These days, healthcare providers are catering to more patients, which may be as a result of the significant rise in today’s aging population and or changes in healthcare insurance coverage. With such a tremendous increase in patients needing healthcare services, one would think there will be a corresponding increase in the profits generated by the industry. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case. There have been reports of fallen revenues due to factors like the rise of HMOs, Medicare, and Medicaid. Not to mention the sky high deductible plans.
The increasing cost of medical care poses an imminent risk of loss of revenue, which consequently affects the healthcare system negatively. If left unchecked, this loss of income can cause healthcare providers, hospitals and private practices to shut down, thereby depriving the masses of medical attention when they require it. For this reason, healthcare collectors are needed to ensure the ultimate survival of the healthcare system.
Who is a Healthcare Collector?
A healthcare collector is a trained professional that helps to recover unpaid bills by patients, either due to the patient’s negligence or that of their insurance company. Through their efforts, thousands of dollars are recovered, which can be refueled into the healthcare practices, thereby ensuring that they continue to provide health services.
What Brain Skills Do Healthcare Collectors Need?
For healthcare collectors to be able to perform their duties effectively, they must know how to make use of both left-brain and right-brain skills. Outlined below are the reasons why the left and right brain skills are important to healthcare collectors.
· Left-Brain Skills
Left-brain skills are skills that enable healthcare collectors to be objective, practical, and analytical in the process of carrying out their job. It is an essential skill for collectors to have because their job requires them to have an in-depth knowledge of the laws, especially those that concern healthcare collection practices.
Furthermore, without left-brain skills, collectors will be unable to analyze collection situations objectively and implement the laws and policies which they are governed by. In addition, left-brain skills enable healthcare collectors to quickly learn how to use the different software programs and payment portals that make their work easier and efficient.
· Right Brain Skills
Although the objectivity and practicality that the left-brain skills provide help ensure that everything is done accordingly, healthcare collectors must also possess right-brain skills. Right brain skills provide collectors with emotional intelligence, especially as the job involves interacting with people. This enables them to start and sustain conversation easily with patients, as well as to be diplomatic when handling tricky situations or tough clients.
Also, to improve the chances of lost revenues from patients/clients, collectors have to be great at listening, as when patients feel that their concerns are being heard, they are more likely to open up. When they open up, collectors can then discuss the financial implications of defaulting on a health service payment, as well as repayment solutions that will favor both parties.
Which Type of Medical Collectors are on Your Team?
In trying to recover lost payments and revenues, healthcare collectors encounter different people and situations that require them to be professional, as well as empathetic - whether at first party collections stage or collection agency turnover. Thus, they need to develop and learn how to use both the left-brain skills and right-brain skills, to make objective but sensitive decisions that will make the collection process run smoothly while contributing positively to the bottom line.