Reporting

Accurate, up-to-date and relevant information is essential for good healthcare and the same goes for your practice finances. Your clinical records are there to support diagnoses and treatment decisions (as well as learning and quality improvement) but how do you keep track of your business’s vital signs?  

In the final blog of this series, I’m going to look at how you can utilise the info you’ve collected throughout the patient journey to create meaningful reports that tell you about the health of your business and help you plan for the future.

Making your data work for you

Data only has real value if you can make sense of it and put it to a practical purpose and this is much easier if everything can be found in one place. A practice management system (PMS) like ePractice Lite or Pro with integrated invoicing and payment tracking features gives you a single, consistent source of truth about your finances at each stage in the invoicing cycle. This is much better than trying to manage and reconcile different systems and processes – a time-consuming chore which increases the chance of mistakes.

A PMS should also give you the reporting tools you need to interrogate and analyse your data. This is important for several reasons:

Understanding your current financial position

Real-time data about your income and expenditure lets you monitor your cashflow position, probably the most important indicator of a healthy business. As I explained last time, insights like aged debt analysis are also really useful for credit control so you can prioritise which invoices to chase.

Financial planning

Accurate financial reports are also essential for cashflow forecasts (predicting your receipts and running costs) so you can budget for the short, medium and long-term. Businesses running on an ad hoc basis are generally more vulnerable to financial shocks.

Measure your performance

Reports can give you insights into what aspects of your practice are doing best and what need more attention which is really useful if you’re looking to grow the business or if you practice from multiple locations. For example, you could use a report to show which services or sites generate the most income, compare activity at two different sites, or set the date parameters to measure longer term trends (or contrast before and after a specific event).  

Supports strategic decision-making

You probably had an instinctive grasp of what was best for your business at the start but that gets harder when your practice is growing and you really want to focus on your patients. Rather than putting yourself under pressure to make a snap business decision (and perhaps repenting at leisure), reporting tools enable you and your team to assess the data, discuss the risks and reach an informed conclusion.

Accounting

As well as being an essential tool for your business, financial records are required for filing tax returns. ePractice reports can be used for accounting purposes although you should remember to remove patient identifiable data before sharing these with your accountant.

What reports do you need?

ePractice Pro includes the widest choice of financial reports to help you run your business. Along with the aged debt analysis, the ones I’ve found especially helpful include:

• Banking – a list of all payments and overpayment credits received for the selected date range. It’s sorted by payment type (BACS, cheque, cash etc) and then by practitioner
• Invoicing lists – a summary of invoices for a requested date range by Invoice Date, Patient or Payor. You can refine to show settled or outstanding invoices and see cost centres and service details
• Summary accounting reports – shows what consultations or treatments took place within a particular date range, the patient’s name, a summary of the invoice, details of any payments which have been received and the balance still outstanding
• Appointment Lists – a list of all appointments by status (e.g. complete, cancelled etc) within the requested date range which can be sub-divided by practitioner. Includes information on the patient, the treatment site, service items, any notes that were attached to the appointment and whether the appointment has been invoiced

Contact us for more info about the reports available in your ePractice plan and how to use them.

Alongside these reports, it’s also really important to record legitimate practice expenses (such as subscription fees for the Clearing Service, the PMS, staff costs, room hire etc). I used to do this on an Excel spreadsheet but you can also use a commercial accounting software package.

Reporting frequency

How often you run reports depends on the type of report, its purpose and the size of your business.

For example, I used to run Banking reports weekly but large clinics might need to do this daily to keep on top of things while independent practitioners might only have the resources to do this fortnightly (I wouldn’t leave it longer than this, or you risk missing something important). On the other hand, if you want to assess the performance of a particular area, a daily or weekly report would probably distort the picture so it makes sense to leave a reasonable time between reports to see the monthly or quarterly trends.

The data generated during the patient journey has the potential to become a real asset, rather than forgotten buried treasure. With the right reporting tools, I think you can uncover accurate and relevant info about your practice that can help you understand where you currently stand, your strengths and weaknesses and how to take your business to the next level.

