Healthcode’s reply: Instead of paper invoices, you can use Healthcode’s secure online payments via patientzone service to charge patients for self-funded care and insurer shortfalls. It is a cost-effective way to implement online patient invoicing and payment. There is no need to worry about card processing appliances or arranging merchant accounts and patientzone charges only 2.5% per invoice + VAT per paid invoice*. Patients will appreciate the security, convenience and the reassurance of payment confirmation. ePractice Lite and Pro users can also create and send shortfall letters, details of debt reallocations and payment reminders and credit notes if the original invoice was sent through patientzone*.

Quick guide

• Click on Integration Services in the settings menu to register for patientzone as a single practitioner or multi-practitioner practice.
• Use the link from patientzone to log in and follow the steps to complete your account set-up.
• Set the invoice template you would like to use for patientzone in Integration Services.
• Create an invoice in Quick eBill or Advanced Bill, ensuring that you have a valid email address and mobile number for the payor.
• Save and send the invoice. Once registered, your ePractice settings will change so non-insurer invoices are automatically sent through patientzone.
• patientzone sends an email notification to the payor with a link so they can pay securely online.
• patientzone sends confirmation to you and the payor once the invoice is settled. Your invoices are automatically reconciled within 30 minutes of payment

* There is a charge of 10p + VAT for each reminder letter sent.

Discover More

Learn more about using patientzone to send a Quick eBill to patients and other time-saving ePractice features by visiting Healthcode’s Online Payments Help & Support page which has a range of informative articles from setting up all the way through to getting paid by patientzone.

If you’re interested in finding out more about ePractice Lite or Pro why not book a demo with our Business Development team.

The post Have you tried… online patient invoicing? appeared first on Healthcode.

So if you find that your year-end accounts show an unacceptably large total of unpaid bills, don’t just write them off. Instead, use it as an incentive to tighten your systems and procedures and improve your cash flow.

Good cash flow management is essential throughout the financial calendar year and encompasses three core principles.

Invoice promptly

The first of these should present no difficulty for Healthcode users. As we explained in our previous blog, by using our time-saving e-billing system, you can create and submit invoices to PMIs which meet industry best-practice standards and are ready for payment. This system also provides tools for you to raise paper invoices for self-funded patients.

Obtain timely and accurate financial information

To stay on top of the money owed to your practice, you should be able to see the outstanding amount at a glance and have access to financial reports which provide more detailed information. For example, an aged debt analysis report is a basic tool for credit control because it clearly shows how much each payer owes, segmented into aged bands (31 – 60 days, 61 – 90 days outstanding etc).

But the more sophisticated presentation of your financial information, the better informed your credit control will be. Subscribers to Healthcode’s ePractice Pro can produce a range of financial reports which have been developed specifically for private medical practice including:

• Outstanding invoices by payer – make it easy to see who needs to be chased for payment by showing all invoices with a current outstanding balance by payer type, including or excluding shortfalls.
• Payment summer report – clearly shows the payments received within a selected date range so you can keep track of what invoices have been paid and the payment method used.
• Earliest service and payment transaction summary – this comprehensive report provides an instant summary of activities, invoices and payments. It is particularly useful for practices that want to monitor their invoices by the date of service as you can quickly see 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.

Within the Credit Control function of ePractice Pro, you can filter the outstanding balances data to see all debts within a certain band or payer type and drill down into each item for further details about the relevant invoice(s) or patient(s).

All financial reports can be exported to a PDF or Excel file format. Exporting them to Excel enables you to remove any personal identifiable information so they can be forwarded to your accountant.

Take control

If you know exactly what you are owed, the next stage is to implement a watertight system for monitoring and chasing payments. The best option is to break down your credit control into a series of traceable tasks such as creating and following-up invoices, posting transactions such as BACS and credit card payments, allocating payments and producing reminders, statements or shortfall letters.

Healthcode’s system enables you to assign and priorities tasks against each payer. You can then tackle them yourself or delegate responsibility to your practice manager.

The dashboard on ePractice Pro, presents a chart showing outstanding payments. Users can drill into details at a click to view and update tasks so that it is easy to monitor progress.

Cash flow is King

It’s a sobering fact that even profitable and well-respected practices can run into difficulties if they allow their cash flow position to deteriorate. In fact, poorly managed cash flow leaves companies unable to pay HMRC, their staff or their suppliers, making it the most common reason for business failure.

