Aquina Blog

In hopes of reducing Medicare spending, policymakers have proposed charging seniors a copay for home-based care, figuring that senior citizens will use it less if it isn't free. Last year Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, both proposed copays for the currently free Medicare benefit. The presumed reduction in seniors' usage, plus the copay revenues, would recoup an estimated $1.3 billion to Medicare over 10 years.

According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey, 74% of providers have seen an increase in patient financial responsibility due to rising deductibles. What does this mean for healthcare providers? For the foreseeable future, patient collections will be representing a substantial part of a practice’s total A/R. This is forcing medical providers to rethink their payment collection methods.

Independent medical practices have historically led the industry in their success rate with collecting patient payments, as compared to hospitals and larger healthcare networks. But new numbers from a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey point to the need to give more thought and attention to patient collections. In 2016, 83% of covered workers now face an annual deductible for single coverage. And the deductible has increased to $1,221, from $1,077 in 2015 (KFF.org). For the foreseeable future, patient collections will be representing a substantial part of total A/R. And medical practices are seeing the need to rethink their payment collections methods--not only to improve payment and collections, but to improve patient satisfaction and engagement.

According to an article published this week on healthcarefinancenews.com, “financial pressures and uncertainty about the future of the American healthcare industry are changing the way independent physicians and other medical professionals run their practices… These concerns impact everything from the way a practice is established to technology investments and retirement outlook.”

Every other year The Physicians Foundation conducts a nationwide survey to find out what physicians have to say about the state of the medical profession. In the last year physicians have dealt with sweeping changes to the current healthcare system. How do they feel about all the changes? Here are a few key statistics from the survey:

Health care premiums are set to rise again in 2017, and higher deductibles are requiring patients to shoulder more responsibility. Drew Altman, President and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation stated,