This is the last of our series on managing the business side of the patient journey, which takes you from pricing to reporting but you can see previous blogs:

1: Pricing

2: Onboarding new patients

3: Managing the patient’s pathway

4: Invoicing

5: Credit control and collections

Discover More

If you want to learn more about how we can help you manage this and other aspects of the patient journey contact our Business Development team. If you’re already an ePractice user and want to explore the system, check out our guides or book a free 1-2-1 tutorial with one of our friendly experts at the Healthcode Academy. 

About Desné

Desné worked in the private healthcare sector at various sites in London for over 30 years. She has extensive experience and skills relating to all areas of practice administration, having been a practice manager from the early 90s to 2019 when she joined Healthcode.  

The post The business of the patient journey | Financial reporting appeared first on Healthcode.

Having duplicate records on your patient database can cause confusion when providing care as well as problems with claims management and invoicing. However, you can prevent this with a simple change to your ePractice settings. 

Make sure the patient you’re adding isn’t already in your database.

1. Click settings and then select practice settings
2. Tick the box check for duplicates when saving patients and then save
3. The system will automatically notify you if a patient’s details match another record in the system so you can check for duplicates and ensure everything is accurate

Learn More

Sign up for a free 1-2-1 online tutorial on adding patients to your database with Healthcode Academy or discover more articles on ePractice in Help and Support. If you need more help, get in touch with one of our friendly team.

The post Check for duplicate patients in ePractice appeared first on Healthcode.

Credit control and collections

The first step to getting paid is sending accurate invoices on time, which I covered last time, but of course that’s not the end of the matter. While most insurers (PMIs) and self-pay patients settle their accounts quickly, there’ll always be a few that need to be chased up and in some cases you’ll need to invoice the patient for a shortfall that hasn’t been covered by their insurance policy.

It’s therefore important to have a foolproof system for managing payments so that you can monitor your finances, see exactly what’s outstanding and then collect what you’re owed. That’s what I’m going to cover this time.

Managing payments

It’s essential to allocate payments correctly as soon as they arrive so check your practice bank account against any insurer remittance advices and expected transactions daily to keep on top of receipts. As well as knowing how much money you have coming into your practice business (your cash inflow), you can also see what invoices have been settled and what haven’t. It’s difficult to say what’s worse – chasing someone for an invoice they’ve already paid or not realising that an invoice is outstanding until it’s much too late.

Every invoice should have a unique reference number so you can keep track of it. The invoice number will usually be automatically generated by your practice management system (although if you’re still running a manual system, it’s another thing you need to consider). When you receive a remittance advice it should include the invoice number, along with other details, so you can correctly allocate the payment in your records.

It should be quite straightforward to match a single invoice against your outstanding accounts. However, things can get more complicated when a transaction covers several invoices (a bulk payment). That’s when it helps to have a practice management system like ePractice with patient account features. For example, Lite and Pro users can record bulk payment transactions and then see a list of outstanding invoices for that payor so it’s easy to split and allocate the payment. Where PMIs send electronic remittances (AXA Health, Aviva and Bupa), we can take that a step further with auto-allocation. This means the system analyses the remittance advice and generates a summary that automatically assigns the payment to the relevant invoices. Users can then confirm or make changes. You can sign-up to our free online tutorial with Healthcode Academy to find out more about payments (Module 3 or Bite-size modules 3A and 3B).

Dealing with shortfalls

Another aspect of payment allocation which can trip practices up is when the PMI hasn’t paid the invoice in full. This means the patient/policy holder is liable for the shortfall but as I’ve said before, it’s important to cover this possibility in your T&Cs so the patient knows what’ll happen.

When a shortfall occurs, you’ll need to reallocate the debt from the insurer to the relevant patient, create an invoice for the balance owed and a short letter explaining the reallocation. The sooner you send the shortfall invoice and letter the better so it makes more sense to use the Online Payments service with patientzone that I described in my invoicing blog. This enables you to send branded electronic invoices, shortfall notifications and reminders to patients with a link to pay securely online.

Once a payment has been received, ePractice will automatically update the outstanding invoice in around 30 minutes to show this. You can also set your patientzone account to send an email or text confirming the payment.