In the longer term, keeping tight control of cash flow will also help your practice finance itself through any unforeseen downturns or adverse changes in market conditions and ensure you are in a stronger bargaining position with lenders and suppliers.

The post Managing Your Money appeared first on Healthcode.

Healthcode’s reply: If you are an ePractice Lite or Pro user, you can use Healthcode’s Membership Enquiry feature to match patients’ details against the information held by their insurer*. This confirms if a patient is currently insured and ensures your practice has the correct details on its own system from the outset, without the need for multiple telephone calls.

Quick guide

• Select a patient and click on the insurer tab.
• Choose the relevant insurer from the drop-down list, enter any details you already have and save.
• Click Request Membership Enquiry button when it turns blue.
• The system runs a patient insurance registration check against the insurer’s database and prompts you to check for the result.
• If a match is found, click Review & Update to display the details held by the insurer.
• Use this information to update or correct your own patient database, ready for invoicing.

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

Discover More

Learn more about Membership Enquiry and other time-saving ePractice features by signing up for our free ePractice online tutorial Electronic billing & collection | Module 2 with the Healthcode Academy. This covers everything to do with billing, and the Academy’s team of Service Delivery Associates will guide you through, using your own data to make the training as relevant as possible.

If you’re interested in finding out more about ePractice Lite or Pro why not book a demo with our Business Development team.

The post Have you tried…using ePractice to check the patient’s insurance status? appeared first on Healthcode.

In the private healthcare sector, there’s good reason for the positivity about growth in the self-pay market. Surveys by the charity Engage Britain and Yonder (commissioned by PHIN) have shown that more people are ready to consider paying for medical treatment following the pandemic. A report by analysts LaingBuisson predicted that the self-pay market would expand by 10-15% by 2024.

However, it’s important to make sure that an increased level of activity translates into a healthier balance sheet. Having the right technology to manage you practice can make the difference between running a profitable business and running yourself into the ground. Here are just some of the ways we can help.

Invoice at the click of a button

You may be seeing more patients come through your practice but you still need to make sure you get paid. Efficient and accurate invoicing is the single most important thing you can do for your practice finances.

Our innovative technology allows you to create and send invoices to all the major insurers, self-funded patients and other payors:

• Time-saving shortcuts 
  Saving time can mean saving money and that’s great for your bottom line. Our invoice auto-population feature is a prime example. If you’ve treated a patient in a hospital setting, you can search for them on the system and generate an invoice with the correct details already completed. Simply track progress with our status updates.

• The Clearing Service 
  Submit invoices to all the major insurers from one place. Each is automatically checked against the relevant criteria. Errors and anomalies are instantly flagged to be corrected and re-submitted. Simply track progress with our status updates.

• Online Payments via patientzone 
  Practitioners and clinics who are registered with patientzone can send electronic invoices to self-funded patients. Provide the convenience of secure online payment. You can also benefit from sending shortfall letters, details of debt reallocations and payment reminders.

• Paper invoicing 
  We cater for you to be truly flexible. If you need a paper invoice, our template ensures that these are clearly laid out and meet industry standards.

• Mobile invoicing 
  Available on the ePractice iOS app. We know you’re always on the go. Now you can set up and send an electronic invoice from your Apple device.

Payment tracking and collection

An effective and efficient system for recording money received will allow you to focus on outstanding invoices. However, this process is not always straightforward. Insurer payments may cover several invoices and there will sometimes be a shortfall amount to be reallocated to the patient. With ePractice you can:

• Record and reconcile payments 
  The payment tracking section of ePractice Lite and Pro makes it easy to find and allocate payments to the correct invoices. Make sure your accounts are up to date. Where insurers send electronic remittances (AXA Health, Aviva and Bupa), the system automatically analyses the remittance advice, generating a summary that assigns the payment to one or more invoices. Simply confirm with the click of a button. For self-pay patients or other payors, online payments are made via patientzone. Stay in the know – set up notifications so you can see when invoices have been paid. What’s more your ePractice is updated within 30 minutes.

• Reallocate debts 
  In the event of a shortfall, you can reallocate the debt and create a shortfall letter for the relevant patient. This automatically completes the invoice details and outstanding balance. Just register with patientzone and you can send these shortfall letters and payment reminders electronically.

