is having a way to offer your patients financing for high health care cost. So having a Patient Financing solution to offer, will expand your patient offer.
High health care cost and having a health insurance plan that will cover all expenses are among the most frequent concerns of paying for health care, affecting nearly all patients over a lifetim
In 2013, patient out-of-pocket spending was projected to have grown 3.2 percent, slightly slower than the growth rates in 2011 and 2012, and to have reached $338.6 billion. Relatively slow growth in out-of-pocket spending is due to low growth in utilization, and higher cost-sharing requirements for the insured, which tend to discourage people from using covered services. Out-of-pocket spending growth was projected to decrease by 0.2 percent in 2014 as a result of the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansions. While out-of-pocket spending growth is projected to accelerate after 2015, reaching a peak of 5.8 percent in 2020, the out-of-pocket share of health spending was projected to fall from 11.7 percent in 2013 to 9.9 percent by 2023.
While this projected growth could be another indication of our slow, but steady, economic recovery, patients may still hesitate to move forward with a recommended health care treatment plans because of concerns about cost. That’s why now more than ever practices should consider adding patient financing to ensure that they have a comprehensive range of payment options in place to help patients get the care they need — when they need it.
Some practices try to help cost by billing patients in-house, but when you take on the responsibility of extending credit to patients, you also incur the cost and risk associated with it as well — including late payments, bad debt and uncollected accounts. What many practices are discovering is that choosing a third-party patient financing program is a better solution that allows them to help more patients get the treatment they need while maintaining a financially healthy practice.
Patients truly appreciate and have even come to expect some level of assistance from the practice when it comes to managing the cost of care. In a study conducted by Inquire Market Research, 32% of patients stated that without an obvious payment solution, they would ask their health care provider to function in the role of a financing company by billing them.
While nearly every health care provider has some degree of accounts receivable — when you take on the responsibility of billing patients, it can have a significant impact on your bottom line. In fact, when you consider the investment in time and resources to process payments, track down late payments and make collection calls — the cost that a practice incurs to provide this value-added service in-house can be considerable
In addition, research shows that once an account goes uncollected beyond 90 days, the chances of it being paid are significantly lowered. While every attempt should be made to receive payment, even if that means handing the patient over to a collection agency, when efforts fail, uncollected fees become a bad debt write-off that can further impact your practice financially.
Instead of dealing with the risks and expense of billing patients, a better way to help manage costs is to add a third-party or outside patient financing program to your practice’s financial policy. Third-party patient financing is actually quite common in many health care fields including dentistry, ophthalmology, cosmetic surgercy, audiology and even veterinary medicine. Using a third-party financing program is usually pretty simple. Patients apply for financing and once approved, can immediately access their credit to pay for treatment over time with convenient monthly payments. Because it’s easier to fit the cost of care into their monthly budget, more patients can move forward with recommended treatmen
To learn more about how you can expand your patient offer by using Patient Financing. Then contact AMS and schedule a meeting with your local Certified Ancillary Consultant.