Credit control

It doesn’t matter how many patients you treat, if you don’t get paid then your practice won’t be sustainable. Bad debt is actually one of the most common reasons for businesses to run into cashflow problems and poor cashflow is one of the commonest causes of insolvency, especially for SMEs. Put simply, your practice needs an efficient credit control process to collect what you’re owed in good time and prevent losses due to unpaid invoices.

It makes sense to have someone in your practice with responsibility for credit control and collections – many businesses employ an Accounts Manager – but you could also outsource the task. Outsourcing to a trusted third-party specialist, such as a medical billing company, also makes sense if you want to preserve your patient-practice relationship or find the prospect of chasing a patient for money too awkward.

If you’re managing collections in-house, it’s essential to know the status of all invoices and follow these up as soon as the due date passes. An accounting tool called aged debt analysis is really useful to know when to start chasing as it shows how much each payor owes, segmented into aged debt bands (eg 31 – 60 days, 61 – 90 days outstanding etc). ePractice Pro subscriptions include credit control and aged debt analysis tools to help you keep on top of your practice finances. You can set aged debt bands to suit you, click to find detailed payor information and automate the generation of reminder letters in line with your preferred timescales.

Chasing payments

With PMIs, you’ll generally be made aware if there’s a query at an early stage so you can pick this up with them directly by phone (or use our Secure Messaging service). With late payors, it’s usually best to start with a polite reminder letter, reiterating how much they owe, your T&Cs and explaining how to settle their invoice. They’ll always contact you directly if they have any concerns. If you use our Online Payments, you can send these shortfall letters and payment reminders electronically.

If your first letter doesn’t get the desired response, you’ll need to up the ante. It’s always worth calling the patient if you have their number and feel comfortable about doing this. Otherwise, it’s usual to send two standard reminders and then the final reminder. Final payment reminders typically include a warning that the business will take legal action if the debt isn’t paid by a specific date. Ultimately, it’s up to you whether to take things further or write off the debt – considering factors like how strongly you feel, the amount owed, the time and the cost involved but I’d recommend getting legal advice before making a decision.

While you can maximise the chances of prompt payment by clearly stating your payment terms on invoices and making it easy to pay, it’s just as important to be pro-active about managing payment allocation so you know how much money you have coming into your practice while effective credit control ensures that you’re able to collect every pound that you earn.

Discover More

If you want to learn more about how we can help you manage this and other aspects of the patient journey contact our Business Development team. If you’re already an ePractice user and want to explore the system, check out our guides or book a free 1-2-1 tutorial with one of our friendly experts at the Healthcode Academy. 

About Desné

Desné worked in the private healthcare sector at various sites in London for over 30 years. She has extensive experience and skills relating to all areas of practice administration, having been a practice manager from the early 90s to 2019 when she joined Healthcode.  

Next time – Financial reporting  

The post The business of the patient journey | Credit control and collections appeared first on Healthcode.

Invoicing

In this blog I want to look at the most important aspect of any business – letting people know how much they owe you. If you’ve been practising in the NHS for a long time, you won’t be used to invoicing for your work so talking about money might even feel a little awkward at first.

However, an efficient and accurate invoice process is essential for everyone and for the reputation of your practice. You wouldn’t be impressed with a business that sends an invoice that’s late, unexpected or which contains mistakes so why should patients or insurers be any different?

When should you invoice?

With invoicing, it’s a case of the sooner the better after a patient has received treatment. Prompt invoicing is obviously important for business cash flow as it means you’ll get paid more quickly and reduces the risk of non-payment by the patient or their insurer. In fact, most insurers won’t accept invoices submitted six months after the date of treatment and prompt invoicing also reduces the risk of queries from payors (or enables them to be sorted out quicker while memories are still fresh).

How frequently you invoice is up to you. Some practices prefer to do all their invoicing in batches eg once a week while others invoice on completion of treatment. Much depends on whether you have a member of the team solely responsible for managing invoicing and payments or if they have to fit this in alongside answering the phone, greeting patients, dealing with correspondence and credit control. If you’re concerned about the frequency of your invoicing, you might want to consider outsourcing it to a medical billing company.

What should your invoices include?