Financial information

Every practice management system should provide a range of real-time financial reporting options. You need to monitor your practice’s vital signs. ePractice includes a variety of financial reports, all of which can be exported to other software. These can then be anonymised and shared as required.

Here are five of the most frequently used reports:

• Aged debt analysis displays outstanding debt by patients and segments by age bands (eg. 0-30 days, 31 – 60 days, 61 – 90 days outstanding). It’s an essential tool for credit control in any business.

• Outstanding invoices by payor shows all invoices with a current outstanding balance by payor type, including or excluding shortfalls. This makes it easy to see who requires a payment reminder.

• Invoice listing by payor provides a summary of invoices, by payor, for a requested date range. A filter allows you to view outstanding or settled invoices.

• The payment summary report shows the payments received, by invoice, within a selected date range. Now you can keep track of what has been paid and the payment method used.

• Financial snapshot provides a snapshot for the selected period, including the total number of invoices with values for payments, refunds and debts. It also provides a total of the debt outstanding at the start and end of the period.

Discover More

Find out how to invoice and track payments by signing up to our free Billing and Payments online tutorials with the Healthcode Academy’s team of Service Delivery Associates. They’ll guide you using your own data to make the training as relevant as possible.

To learn more about our ePractice features, see our guides in Help and Support.

To find out more about how ePractice can help make your business more profitable, contact our Business Development team.

The post How technology can help you make your practice profitable appeared first on Healthcode.

It’s no secret that the NHS is struggling with ever-growing waiting lists. Since the start of the pandemic, the number of people waiting for NHS treatment in England has grown by a fifth, with 5.3 million people waiting for treatment in May 2021, up from 4.4 million in February 2020.

If patients are faced with a longer wait for planned treatment, it’s likely that more will choose to self-fund their treatment or obtain private medical cover for themselves and their families in case of future health emergencies. Also, the exchange rate of the pound against other leading currencies has fallen significantly since the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016 which makes private treatment an affordable option for overseas patients.

But these developments only represent an opening for private practices if they have the systems and resources to support growth. And this is where Healthcode’s online technology can provide a platform for success. Here are just a few examples:

1. Maximise revenue: our Clearing Service is the most efficient and cost-effective way to submit validated invoices to Private Medical Insurers (PMIs) which are then ready to be processed and settled quickly. You can also use the service to generate invoices for self-paying patients that meet industry standards. These can be sent electronically via patientzone, an online payments and collection company, allowing your patients to easily and securely pay invoices online.
2. Maintain healthy cash flow position: the payment tracking feature within ePractice Lite and Pro enables you to quickly allocate payments and monitor unpaid invoices and shortfalls so you can reduce the chances of a damaging bad debt. When you log onto the system, a snapshot graph on the home screen shows the current status of outstanding invoices.
3. Register new patients efficiently: Healthcode’s membership enquiry facility means you can check the details of insured patients against an insurer’s membership database and populate your patient list with the correct information. Once a patient is on the system, it’s easy to set up appointments, generate letters and create invoices.
4. Organise your diary: ePractice Lite and Pro allow you to easily see your daily schedule, book appointments and set up recurring clinic sessions across one or more locations, ensuring your time is effectively managed.
5. Plan ahead: ePractice gives you the tools to create reports which present up-to-date information such as outstanding debts and chargeable activity. It’s only possible to make smart investment decisions if you have an accurate picture of your practice finances

Want to know more?

To find out how our technology can help your private practice maximise your revenue and grow, contact our Business Development team.

The post Are You Ready To Grow Your Private Practice? appeared first on Healthcode.

In a survey of private patients’ reasons for choosing private healthcare, 76% mentioned reduced waiting times and more than half (52%) said the availability of appointment times¹. The same research revealed patients’ reasons for choosing a particular consultant: while 38% cited clinical expertise, 32% said waiting times for appointments and 22% said the appointment times offered.

Given the importance that patients place on appointments, it is essential that this aspect of your practice is efficiently managed. It is after all the first interaction that a patient will have with your practice and first impressions make all the difference.

