Reminders – 1-800 Notify https://wordpress.1800notify.com 1-800 Notify | HIPAA compliant patient appointment reminders, billing reminders and notifications Sun, 22 Apr 2018 14:50:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.5 https://wordpress.1800notify.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/cropped-1800notify-checkmark-512-w-bk-32x32.png Reminders – 1-800 Notify https://wordpress.1800notify.com 32 32 Need an Effective Solution for Patient Billing Reminders? https://wordpress.1800notify.com/reminders/need-effective-solution-patient-billing-reminders/ Fri, 21 Oct 2016 19:00:30 +0000 https://wordpress.1800notify.com/?p=663 Successful practices prosper because they do their job well. Providing high-quality services to patients with an exceptional staff is their focus. Practices like this usually don’t have trouble with acquiring new patients in because they are built on a solid reputation and skills. However, with growing patient responsibility from both larger deductibles and co-pays, they may have a hard type sustaining themselves if they don’t receive patient payments. Patient-responsible balances are steadily increasing — more patients owe more money.  Receiving patient payment for services rendered is an elemental part of any practice and is what keeps it running. The challenge in today’s environment is how to actually get money owed paid to your practice without have to spend too money or staff time to do it. Getting Paid Without Spending Too Much (Paper Statements, Manual Calling, Manual Payments) The only way a practices can thrive is if they receive full payment for services they performed.  Challenges occur when additional paper statements mailed to patients are ignored or set aside, to be buried under other mail. How is a practice to push the “lazy payer” into paying their invoice? Having your staff try to call each patient over a small balance owed is not cost-effective. Sending extra paper statements is not working. Calling […]

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]]> Successful practices prosper because they do their job well. Providing high-quality services to patients with an exceptional staff is their focus. Practices like this usually don’t have trouble with acquiring new patients in because they are built on a solid reputation and skills. However, with growing patient responsibility from both larger deductibles and co-pays, they may have a hard type sustaining themselves if they don’t receive patient payments. Patient-responsible balances are steadily increasing — more patients owe more money.  Receiving patient payment for services rendered is an elemental part of any practice and is what keeps it running. The challenge in today’s environment is how to actually get money owed paid to your practice without have to spend too money or staff time to do it.

Getting Paid Without Spending Too Much (Paper Statements, Manual Calling, Manual Payments)

The only way a practices can thrive is if they receive full payment for services they performed.  Challenges occur when additional paper statements mailed to patients are ignored or set aside, to be buried under other mail.

How is a practice to push the “lazy payer” into paying their invoice?

  • Having your staff try to call each patient over a small balance owed is not cost-effective.
  • Sending extra paper statements is not working.
  • Calling only the high-balance patients misses the mark.
  • Calling only the very late patients (90 or even 120 days late) is also not effective.

Ensuring payment is received can end up costing practices a lot of money particularly if it is done the old-fashioned way through paper statements and manual calling. A billing system like this is expensive because it requires a number of staff members to get the job done.A person needs to be in place to not only take the initial information and payment, but also to input the remaining amount into a logging system, follow up with billing for another payment amount, and sending out the bill to the customer. Someone also needs to keep track of when the bill went out, if payment was received, adding the payment into the system and actually depositing payment, and following up if the entire amount was not paid. This system of billing also leaves a lot of room for something to go wrong. Mistakes are bound to happen when you have a lot of different people being relied on to get the statement printed, out the door, into a mailbox, and picked up by the right recipient. In the end, this type of billing system is quite costly. Through the evolution of technology, there are more options for businesses that can help alleviate the costs and complications of billing and receiving payment.

Automatic Billing Reminders and Automated Payments

The advancements in technology now provide practices with options to automate patient billing reminders and take in payments over the phone automatically so that outstanding bills can get paid quickly and easily. It basically works by having a patient contact list uploaded that shows the outstanding amount. This may be generated from a client list taken from an Accounts Receivable report or a file that is used by a statement vendor. With clients on the list to call, a recorded message can be set to call and remind clients about the amount due and invite them to pay with a credit card over the phone using an automated pay-by-phone system.  Your staff is freed up to do more important and valuable work.  Or, you can even setup an online payment portal that will allow your patients to pay online 24/7 — allows patients to pay their balance without ever having to interrupt your staff.  Over 80% of patients today expect and demand an online payment portal.  Why not your practice?

Learn more about Patient Billing Reminder Calls and Patient Payment Solutions or call us at 1-800-939-1853.