To get your invoices right first time, you’ll need to include some key details which I’ve summarised below:

• Invoice number and date
• About you – your name, provider number and payment details
• About the Patient – their name, date of birth, address and policy number (if insured)
• About the Treatment – date, service provided, including the procedure code (if applicable)
• Total charges

You can find best practice guidelines and templates in The Industry’s Guide to Private Medical Invoicing, which we first published in 2014 and revised in February 2024. Not all payors require all the information set out in the guide but following the industry standard means you’ll get in the habit of including it and they’ll have everything needed to process the invoice on receipt.

Efficient invoicing is 80% preparation – meaning you shouldn’t have to stop mid-task to look for relevant info. However, the hard work is done for you if you use a specialist practice management solution where everything you need should be in one place for invoicing and for record-keeping purposes (we’ll cover financial records and reports later in this series). For example, when invoicing from ePractice, you simply select the patient from your database and go on from there. There’s also time-saving features like invoice auto-population (ePractice Lite and Pro) which completes the patient and episode fields when the hospital has already submitted an invoice.

We’ve put together step-by-step guides to invoicing using ePractice’s Quick eBill (for electronic invoices) and Advanced Bill (for electronic or paper invoices) which explains what’s required for each field. You can also sign-up to our free online tutorial with Healthcode Academy (Module 2 or Bite-size modules 2A -2D).

Submitting your invoices

Once you’re happy with your invoices, you need to send them securely to the payor.

For insurer invoices:

These days, hospitals and nearly all practitioners submit electronic invoices to insurers through our Clearing Service which automatically checks that each one complies with the relevant insurer’s requirements. Best of all, as a subscriber, you can submit all your invoices to the major insurers in one transaction which saves loads of time. You can take advantage of the Service whether or not you have an ePractice plan, as it’s compatible with most practice management software.

Nearly all invoices fly through with no problem and are collected by the insurer – ePractice users can check the status of invoices on the screen – but occasionally the system will notify you of an error such as an incorrect membership number or procedure code. If this happens, it’ll highlight the issue so you can fix it and resubmit quickly. We’ve produced guides to correcting errors for ePractice users and those using third party software or you can contact our team.

For self-pay patients and other payors:

You could print and post paper invoices to self-pay patients or send them by encrypted email (unencrypted email doesn’t comply with data protection rules). However, it’s much less time-consuming to use a secure online portal that lets you send invoices and accept electronic payments. One option is to register to use our affordable Online Payments service which we offer in partnership with patientzone. This takes the hassle out of invoicing non-insured payors and is available to both ePractice subscribers and those using third-party systems. It enables you to send electronic invoices or shortfall notifications (and payment reminders) to patients or businesses with a link so they can pay securely. Not only is this more efficient, it also makes life easier for patients. After all, most of us like the convenience of paying online for services rather than having to pay in person or by telephone.

Invoicing is an aspect of private practice which hasn’t always been given the attention it deserves, perhaps because it feels time-consuming or secondary to patient care. However, the option of electronic invoicing to all payors has transformed this task, with tools that make it less labour-intensive, alongside a streamlined process for sending invoices promptly and securely. It’s also in your interest to make invoicing as easy as possible for your payors so they’re left with a positive impression of your practice. 

Discover More

If you want to learn more about how we can help you manage this and other aspects of the patient journey contact our Business Development team. If you’re already an ePractice user and want to explore the system, check out our guides or book a free 1-2-1 tutorial with one of our friendly experts at the Healthcode Academy. 

About Desné

Desné worked in the private healthcare sector at various sites in London for over 30 years. She has extensive experience and skills relating to all areas of practice administration, having been a practice manager from the early 90s to 2019 when she joined Healthcode.  

Next time – Credit control and collections  

The post The business of the patient journey | Invoicing appeared first on Healthcode.

If you see a section of an invoice highlighted with an error message, it means it won’t meet the insurer’s validation criteria. Find out how you can amend the invoice and submit it successfully through the Clearing Service.   

Go to our guide to invoice errors in ePractice and how to fix them: 

• Identify the error and what it means
• Find out what you can do to resolve the issue  

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If you’re still stuck and need more help, get in touch with one of our friendly team.

The post Fix an invoice error in ePractice appeared first on Healthcode.