The appointment system in ePractice Lite and Pro means you can respond professionally to telephone enquiries and track appointments at single or multiple locations. You can see today’s schedule at a glance on your status page and use the appointments menu to organise your diary. The options include:

• view and search your practice diary for appointments by patient, location or date range
• search available time slots at one or more locations and create a new appointment
• make notes or issue instructions about the appointment, planned treatment or service
• generate an appointment letter for the patient which includes the relevant details
• add a patient to your waiting list until a suitable appointment slot is available
• view your appointment schedule remotely on your iOS device using the ePractice app

A particularly useful feature if you provide regular clinics at a particular hospital is the ability to set up recurring sessions. Simply select this option in the appointment menu, enter a session description, the location, the length of the session and the duration of appointment slots.

Ultimately, your appointment system must allow you to provide a responsive and professional service for patients when many will be feeling anxious about their health. If they can arrange an appointment at a convenient time and with minimal delay, you are likely to inspire their confidence and build trust.

As the research shows, patients have generally high expectations of the service provided by the private sector and ePractice Lite or Pro will help you ensure this is justified.

If you would like further information about the appointments features of our ePractice plans, contact our Business Development team 

¹ Private Healthcare Market Investigation: Surveys of Patients, GFK Report, Private healthcare market investigation (surveys section), 

The post Make A Great First Impression With Patients appeared first on Healthcode.

However, it’s not uncommon for practitioners to be tied up for hours in frustrating telephone calls to patients, private hospitals and insurers to check that the information they’ve been given is correct or to complete missing details.

Our membership enquiry feature is a popular shortcut for practitioners with a subscription to ePractice Lite or Pro. It enables them to check the patient details they hold against the insurer’s membership database in a fraction of the time.

Membership Enquiry enhances cash flow because it helps ensure that submitted invoices include all the right information, reducing the risk of an invoice being held up in the system. As it’s encrypted, the service is a more secure way of checking confidential patient details than the time-consuming alternatives.

The service is currently available with the major insurers – Aviva, AXA Health, Bupa, Bupa Global (International) and VitalityHealth – and we’re working with the others to extend this service.

To use membership enquiry, just enter the patient’s details, select the insurer tab and then choose the relevant insurer from the drop-down list. Enter the patient’s registration number, scheme and renewal date if you have this information, but don’t worry if you don’t, and then click ‘save insurer’. At this point, the ‘Request Membership Enquiry’ button will turn blue and you start the process by clicking it.

When a match is found on the insurer database, the patient’s status appears on-screen. You can then use this data to populate your own patient database and/or update the insurer details, ready for invoicing.

Discover More

To find out more about this and other features of ePractice Lite and Pro contact our Business Development team or book a demo.

The post Verifying Patients’ Insurance Details – The Healthcode Shortcut appeared first on Healthcode.

1.  So you know how much money you are owed – If you receive a single payment for multiple bills from an insurer and you don’t allocate it correctly, it soon becomes difficult to know which invoices have been paid. That makes it impossible to chase for the outstanding amounts and means you could be forced to write off debts unnecessarily.
2. Bad debt soon hits your practice cash flow – Having a healthy cash flow position enables you to pay operating costs such as wages, equipment and rent. An interruption to your income, caused by bad debt, can quickly cripple your business cash flow and is one of the most common reasons for business failure. 
3. If you know what you have been paid, you can identify shortfalls – Not every insurer payment will cover the full amount invoiced. Identifying the shortfall when allocating payments means you can investigate if this is an error or if you need to charge the patient for the outstanding amount.
4. To avoid misunderstandings with patients – Patients can be alienated if your administration appears chaotic and inefficient. For example, it’s polite and professional to acknowledge when a patient has settled their bill and important to notify them promptly if they owe you money. This is difficult if you don’t keep track of what payments you have received, and worse, you could upset a patient by chasing a bill that has already been settled.
5. So you can manage your practice better – If you track and allocate payments efficiently, it’s easier to spot worrying trends. If you know late payment is becoming an issue, you can act e.g. by invoicing more promptly, introducing card payments so patients can pay at reception after treatment or using online payment options, such as our integration with patientzone.

Want to know more?

To find out more about how using the payment tracking and allocation functions in ePractice Lite and Pro can help you get an accurate picture of the money coming into your practice, please contact our Business Development team.

The post 5 Reasons Why Payment Tracking is Important for Private Practice appeared first on Healthcode.

