Over 30% of Healthcare Bad Debt Write-Offs Are Due to Inadequate Patient Data: nTelagent

nTelagent, Inc., a next-generation revenue cycle company, has reported that, according to a recent company study,(a) over 30% of bad debt write-offs occur due to unavailable patient data, revealing that adequate personal information is often not collected or verified pre-registration or at the point of service.

For healthcare service providers, nTelagent’s web-based Self-Pay Management System (SPMS) can provide a risk-free approach to verifying patient information, using only a person’s name and address. Instead of using an individual’s credit score, nTelagent’s system incorporates in-depth demographic information to help healthcare service providers arrive at a more accurate picture of patient financial responsibilities. SPMS compares a patient’s biographical data with nTelagent’s proprietary database, providing healthcare service providers with instant, actionable information and interactive scripting. Verification of a patient’s identity, as well as his or her capacity to pay for services, is then given to patient access staff in a matter of seconds, with no need for the paper-based proofs of identity of yesterday.

“With the rise in self-pay accounts, healthcare service providers must have effective systems to collect payment from individual patients regardless of insured or uninsured status. Errors in patient data can lead to returned statements and bills and an increase in denied claims, resulting in lower collections rates and more bad debt,” said Earl T. Winter, chairman and CEO of nTelagent.

“If a healthcare facility can not absolutely prove that individuals are who they say they are, there can be other negative consequences: higher fraud rates, including people using multiple identities; the potential delivery of incorrect medical treatment; and the possibility that charity care and government assistance programs are not being properly allocated. The key is collecting adequate and accurate data at the front end, and then having it organized in a manner that allows for instantaneous, appropriate action and decision making,” said Winter.

“While having many other applications, our Self-Pay Management System allows healthcare services providers to validate and verify a patient’s identity. This ensures that patients receive appropriate care, service and financial assistance — and that healthcare service providers reduce their bad debt and improve their overall revenue cycle process through appropriately categorizing patient financial accounts from the start,” said Winter.

With nTelagent’s SPMS, healthcare service providers can:

• Reduce bad debt by ensuring statements and bills are delivered to patients instead of being returned, through the collection of effective, reliable and controlled data at pre-registration or at the time of service
• Arrive at a more accurate picture of patient financial responsibilities at the point of service, allowing providers to efficiently categorize accounts
• Mitigate the risk of fraud, including patients’ use of multiple identities or Social Security numbers that don’t belong to them and other illegal activities
• Reduce the amount of time spent searching for correct addresses and resending statements and bills
• Lower the number of denied insurance claims
• Ensure that patients receive the correct medical treatment and financial assistance
• Keep their patient contact database clear of inaccuracies
• Meet charity care guidelines and audits due to automated, efficient categorization

Visit http://www.ntelagent.com/News/041508.html for complete study results.

About nTelagent, Inc.
Nashville-based nTelagent, Inc., a next-generation revenue cycle company, has developed a proprietary technology platform, the Self-Pay Management System (SPMS), that is revolutionizing the accounts receivable processes for hospitals, physician practices and all other healthcare service providers, in both inpatient and outpatient settings. For providers, SPMS improves upfront and overall cash flow, receivables and profitability by reducing bad debt and improving the revenue cycle process for self-pay patients. The company’s turnkey technologies enable providers to consistently move workflow to the front end of the revenue cycle, both pre-service and at the point of service. Using non-credit scoring data, the SPMS provides registrars and financial counselors with interactive scripts that integrate patient demographic information with each provider’s unique business policies and rules. The system also automatically identifies discounting and charity care options when applicable, ensuring that patient financial accounting — for both insured and uninsured patients — is handled appropriately and in a non-discriminatory manner. Visit www.ntelagent.com for more information.