Small to medium-sized businesses typically run into this problem because they’re not billing or accounting specialists, or have one person handling tax returns, inventory, payroll, P&L, and operational expenses. 

Either of the above scenarios create a reactive billing cycle where initial invoices or statements routinely go out late, or too close to the payment due date.

To avoid this, a business needs to identify the flaws in their billing process and begin taking steps to improve or eliminate them. 

This is especially true for healthcare providers, who provide care and then must wait until the insurance claim process completes before billing the patient. With the majority of health plans now including higher deductibles and more of the costs shifted to patients, physicians and hospitals are facing major cash flow problems.

An obvious solution would be to capture and store a patient’s payment method during their medical visit. Since most patients pay their copay at the end of their visit, this is the perfect time to tokenize, or securely store, that payment method when the tap, swipe, or insert their card. You can read more about that here:

How Capturing Credit Card on File at Patient Intake Shortens DSO, Reduces Bad Debt, and Cuts AR Costs

A Proactive Billing Strategy Should Include Electronic Communication and Self-Service Payment Options

In general, consumers prefer to pay their bills on their own schedule and through their preferred channel. For some, that might be writing and mailing a check. However, recent studies have shown that the most effective collection strategy includes all of the above. Which includes:

• Paying a live person over the phone
• Making a payment through an automated phone payment (Payment IVR)
• Online Payment (increasingly from a mobile device)
• Pay By Text
• Automated Payments

Resources