Tag: Billing Best PracticesIntakePatient Pay
Reading Time: 2 minutesStart Smart: Intake Strategies That Drive Payment Success
When it comes to patient collections, your first impression matters. The intake process is your opportunity to set the tone for financial transparency, efficient billing, and smooth collections. By establishing clear expectations and collecting critical data upfront, you set your organization – and your patients – up for success.
At Allegiance Group, we’ve worked with hundreds of providers who use COLLECTPlus to optimize their patient-pay strategies. And time and again, we’ve seen that the most successful programs all start with a well-structured intake process. Here are the essential best practices to implement today.
Surprises at billing time erode trust and delay payments. That’s why it’s important to estimate a patient’s out-of-pocket responsibility – such as deductibles, co-pays, and co-insurance – before the service or delivery takes place.
By using your billing system’s estimation tools or integrated third-party solutions, you can provide a clear, data-informed projection of what the patient will owe. Not only does this improve the patient experience, but it also builds the foundation for payment discussions.
Once the patient responsibility is estimated, the next step is to clearly explain your Autopay policy. Many providers now require a credit card or bank account on file at the time of intake, which can be used to automatically pay balances as they become due.
With COLLECTPlus, Autopay is secure, flexible, and offers multiple Autopay options to fit patient preferences. Setting this expectation from the beginning reduces friction, ensures faster collections, and minimizes the need for follow-up.
Whenever applicable, collecting the estimated patient portion in advance helps improve your cash flow and reduces the risk of non-payment later. COLLECTPlus supports advance payment processing so you can easily apply payments toward future invoices, especially for rentals or recurring services.
By normalizing this practice during intake, your team reinforces the idea that patient responsibility is not just an afterthought, it’s part of the care process.
One size doesn’t fit all. That’s why COLLECTPlus allows you to set up a variety of Autopay schedules based on the patient’s financial situation. These plans can be tailored for one-time services, recurring rentals, or resupply programs, giving patients the flexibility they need to stay current.
Flexible terms increase enrollment in Autopay, reduce collection efforts, and foster long-term patient satisfaction.
Every successful billing strategy is built on accurate, complete patient data. Always collect:
Clearly explain how you’ll use this information – for statements, reminders, and follow-up – and ensure patients understand their ability to opt out. With COLLECTPlus, communication preferences are fully customizable and tracked automatically.
Make it standard practice to create a patient’s payment portal profile during intake. This ensures:
The result? A smooth billing experience that supports faster payments and eliminates common roadblocks.
The Bottom Line
Intake isn’t just about forms – it’s about forming habits. When you streamline intake with COLLECTPlus, you reinforce financial transparency, increase payment velocity, and reduce manual work for your staff.
Ready to improve your intake process?
Explore how COLLECTPlus can help you streamline workflows, reduce billing costs, and boost your bottom line.
Quality DME was writing off a lot of patient A/R because they did not have a complete Patient-pay Billing and Collection system. Their staff was responsible for printing and mailing statements but did not have time to make collection calls. So, they used the outside collection company. Without an integration with their collection company, it was challenging to track the payments the collection company received.
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