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]]> Need an Effective Solution for Appointment Reminders? https://wordpress.1800notify.com/reminders/need-effective-solution-appointment-reminders/ Fri, 21 Oct 2016 17:53:08 +0000 https://wordpress.1800notify.com/?p=659 Today’s healthcare organizations realize just how valuable missed appointments truly are to a practice’s bottom line. The higher the number of missed appointments, the more money will be lost. When there is a high number of missed appointments, it indicates an organization is not running as efficiently as it should. This directly impacts the resources of the organization, whether that be a healthcare company, business corporation, law firm and many other types of business offices where time is factor. The main reason clients, patients, customers, and others miss appointments is just because they forget about it. This practice can be dangerous especially in health care services where a patient may not get the required medical care. Doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel also lose valuable time. To combat the negative effects missed appointments can have, businesses are increasingly adopting appointment reminder systems. Appointment Reminder Systems The solution to missed appointments and the problems it creates is to use an effective appointment reminder system. These may come in many different forms. Text Messages One simple solution is sending text messages in the form of appointment reminders. A survey reveals that the text message open / read rate is 98%, so this will […]

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]]> Today’s healthcare organizations realize just how valuable missed appointments truly are to a practice’s bottom line. The higher the number of missed appointments, the more money will be lost. When there is a high number of missed appointments, it indicates an organization is not running as efficiently as it should. This directly impacts the resources of the organization, whether that be a healthcare company, business corporation, law firm and many other types of business offices where time is factor. The main reason clients, patients, customers, and others miss appointments is just because they forget about it. This practice can be dangerous especially in health care services where a patient may not get the required medical care. Doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel also lose valuable time. To combat the negative effects missed appointments can have, businesses are increasingly adopting appointment reminder systems.

Appointment Reminder Systems

The solution to missed appointments and the problems it creates is to use an effective appointment reminder system. These may come in many different forms.

Text Messages

One simple solution is sending text messages in the form of appointment reminders. A survey reveals that the text message open / read rate is 98%, so this will lessen the probability that an appointment reminder will be missed. Another study reveals that 97% of the population uses text messaging every day, so text messaging will work for most people.  Also text messages are opened quickly and read, unlike emails. A text message can be sent using an automated reminder system to all your patients within minutes. Responding to text messages is much simpler and convenient for your patients, and many prefer this method above all others.

Voice Messages

Appointment reminders through a recorded voice message are the tried-and-true method of reaching all your patients.  Everyone can receive and listen to a voice call.  This is especially if your patient population tends to be older and not as inclined to use text messages.  In these cases, a voice call is still the sure way to send a reminder.  Unless your patients come to appointments 2 or 3 times every week, calling 2 working days ahead of an appointment is typically the best time to do it – close enough to the appointment so the patient does not forget, but with a working day in the middle, so you can keep your schedules filled if the patient calls to cancel their appointment the next morning.  The only drawback with voice messages is some clients or patients may be annoyed with a phone call interruption and feel like it’s a waste of their time.

Email Alerts

A final solution for appointment reminders is to send an email message. Appointment reminders are sent to patients’ email addresses to remind them of their appointments. The benefit of this solution is another one that works well because it is non-intrusive. However, this can also be a drawback, if the email reminder gets buried in the patient’s inbox and never read.  Emails allows clients to check their emails whenever it is a convenient time for them and where there are no distractions.  Email can be particularly useful for those who do not own a mobile phone or have a limited plan and don’t want to pay extra for text messaging. In instances like this, emails are a great way to communicate appointment reminders.

Combination of Types of Appointment Reminders

A growing number of practices use a combination of text messages, emails, or voice messages. Most appointment reminder services allow practices to send a variety of reminders. The overall goal when using appointment reminders is to avoid “no-shows,” while balancing the need to now overwhelm or upset the patient with too many reminders.  When a practice sends reminders either in form of text, email, or voice message, they will minimize missed appointments. Patients will be alerted to both the time and location of their appointments.  All the above solutions can drastically improve the “no-show” rate for your office, reduce administration time, improve efficiency, improve patient satisfaction, maximize revenue and save money.

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]]> Save Time with Text Message Appointment Reminders https://wordpress.1800notify.com/reminders/save-time-text-message-appointment-reminders/ Fri, 21 Oct 2016 17:49:05 +0000 https://wordpress.1800notify.com/?p=656 In the past decade, the biggest change in the way we run businesses has been the way we use mobile phones. This means most businesses have been forced to change the way they reach customers. Research has shown that 79% of mobile users check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up and do this over 150 times a day. It’s, therefore, not strange when businesses are looking for the best way to reach their customers through their phones. Ahead of emails and Facebook, texting is one of the most frequently used modes of communication in the world today. Although almost 100% of texts are opened within the first three minutes, as much as two thirds of emails are never read. Due to this, it’s obvious that text messages can deliver the best results. In fact, you can save time with text message appointment reminders. Missed appointments can cost a medical practice significant money in terms of lost productivity, not to mention the patient who may have their health adversely affected by not receiving the care they need. Why Text Message Appointments Reminders Are Important Several studies have shown how effective text message appointment reminders are and just how important […]