Find out whether the invoice you’ve submitted through the Clearing Service has been validated, is awaiting collection or successfully submitted.

Put your mind at rest by following these simple steps:

• Click the Account tab in Patient Details
• Check the boxes in the Status column to see what’s happened to your invoice  

 1 green box means the invoice has been validated and is ready to go to the insurer

 2 green boxes mean it’s waiting to be collected by the insurer

 3 green boxes mean it’s been successfully submitted (the date and time the insurer collected it is also displayed)

1 red box means the invoice has failed validation and needs to be corrected

3 red boxes mean it’s been cancelled

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See more articles on ePractice in Help and Support or sign up for a free online tutorial with Healthcode Academy. If you need more help, get in touch with one of our friendly team.

The post Check the status of your electronic invoices to insurers in ePractice appeared first on Healthcode.

Managing the patient’s pathway

A smooth onboarding process means you can start your relationship with patients on the front foot and helps reassure patients they are in expert hands, as I explained in my last blog. Next, I want to look at the importance of effective admin to support patient care because managing the care pathway is a team effort, requiring clear processes and communication to avoid unnecessary stress and uncertainty.

Ensuring the treatment is covered

Once a patient tells your practice that they’re insured and you’ve verified they have a valid policy (is a speedy shortcut for ePractice Lite and Pro users), check if they have pre-authorisation from their insurer and explain they need to provide this at their first appointment or risk delays while this is sorted out.

Insurers expect policy-holders to contact them if they need to make a claim, such as when they’ve been referred by their GP. If the consultation or treatment is covered under the policy terms, many insurers will give the patient a pre-authorisation number to give to the provider (if they don’t issue pre-authorisation numbers, the patient still needs to confirm they have spoken to their insurer). This can be done over the phone, online or through an app but it makes sense for practice admin staff to be familiar with the authorisation processes for different insurers so they can advise patients and answer their questions.

Getting authorisation ahead of that initial consultation is essential, otherwise the insurer could later reject your invoice on the grounds that they hadn’t been informed. That would leave you in an awkward spot of asking the patient to contact the insurer to get this retro-authorised or invoicing them for the shortfall.

Getting consent for treatment

Of course, it’s then up to you as treating practitioner to assess the patient, make a diagnosis and discuss their options, in line with the standards set by your own professional body (eg the GMC’s Decision-making and consent). Documenting this discussion and recording patients’ informed consent is vital to ensure their wishes are respected and for medico-legal reasons (in the event of a claim, for example). However, every patient is different and it’s not always easy to capture all the relevant points. Once you’ve agreed the next steps, it’s also essential for insured patients to check with their insurer that their policy covers the diagnostic tests or treatment you recommend and any follow-up required. A new pre-authorisation number may be issued but the insurer could use the original one. Even if an insurer has already agreed to a consultation it’s important not to take this for granted. Insurers can turn down claims for various reasons and you don’t want your patient or your practice to get caught out eg because a particular condition, procedure or prescription isn’t covered under their plan.

Bear in mind too that there might be a time limit on pre-authorisation so if a patient wants to go away and consider their options, they may need to contact their insurer again when they return.

However, the big thing to remember about pre-authorisation is that it doesn’t guarantee that the insurer will pay for a consultation or treatment in full, in part or even at all. That’s why it’s so important that your T&Cs spell out that it’s the patient’s responsibility to ensure invoices are paid and that insured patients are responsible for any shortfalls.

At the moment, getting insurer pre-authorisation generally falls to the patient but this makes work for them and is far from ideal for practices if an authorisation number is misheard over the phone and isn’t valid. The good news is that things are changing, thanks to our automated Pre-authorisation service for hospitals. This currently enables them to request pre-authorisation directly from relevant insurers* via our secure online platform and we’re working hard to roll this out to all providers. If you treat patients in a hospital setting, you can get ahead by checking whether they already use the Pre-authorisation service and asking them to share the pre-authorisation number with you for consistency. 

Secure communication

Depending on the outcome of your consultation, it’s up to your practice to manage the patient’s care pathway and ensure they receive the best service every step of the way. That might include sharing test results with another practitioner in a multi-disciplinary team, making arrangements with a hospital for an upcoming procedure or perhaps checking a pre-authorisation number with the insurance company.

