By Barnard Crespi

Whether it is the anxiety that precedes a medical procedure, the uncertainty of an illness, or the physical trauma of a broken bone, dealing with a medical issue is seldom if ever anyone’s idea of relaxing. Needless to say, during such situations, bills are generally one of the last things on the minds of patients or their families.

As such, when bills finally come due, patients will often find themselves addressing these payments at very inconvenient times, thereby adding to the stresses they have already experienced.

With that in mind, for the sake of a patient experience that is as stress-free as possible, it is crucial that medical practices endeavor to provide their patients with multiple channels from which to conduct their payments. These payment channels should not only be simple and straightforward to These types of considerations are driving healthcare providers to explore adding more patient-friendly payment options, including the use of integrated online payment portals, extending already long business hours, and in some cases providing around-the-clock patient support services.

Conversant to this, one payment trend that has made significant inroads in the medical payment processing space is the 24/7 Pay-By-Phone option. Pay-By-Phone leverages a technology commonly known as IVR Payments (Interactive Voice Response). This technology allows patients to make payments for bills over the telephone by interacting with an automated and life-like phone system.

As the processes are automated, not only do patients not have to interact with a person to make a bill payment, but wait times are eliminated as well. This translates into patients being able to make a payment any time of the day, without the need for live staff to field the calls, thereby reducing operational costs to the healthcare provider.

• Benefits To Patients, An IVR Payment solution provides patients with a convenient and secure way to make a payment 24/7 over the telephone. Patients can initiate a payment from any landline or mobile phone when is convenient to them. When designed with the patients in mind, it can be just as easy as talking to a live staff member while taking far less time.
• Benefits to the Medical Practice,
  • Can significantly reduce operational costs by shifting tasks from higher-cost staff to automation.
  • Healthcare providers can decrease invoice-to-cash time by providing a convenient way for patients to pay bills which is not limited by their hours of operation.
  • Providers can handle multiple payment calls concurrently, which allows for reduced wait times for staff handling other patient inquiries
  • Implement at scale automated payment reminder processes, all without affecting staff capacity or productivity.
  • Lastly healthcare providers can improve their practice’s security posture by addressing many security requirements mandated by the PCI Security Standards Council.

Implementing Automated Pay-By-Phone can help your medical practice process patient payments 24/7 over the telephone, reduce operational costs, reduce the load on your administration/billing team, improve invoice-to-cash time, as well as meet PCI and HIPAA compliance requirements.

You Can download the complete guide (here)  Pay-By-Phone Simplified For Medical Practices