Many doctors go into practice to help people without thinking about the business side of things. Once you get into the real world, you start to realize how hard it is to get people to pay you. Here are some things you can do to get paid faster.

Take Payment Upfront

The usual practice in most medical offices is to check in, go through your appointment, and pay on the way out. With people in a rush to leave, many people skip the last step. Some just forget to bring their checks or debit card.

Create a more seamless experience for your patients and get paid faster by taking payment when they check in. If you take card payments, you can handle it just like a gas station. Pre-authorize the card then adjust for the final charges without the need for the patient to stop by again. For check payments, you can take the standard or expected copay. You'll still need to settle some bills afterward, but it won't be as many as before.

Keep Payment Authorizations on File

Another thing you can do for your regular patients to make things easier is to keep a credit card or bank account on file. You can get them to authorize a maximum payment amount when they sign up and then bill them automatically each time they visit. Most payment systems will automatically ask them to update expiring cards for you.

Send Regular Billing Statements

When you are owed money, don't hesitate to collect it. The electric company wouldn't. Send out bills daily if you can but no later than a week or two after each appointment. Continue to send a billing statement as a reminder every two weeks until you're paid in full. Depending on your clients, you can do this either by mail or email.

Use Patient Billing Services

One of the biggest reasons doctors don't put better billing practices in place is that they just don't have time. You can use a patient billing services company to do all of the above for you. Even though there's a fee based on how much you bill, it's usually much less than what you lose in unpaid bills if you aren't following good billing practices. You'll also save time you would have spent following up on bills and be able to spend more time helping people.

To learn more, talk to a local medical patient billing services company like Medical Financial Specialists today.