With a record number of patients now on the waiting list for NHS hospital treatment, it is probable that people who might not have previously contemplated going private will think again. Laing Buisson’s recent report into the UK Self-Pay market found evidence of heightened interest in private treatment across the country.

At the same time, the private sector cannot simply expect patients to come to them. As Laing Buisson put it: “practitioners need a compelling and attractive reason for patients to choose them and – more importantly – speak positively about their experience to friends and family.

Technology has a key role to play here, offer a high-quality level of service that will impress new patients and attract word of mouth recommendations. Here are five ways that Healthcode’s technology can help you exceed patients’ expectations:

1. Efficient appointment booking

Using the appointment functionality within ePractice, you can provide a professional and responsive service when someone calls to make an appointment.

Receptionists can instantly see which practitioners are active on a specific day across all treatment sites, as well as available slots. This means they can reserve a suitable appointment there and then, rather than having to check and call the patient back. If nothing is available at the patient’s preferred time, they can be added to a waiting list and there will be an automatic alert if the slot becomes free. Once an appointment is made, the system can generate confirmation letters, emails or texts with all the information that patients need. And when a patient presents for their appointment, their status on the system can be updated to ‘arrived’ so the practitioner is aware.

2. Choice and convenience

Other people would rather use an online booking site to research private health services and book an appointment. But until recently, central appointment booking has not been possible because there was no way to synchronise the mass of data – providers, services, practitioners and appointment slots – and the many different booking systems.

Healthcode’s online appointment booking solution, ICE, is the hidden engine room which powers the appointment booking process by enabling diverse service providers to connect and exchange information in real time. Practitioners and other providers will be able to publish their services and synchronise availability with multiple booking websites.

ICE will make private healthcare more accessible, increasing its appeal. For the first time, it will be possible to use a single booking application to search multiple healthcare organisations, using different criteria and filters to find the service that meets patients’ needs and then make an appointment at a convenient time and location.

3. Reassurance about private medical insurance

While self-pay market is growing, the majority of patients will still have private medical cover although not all will have their membership details to hand when they contact your practice.

Healthcode’s insurer membership look-up feature enables you to put patients’ minds at rest that they have valid insurance cover by matching their details against participating insurers’ databases. This simple and secure online check eliminates the need for multiple telephone calls and also ensures your practice has the correct details on its own system from the outset.

4. Ensuring continuity of care

Whether you are ordering diagnostic services, arranging for a patient to be admitted for surgery or discussing their case in a multi-disciplinary team meeting, it is essential that you provide relevant information in a timely and secure way.

Regular email is inherently insecure and should never be used to send identifiable patient information. By contrast, Healthcode’s secure messaging and file sharing services (healthDrive) are encrypted, enabling you to share sensitive information with individuals or specifically created contact groups on our global directory of practitioners, private hospitals and PMIs, without compromising patient privacy. This enables you to co-ordinate patient treatment effectively and ensure continuity of care when patients transfer to other healthcare settings.

5. Efficient invoicing

The rise in self-funded healthcare means practices need to consider how best to collect payment from patients, while patients themselves expect to be invoiced promptly and have a stress-free way to pay.

In partnership with the patientzone online payment platform, Healthcode offer a secure online patient electronic invoicing and payment service for you to charge for self-funded care and PMI shortfalls. Once signed-up with the patientzone service, you can create patient invoices in ePractice and send them through to patientzone. Patientzone then notifies patients by email or text that they have received an invoice which they can access and pay securely online. Within thirty minutes, their payment is automatically reconciled (in ePractice plans with payment recording) and you also receive notification of payment by email or text.

This online patient invoicing solution meets your data protection obligations and is more efficient than sending a paper invoice in the post. It is a more cost-effective way to implement online payment as there’s no need to arrange merchant accounts or pay credit card processing fees. Most importantly from a patient perspective, the process is seamless, secure and convenient and they have the reassurance of payment confirmation so they can focus on their recovery.

Want to know more?

Find out how our ePractice technology can help improve patient experience by contacting our Business Development team.

If you’ve already got ePractice but don’t know it’s full potential sign up for our free ePractice training modules with the Healthcode Academy’s team of Service Delivery Associates. They’ll guide you using your own data to make the training as relevant as possible.

The post How technology can help you exceed patients’ expectations appeared first on Healthcode.