Yet Another Reason to Move on From Paper-Focused Patient Billing

Some things are worth paying extra for.  Paper patient statements, we would argue, certainly are not.  

Many of us experienced first-hand the struggles of the Postal Service over the past year and a half during the pandemic.  The shortage in labor and air cargo capacity along with a record holiday peak season resulted in lengthier delays and more lost mail since the Pony Express.  Now, in an effort to recoup some of its massive financial losses, the USPS just announced a new plan to raise the price of postage and slow down it’s delivery standards.  The new price (58 cents from 55) will kick in on August 29th, so now you can start paying more for a service where 4 out of every 10 pieces of mail will now take an extra 2 days to reach the recipient.  

Healthcare has always been an industry that the USPS could count on, even though these types of price increases and service declines have been happening for quite a while now.  Postage has increased 25% since 2010, and it’s been more than 8 years since the Postal Service has met its delivery standards.  Hey Healthcare, can this be the catalyst that finally changes the way we view physical mail as a tool for billing patients and capturing payments?  It certainly should, and the reasons why have never been clearer.

First of all, given the increase in High Deductible Healthcare Plans and an increase in overall population, more patients owe more money than ever before.  Healthcare entities, including their supporting RCM and billing organizations are sending out a record number of patient statements.  It’s a simple equation, but more statements than ever (3.3 statements on average per patient), at a higher price than ever results in the highest patient billing costs that the industry has seen. 

This is coupled with the fact that patient behaviors and preferences have shifted in ways that make paper statements much less effective.  Millennials recently surpassed baby boomers as the largest population segment (over 75 million).  It’s no surprise why over 70% of American consumers prefer electronic statements over paper.  Is paper still a necessary piece of the puzzle?  Sure it is.  But our data proves that it absolutely should not be the focus, as 71% of patient payments that we receive happen prior to a paper statement being produced.  

It’s also a scary proposition that “snail mail” is about to become even slower. Our data strongly suggests that the quicker you can deliver a bill to a patient after their provider visit, the more likely they are to make a payment.  Over 12% of our payments happen on the first day a patient receives a bill.  By the time a paper statement is queued up in a billing system, printed, mailed and delivered to a patient, the chances of converting that balance to payment has been significantly impacted.  The chances of payments occurring in the first 30 days without a digital-first strategy are almost zero. 

Healthcare has been a major source of revenue for the USPS for a long time. However, strict regulations and outdated systems have proved to be challenging for the adoption of electronic patient billing technologies.  As a provider or the RCM organization representing them, your revenue coming from patient balances and patient satisfaction are too important for you to be paying more for a service that works less for a worse result. Look for electronic billing strategies as a better path forward for you and your patients.