Streamlining Orthopedic Patient Billing: Tips from OrthoNY’s Success

OrthoNY provides innovative orthopedic care for patients in Albany, New York. As a 70-provider orthopedic group, OrthoNY is a multi-specialty clinic with a single specialty — to preserve active lifestyles by providing personalized joint and bone care. After opening in 2014, OrthoNY quickly grew in scale and reputation. With over 177,000 patient visits and 25,000 surgeries performed a year, the demand and complexity of their administrative tasks became difficult to handle.

In particular, OrthoNY was challenged by the high demand and complexity of the patient billing process. Patient accounts receivable (A/R), billing queries and phone calls soon became too much to handle — they needed a solution. Their choices were to outsource their patient billing or hire an entire in-house team to manage it all. Ultimately, they turned to Millennia to help them streamline their entire patient billing process.

The results were quite promising. “Millennia exceeded our goal of bringing in $700,000 annually. Millennia generated $860,000 of additional revenue in less than a year.” This quote from OrthoNY’s Director of Patient Financial Services is a glowing testimony of how we were able to help them.

Staff productivity has significantly increased, too. The time staff spend answering phones, preparing statements and managing billing is allocated elsewhere, making their jobs more focused and easier to manage. Millennia decreased the volume of patient calls by 50%.

Patients are now properly informed of their financial responsibilities early on, which leads to fewer questions and a better understanding of their options. Additionally, they can pay with more flexible options through the customized online patient billing portal we built for OrthoNY.

Millennia provided solutions that greatly improved OrthoNY’s staff productivity, patient journey and revenue. We are proud to have given them a solution to their challenges and more. Using this success story as a basis, we will explore the importance of patient billing in the patient journey and other useful insights to help your practice thrive.

Why Patient Financial Care Matters

By breaking down the medical billing process, understanding the patient journey and looking at how patient finance impacts care, it will become clear that there is more to patient billing solutions than just simple financial administration.

The Medical Billing Process

The patient billing process is extensive, and each step is vital in generating healthcare revenue. A critical component of the Millennia solution is educating patients about the billing process, which provides a comprehensive look at your billing practices.

This information cultivates a sense of trust and helps your patients make health decisions they are comfortable with. By showing patients you value them and their business, you establish a meaningful connection, resulting in loyalty.

• Patient registration: This is the collection and verification of patient information, such as name, date of birth, address, allergies, medical records and other vital data. Having accurate and up-to-date patient records is vital to an efficient and effective patient billing system.
• Insurance verification: The next step is the insurance verification process, which involves verifying the patient’s insurance benefits and coverage. Checking for co-pays, out-of-pocket maximums and deductibles is also part of the process. This stage ensures patients understand their financial responsibilities and lowers the chances of uncompensated care.
• Authorization and pre-certification: This step requires getting prior approval from insurance companies for required treatments or procedures. This is done to reduce the risk of claims being denied. Then, the next step is to record payments from patients and insurance companies to ensure accurate financial records.
• Follow-ups: Following up on accounts receivable is done to ensure healthcare payments are made in a timely manner and avoid bad debt. Sending reminders, negotiating payment plans and making calls are good ways of following up on what is owed. This is done to reduce the risk of lost revenue and improve financial performance.
• Billing reports: These reports include performance metrics, financial performance, expenses, revenue, collections, and any other useful information obtained throughout the billing process. These reports contain information needed to make important financial decisions.
• Compliance: The final step in the process is the compliance stage. Compliance involves ensuring medical billing practices align with applicable regulations and laws.

You must carefully follow these steps to ensure maximum patient cooperation and streamline your billing process properly. Millennia handles everything so your staff can focus on other important tasks, helping your practice grow and maximizing revenue.

The Patient Journey

The patient journey comprises steps a patient will go through from the moment they decide they need medical attention to when their treatment is over. The journey details and is dictated by a patient’s interactions with their healthcare provider.

OrthoNY turned to Millennia because they needed help sorting out their billing challenges, which resulted in enhancing their patients’ financial journeys. By understanding the patient journey, you can identify opportunities for growth and innovation, find new ways to improve patient experiences and loyalty, and even deliver more efficient healthcare.

Tips, Highlights and Insights

These are three important insights from the success of OrthoNY’s partnership with Millennia you can apply to your practice. 

Introduce a Comprehensive Approach to Patient Billing

By introducing a comprehensive payment system to your patients, you benefit them and your practice. The Millennia Patient Payment Solution allows patients to engage with healthcare providers in a number of ways, from verifying insurance, receiving estimates and registration to setting reminders and filling in forms.

The Millennia Patient Payment Solution also provides a post-visit platform that patients can use for education and communication. It allows patients to learn more about the payment and billing systems of your practice. They can ask questions, get answers and understand what is required of them. This level of communication makes paying less confusing and streamlines the process from both sides.

Give Staff the Resources They Need to Be More Productive

Millennia’s solution benefits your staff, as well. With the right tools and data at their disposal, they can streamline the payment process for patients and handle other administrative duties more easily. If your staff is struggling to stay on top of their work because of ineffective resources and processes, consider investing in a digital billing solution.

Provide Flexible Payment Options to Your Patients

Your patients want a payment system that is easy to understand and convenient to use. By providing flexible payment options, you can ensure patients make more of their payments on time. Different payment methods make healthcare more accessible and build trust in your practice.

Millennia Is Here to Support Your Practice

Millennia can streamline your patient billing process the same way we did for OrthoNY. Improve your revenue and keep your staff focused on other important duties by giving them the right tools. We are here to help you attract more patients and provide them with better experiences, positioning your practice as a reliable, trusted choice.

You can find out more about our other success stories here. If you want a more in-depth look at our solutions and how they can help you, request a consultation today, and we will walk you through the process.