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Success Story: Pediatric Clinic Receives Payments in Minutes with Kareo Texts!
By Alesa Lightbourne | January 12, 2022
In today’s digital world, snail mail often goes unopened and unread. So, if you’re still relying on paper invoices, you’re missing out on an important way to power up your revenue cycle.
Here’s how one clinic gets paid faster – often immediately after they send the bill. The patients at Greensboro Pediatric Surgery are children, and it’s their parents who pay the bills. “These are younger adults who are very tech savvy,” says Katie Howell, practice manager. “They weren’t even seeing the bills we mailed out every month. Also, they complained about the hassle of locating a checkbook and a stamp.
We had to find a better way to communicate – and get paid.” Here is what they did:
When Kareo rolled out its new text messaging feature in Engage, Howell saw its potential right away. “Our patients’ parents do everything online. They always have their phone in their hand, and they read every new text the minute it comes in. I was eager to use texts for appointment reminders, surveys and soliciting feedback. What surprised me was the difference it made when we tried it for billings,” she says.
Howell’s experiment with SMS invoicing bore fruit right away. “Whenever I send out a text, I start receiving payments in minutes,” she says. “About half of our clients pay the same day that they get our text. Compare this with the weeks it typically takes to get responses from paper bills. Our average turnaround time is twice as fast now that we’ve implemented texting.” One reason behind this is a 100% delivery rate for text messages, Howell notes. “None are ever kicked back due to an incorrect address. With texting, nobody ever tells me that they didn’t receive the bill.”
“Clients like paying by text because it makes life so much easier,” Howell continues. “It’s really simple to click on a link and pay by credit card. Clients can take action while the invoice is still fresh in their mind, wherever they might be, and the rest assured that the matter is all taken care of.”
Families are often unprepared for emergency procedures, and shocked by how much procedures cost, even after insurance kicks in. “As a courtesy, we send out a text statement soon after each surgery, just to make the family aware of the total cost,” Howell explains. “Then we invite them to call us to set up a payment plan. Emergencies make up the bulk of our bad debt. Our uncollected accounts dropped by 12% after just a few months of starting the practice of texting.”
Howell reports that texting has freed up a considerable amount of her time. “The great thing about electronic payments is that they’re posted automatically. That reduces hours of data inputting. My phone time is way down, too, because clients can simply go to their Kareo portal for explanations of charges and payments.” She adds that she only sends paper bills when texts fail to get a response, saving hours otherwise spent on mailings.
And with fewer bills going to collections, she saves at least half an hour in research on each delinquent account.
To learn more about how Kareo's engagement technology and how its powerful texting capabilities can transform your revenue stream, click here or contact your Kareo rep.
To learn more ways to earn additional revenue in 2022, join us for our January 25 webinar on Achieving Clean Claims and Reducing Denials in 2022. You can save your seat here. You can also read more about tips on getting paid in 2022 by downloading our white paper on the topic here.
Here’s how one clinic gets paid faster – often immediately after they send the bill. The patients at Greensboro Pediatric Surgery are children, and it’s their parents who pay the bills. “These are younger adults who are very tech savvy,” says Katie Howell, practice manager. “They weren’t even seeing the bills we mailed out every month. Also, they complained about the hassle of locating a checkbook and a stamp.
We had to find a better way to communicate – and get paid.” Here is what they did:
Send bills via text
When Kareo rolled out its new text messaging feature in Engage, Howell saw its potential right away. “Our patients’ parents do everything online. They always have their phone in their hand, and they read every new text the minute it comes in. I was eager to use texts for appointment reminders, surveys and soliciting feedback. What surprised me was the difference it made when we tried it for billings,” she says.
Immediate revenue
Howell’s experiment with SMS invoicing bore fruit right away. “Whenever I send out a text, I start receiving payments in minutes,” she says. “About half of our clients pay the same day that they get our text. Compare this with the weeks it typically takes to get responses from paper bills. Our average turnaround time is twice as fast now that we’ve implemented texting.” One reason behind this is a 100% delivery rate for text messages, Howell notes. “None are ever kicked back due to an incorrect address. With texting, nobody ever tells me that they didn’t receive the bill.”
Click to pay
“Clients like paying by text because it makes life so much easier,” Howell continues. “It’s really simple to click on a link and pay by credit card. Clients can take action while the invoice is still fresh in their mind, wherever they might be, and the rest assured that the matter is all taken care of.”
To learn more ways to earn additional revenue in 2022, join Kareo's webinar on Achieving Clean Claims and Reducing Denials in 2022. Our webinar is scheduled for January 25, 2022 at 10 am PST and you can save your seat here.
Fewer surprises, less bad debt
Families are often unprepared for emergency procedures, and shocked by how much procedures cost, even after insurance kicks in. “As a courtesy, we send out a text statement soon after each surgery, just to make the family aware of the total cost,” Howell explains. “Then we invite them to call us to set up a payment plan. Emergencies make up the bulk of our bad debt. Our uncollected accounts dropped by 12% after just a few months of starting the practice of texting.”
Streamlining the office
Howell reports that texting has freed up a considerable amount of her time. “The great thing about electronic payments is that they’re posted automatically. That reduces hours of data inputting. My phone time is way down, too, because clients can simply go to their Kareo portal for explanations of charges and payments.” She adds that she only sends paper bills when texts fail to get a response, saving hours otherwise spent on mailings.
And with fewer bills going to collections, she saves at least half an hour in research on each delinquent account.
To learn more about how Kareo's engagement technology and how its powerful texting capabilities can transform your revenue stream, click here or contact your Kareo rep.
To learn more ways to earn additional revenue in 2022, join us for our January 25 webinar on Achieving Clean Claims and Reducing Denials in 2022. You can save your seat here. You can also read more about tips on getting paid in 2022 by downloading our white paper on the topic here.
Submitted by cher.knebel on Wed, 2022-01-12 10:31
About the Author
Alesa Lightbourne is a prize-winning author, professor and former dean of an international business school. As a freelance writer, her clients have included Fortune...
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