Nearly 80% of healthcare providers are not able to collect balances over $1,000 within 30 days of sending a bill, according to the results of the 10th edition of the Trends in Healthcare Payments Annual Report, which was released by InstaMed, a J.P. Morgan company, earlier this week.
The report is an 88-page snapshot of how healthcare providers are managing at collecting payments from individuals and offers a comprehensive set of data that would be valuable for any company collecting healthcare debt.
The percentage of healthcare providers that said their revenue cycle concern was patient receivables has increased to 66% in 2019, from 60% in 2010, according to the report. Nearly three-quarters of healthcare providers said it takes more than one month to collect on outstanding patient balances.
Many providers are not keeping up with available technology to help improve their collection efforts, according to the report. Only 23% of providers are offering eStatements and 58% of providers who offer eStatements say they send less than half of their statements electronically. And nearly two-thirds of providers do not yet offer automatic payments as part of their revenue cycle strategy.
“This year’s report shows the continued adoption of digital experiences and approaches across consumers, providers and payers. In the COVID-19 environment, we believe these trends will accelerate and now include growth in remote patient check-in, significant increases in contactless payments, meaningful expansion of telemedicine and an overall shift to digital experiences in healthcare,” said Bill Marvin, CEO, InstaMed and Managing Director, J.P. Morgan, in a press release announcing the results of the report.