It’s important to have a system in place to manage referrals, acting on test results etc and ensure that communication is timely, clear and secure. While technology means it’s no longer necessary to spend hours on the phone to a hospital or insurer, sending confidential personal information by unencrypted email simply isn’t an option within data protection rules. It’s even riskier if you only have a generic departmental email address (such as info@ or secretary@), rather than a named contact as there’s no telling who has access.

Rather than compromise your reputation, you should only use secure encrypted email and/or secure online file-sharing, such as our Secure Messaging solution which is available to ePractice Lite and Pro users. This enables you to communicate and share confidential and personal information with professionals on our global directory of private hospitals, insurers and practitioners. Having access to relevant communications on ePractice rather than another platform saves you time. Plus, you can be confident that this sensitive data is stored on our UK-based computing platform and meets the ICO’s best practice guidance.

*Aviva and Vitality

Supporting patients through what can be an anxious time is just as important as your clinical expertise. From advising them about the need for pre-authorisation to effectively managing the care pathway, your practice admin team can help make the journey easier for patients and their families.    

Discover More

To get started, select Secure Messaging in ePractice and follow these step-by-step instructions or sign up for a free online tutorial with the Healthcode Academy. We offer a 20-minute module – Secure messaging – that takes you through everything, including message settings, the Global Directory, creating your own personal contact list, managing your mailbox and sending emails to multiple recipients.

If you want to learn more about how we can help you manage this and other aspects of the patient journey contact our Business Development team. If you’re already an ePractice user and want to explore the system, check out our guides or book a free 1-2-1 tutorial with one of our friendly experts at the Healthcode Academy. 

About Desné

Desné worked in the private healthcare sector at various sites in London for over 30 years. She has extensive experience and skills relating to all areas of practice administration, having been a practice manager from the early 90s to 2019 when she joined Healthcode.  

Next time – Invoicing  

The post The business of the patient journey | Managing the patient’s pathway appeared first on Healthcode.

Successful private practices are always innovating, from offering new treatments and services to using the latest technology to provide a great patient experience. The best practice management solutions move with the times too to help practices adapt to new challenges and work more effectively.

In recent years, we’ve continually introduced new tools and features to our secure ePractice solution including Guideline Pricing and Online Payments as part of our mission to automate time-consuming admin tasks. 

Now we’re going much further with the next generation of ePractice – a more powerful solution that delivers big performance improvements, a brighter and more intuitive user interface and is bursting with new features. It’s a complete transformation which we’re rolling out step-by-step so we can ensure customers can easily use the system and make the most of the functionality.

ePractice Appointments is now live and you’ll be able to access it once you’ve logged in from your Healthcode Account. This is available on all ePractice plans – simply select Appointments from the menu. Basic users can upgrade to Lite or Pro to enjoy all the features.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the new Appointments is brighter, clearer and easier to use than before but the change is more than cosmetic. We’re giving you the tools to manage your diary, your way:

• Set up one-off and recurring clinic sessions at multiple locations
• Show when you’re unavailable and set aside time for admin or meetings
• Send appointment confirmations by text or email
• Show key information for appointments, eg any outstanding balance or warning notes

What’s more, soon you’ll be able to take your diary management into another dimension by publishing information about your sessions and availability on ICE, our new integrated channel exchange, which is revolutionising real-time appointment booking for the private healthcare sector.

Subscribing to ICE means you’re in control. You can decide which appointment slots will be visible to thousands of prospective patients via hospital, insurer and other booking sites and you can choose to accept online bookings for free appointment slots – and your diary will update automatically. You’ll need a subscription and an up-to-date PPR profile (contact us if you need support).

This is just the start of an exciting journey that will transform the ePractice experience and we’re sure that you’ll enjoy the ride – watch this space for updates.

Discover more

Check out our guides on Appointments or book a one-to-one session with one of our friendly Healthcode Academy experts to discover what’s new or contact our Customer Service team if you need more support.

