How to Improve Your Patient Statement Design to Receive Faster Payments
A survey by Waystar revealed that 48% of patients have delayed paying their medical bills for several reasons. 16% of the surveyed patients forgot to pay while 18% said their bill was incorrect or had errors. Another 19% of the patients were unsure how much they needed to pay and 13% didn’t know when the bill was due.
What does this tell you about getting your medical bills paid on time?
It highlights the significance of sending accurate and timely patient statements to avoid the risk of not getting paid. Healthcare institutions must put time and effort into designing clear, professional-looking statements to present the patient’s transactional information without confusion.
In this blog, we will discuss the tips and tricks to create or design high-quality patient statements that would get you paid faster! Let’s dig in!
Key Takeaways:
- There are many reasons patients don’t pay their bills on time, including getting incorrect statements, not getting them on time, and not having clear payment instructions.
- Other patients don’t make timely payments because they are unsure of how much they owe the provider and what the due date is.
- Healthcare institutions should improve the statement design to get paid faster. They must include all relevant information, offer flexible payment options, and leave adequate white space to avoid confusion.
- PostGrid’s patient statement print and mail services can help you send timely and accurate statements online, saving you time and trouble.
Top Reasons for Healthcare Bill Nonpayment
Patients Think Their Insurance Will Cover Their Medical Expenses in Total
One of the most common reasons for nonpayment is that patients believe their insurance will cover the entire cost. This assumption can be due to a lack of clarity around what their insurance really covers or a misunderstanding of their out-of-pocket responsibilities.
When patients assume they owe nothing, they’re less likely to act promptly on statements that indicate otherwise. Educating patients upfront about what their insurance does and does not cover can help reduce this confusion.
Patients Aren’t Sure of What They Owe Healthcare Providers
Many patients struggle to understand how much they owe due to complex, itemized statements. They might feel overwhelmed because many medical bills have complicated codes, technical jargon, and multiple line items without clear explanations.
Such lack of transparency in the billing process can create distrust, and patients may delay payments until they fully understand the bill—or abandon the payment process altogether.
Patients Don’t Know When to Pay Due to Complex Statement Design
The design of a patient statement plays a crucial role in how quickly a patient pays their bill. Patients might miss crucial information like the payment due date or total amount due if you have buried it all within the statement or formatted it confusingly.
Without clear deadlines, patients are more likely to procrastinate or forget to make their payments on time. Statements need to be clear, concise, and visually appealing to highlight the critical elements that drive immediate action.
Patients Thought the Bills Have Errors
Patients may delay payment or refuse to pay altogether if they feel the bill is incorrect. This feeling can arise because of discrepancies in the charges or from unanticipated costs that weren’t communicated during their care.
A survey by the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) found that 92% of patients would be more willing to pay their bills if they felt confident in the accuracy of their charges. Transparency, timely updates, and error-free statements can help prevent these issues.
Patients Don’t Get the Statements on Time
Timely delivery of patient statements is essential for fast payment. Your patients are likely to forget about your provided service or lose track of their payments if bills are sent too late or don’t arrive at all. It is better to use an online printing and mailing service to prepare and send your patient statements to the correct recipients on time.
How Can Healthcare Providers Improve Patient Statements for Better Clarity?
Remember the Ws—What, Why, When, Where, Who
You must add the relevant details to your statements that give patients a clear idea of what you want to convey and what you need them to do next. Include this information in every statement:
- The total cost of each service or item, including the full price, any discounts, what insurance pays, and the amount the patient needs to pay.
- The date when the service was provided.
- The name of the healthcare provider who gave the service.
- The patient’s name, birthdate, address, insurance details, and their account number with the medical practice.
- The total amount the patient needs to pay and the deadline for payment.
- A description of the healthcare services or items the patient received, along with a short explanation and the related medical code. Use clear language without abbreviations or complicated medical terms.
- The place where the patient received the healthcare services, including the name of the medical practice, its location, phone number, website, and office hours.
Offer Several Payment Options With Clear Instructions
The Patient Perspectives survey by Tebra revealed that more than 50% of patients prefer paying online. Providing flexible options to let patients pay according to their preferences can improve the collection rates by 20%.
Hence, you should ensure your patient statements have many payment options. You can use a statement print and mail service provider, like PostGrid, to add customized QR codes and PURLs to your mailers. These elements can redirect patients to your online payment portal, wherein they can pay their bills via their preferred channel.
However, it is also crucial to provide easy-to-follow payment instructions. Include accepted payment methods, deadlines (or how to set up installment plans), and contact details for any questions about billing.
Be Creative With Your Patient Statement Design
Let your patient statements represent your healthcare brand and make patients remember you for a long time. You can get creative and use several different colours, fonts, and layouts to highlight significant details in your statements. Also, you can mark the amount due, deadline, and other information in bold to let readers recall them.
Additionally, use coloured shapes and boxes for payment details and your contact information. These elements draw the attention of readers to the crucial details. Just ensure your patient statement design is clutter-free and has adequate white space. Your goal should be to put forward your details in a way people understand and remember.
Get Feedback From Your Staff and Patients
The best way to know if your patient statement design is good and understandable is by asking the people using it. You can send a survey letter or postcard to patients asking them questions about how they like the layout and whether all the particulars are clear. Also, encourage them to drop their suggestions and assure them that you will implement them.
Apart from asking the patients for their feedback, you can involve your staff members in this process. Since they work closely with the patients—they can give you some solid ideas.
These suggestions can enable you to redesign your patient statements and improve their quality. PostGrid’s print and mail services offer many template editing options, allowing you to make quick customizations to your statements. You don’t need to contact printers or send files back and forth for revisions. Our solutions make last-minute changes a breeze!
How Can PostGrid’s Print and Mail Services Help You Send Error-Free and Clean Patient Statements?
PostGrid’s statement printing and mailing services allow you to improve your statement design in many ways. Firstly, you can select a template from the existing design dashboard and create the statements your way. In fact, you can upload your design to customize the statement. Add all the details you need and curate a layout of your choice.
PostGrid allows you to add inserts, custom texts, backgrounds, and even images. Hence, there is no limit to the customizations you can add.
The best part is that you don’t need to worry about manual errors in your statements, like incorrect amounts, due dates, or other details. You can integrate PostGrid within your system to automatically pull the patient information to create the statement automatically. It prevents you from sending incorrect or unclear bills.
Also, you can get your statements designed and printed in only two business days. Such fast and reliable patient statement production ensures that intended recipients get their mailpieces on time.
You can select the delivery option according to your timeline and budget. PostGrid offers several choices. Furthermore, select a date when you want to ship the statements.
Request a demo to learn more about how to improve, print, and mail your patient statements with our automated services!