If you’d like to see what ePractice could do for your business or you’re interested in seeing what you’d get by upgrading from your current plan, why not book a demo or speak to our Business Development team who can help you make a choice that’s right for you.

The post A new diary entry marks the start of something big appeared first on Healthcode.

Onboarding new patients

A steady flow of new patient bookings is a healthy sign for your practice but that initial contact is also an important moment in their journey.

If you want to make a positive first impression and avoid problems later on you need to focus on these three steps:

Communication

With many people accessing private healthcare for the first time, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your onboarding information for new patients is clear, comprehensive and consistent across all communication channels. This needs to happen before they attend.

When confirming an appointment, it’s important to set out how much the initial consultation is going to cost, as explained in our previous blog. It’s also a good idea to include practical information such as directions to your practice as this reduces the risk of delays and missed appointments. Explain what to do if they can’t make their appointment and set out your cancellation policy if you have one.

Finally, a welcome guide is a useful way to showcase your practice and highlight the milestones in the patient journey including registration, making an appointment, insurer authorisation and payment arrangements. Most people find it reassuring to know what to expect and it reduces the likelihood of misunderstandings.

Data-gathering

Patient registration is your earliest and best opportunity to gather information and ensure your record is complete and accurate. You definitely need their name, address, date of birth, contact details, GP details and how they are going to pay (insurance or self-funding). Missing or inaccurate information – even something as simple as a misspelled surname – could prove awkward and eventually make it impossible to submit your invoice to an insurer. Ask patients to complete and sign a registration form that includes your terms and conditions (T&Cs) when they arrive for their first appointment. I also recommend asking patients to check and confirm a registration form at each subsequent visit to minimise the chances of a dispute later. This then becomes your formal contract with the patient for each visit.

The T&Cs should clearly state that it’s their responsibility to ensure that invoices are paid (whether or not they have health insurance) and that they undertake to pay any shortfalls. A digital signature is generally fine if you have a patient portal that allows them to send this securely and you want to get the paperwork sorted out before they arrive.

As you’d expect from our practice and financial management solution, ePractice includes smart tools to help you keep track of your patients throughout their journey, starting with the onboarding process. Once you have the necessary data, it’s easy to add new patients, enabling you to securely store all their data and search your patient list from one place, as well as create flags, notes and alerts against individual patients. If you’re an existing ePractice user, you can sign up for this free short session with Healthcode Academy, which takes you through all the steps of adding a new patient and how to search your patient list.

Verification

Verifying patients’ identity against a driving licence or another form of ID is an opportunity to confirm their details are accurate and avoid mix-ups such as sending a letter to the wrong address.

It’s also important to verify their insurance details or there’s a risk you won’t get paid. Even if a patient says they have health insurance, it doesn’t guarantee that they have a valid policy. It might have expired, for example, or their company scheme might have transferred to a different insurer.

It’s in your interests to check their status at the outset so you aren’t left with an unpaid insurer invoice and the prospect of pursuing an unhappy patient for the outstanding balance. Bear in mind that someone’s insurance status may have changed since your practice last saw them for a consultation or diagnostic tests which is why you should check their details again at every visit.

ePractice makes this a breeze with the Membership Enquiry feature (available on Lite or Pro) which lets you match patients’ details against the information held by their insurer* so you can confirm if a patient is currently insured with who they say and their details are correct, without the need for multiple telephone calls. One of our knowledgeable Healthcode Academy team can help you explore this ePractice feature as part of the same free online tutorial mentioned earlier on adding patients.

* Currently Aviva, AXA Health, Bupa and VitalityHealth – we’re working with other insurers to extend this service.

Patient-friendly and effective onboarding enables you to obtain all the details you need from patients to provide an efficient service and explain what they need to know about your practice.

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If you want to learn more about how we can help you manage this and other aspects of the patient journey contact our Business Development team. If you’re already an ePractice user and want to explore the system, check out our guides or book a free 1-2-1 tutorial with one of our friendly experts at the Healthcode Academy. 

About Desné

Desné worked in the private healthcare sector at various sites in London for over 30 years. She has extensive experience and skills relating to all areas of practice administration, having been a practice manager from the early 90s to 2019 when she joined Healthcode.  

Next time – Managing the patient’s pathway

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