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]]> In the past decade, the biggest change in the way we run businesses has been the way we use mobile phones. This means most businesses have been forced to change the way they reach customers. Research has shown that 79% of mobile users check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up and do this over 150 times a day. It’s, therefore, not strange when businesses are looking for the best way to reach their customers through their phones. Ahead of emails and Facebook, texting is one of the most frequently used modes of communication in the world today. Although almost 100% of texts are opened within the first three minutes, as much as two thirds of emails are never read. Due to this, it’s obvious that text messages can deliver the best results. In fact, you can save time with text message appointment reminders. Missed appointments can cost a medical practice significant money in terms of lost productivity, not to mention the patient who may have their health adversely affected by not receiving the care they need.

Why Text Message Appointments Reminders Are Important

Several studies have shown how effective text message appointment reminders are and just how important they can become to a practice. In one study, hospitals that use text messaging have greatly reduced the number of no show patients. For healthcare concerns or businesses, the best time to send messages, especially if the practice has already sent another reminder 2 days prior to the appointment, is the day before the scheduled appointment. This is enough time for the clients to organize themselves so that they do not miss the scheduled appointment. It’s also advisable that when sending the message, you need to stress the importance of the appointment to the client. More so, proper use of wording is very important. You can use phrases such as: “be sure to”, “don’t forget”, and “important reminder” so as to emphasize the urgency of the appointment.

The Problem with Phone Call Reminders

The effectiveness of text message reminders is well documented; however, the most common solution many companies turn to in their attempt to reduce no shows have been phone call reminders. Some patients no longer prefer a phone call reminder because it can prove more disruptive and requires and effort to listen to the voice mail.  An increasing number of people are not taking the effort to listen to their voice mail messages, “because it takes too much time and effort.”  More calls may be directed to voice mail systems and not listened to in a timely manner. Fortunately, text messages work in such a way that some software companies have created text message appointment reminders that you can easily use. The idea is to confirm with the patient that text messaging reminders are acceptable. When choosing a text message appointment reminder service, it’s critical that the service provider is able to answer all your questions and provides you with all the information you need. In the end, you will find that you save time with text message appointment reminders.

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]]> Appointment Reminders Keep Your Schedule Filled https://wordpress.1800notify.com/reminders/appointment-reminders-keep-your-schedule-filled/ Fri, 21 Oct 2016 17:45:14 +0000 https://wordpress.1800notify.com/?p=653 Manually calling patients to remind them of their appointments is a significant time-drain for your staff. The last thing a medical office needs is for one of its essential medical or front desk personnel to be tied up trying to remind a patient about an appointment. Unfortunately, this happens more frequently than many offices want.  The staff member gets caught on the phone with “chatty” patients as they call to remind them of an upcoming appointment.  When your staff initiates the call to the patient, it’s very hard to end the call when the patient wants to continue talking about the weather or any other topic. No Shows and Re-Scheduling Are Both Costly The lost revenue and lost opportunity to see a patient who needs to be seen due to a missed appointment is quite costly. Depending on the office and the type of procedure or appointment, a no-show can mean serious repercussions for everyone involved. There can be back and forth of medical office staff trying to reach the patient and find available times that will fit in a patient’s schedule.  All of a sudden, your staff has spent twice the time dealing with this single patient appointment. For the patient and […]

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]]> Manually calling patients to remind them of their appointments is a significant time-drain for your staff. The last thing a medical office needs is for one of its essential medical or front desk personnel to be tied up trying to remind a patient about an appointment. Unfortunately, this happens more frequently than many offices want.  The staff member gets caught on the phone with “chatty” patients as they call to remind them of an upcoming appointment.  When your staff initiates the call to the patient, it’s very hard to end the call when the patient wants to continue talking about the weather or any other topic.

No Shows and Re-Scheduling Are Both Costly

The lost revenue and lost opportunity to see a patient who needs to be seen due to a missed appointment is quite costly. Depending on the office and the type of procedure or appointment, a no-show can mean serious repercussions for everyone involved. There can be back and forth of medical office staff trying to reach the patient and find available times that will fit in a patient’s schedule.  All of a sudden, your staff has spent twice the time dealing with this single patient appointment.

For the patient and the team, this entire procedure can be exhaustive in both hours and frustration. Sometimes, an agreed upon appointment will get keyed in and set after several minutes, just to have the patient call back to reschedule and the process happens all over again.The amount of time and money this takes from a medical practice is quite costly. From the time it takes for staff members to get a patient re-scheduled to the number of missed appointments from patients forgetting the time, the monetary loss can reach the thousands of dollars.This is why medical facilities are now using an appointment reminder software from 1-800 Notify that keeps staff working, patients happy, and the office calendar filled!

Appointment Reminder Service That’s Easy to Use

Appointment reminder services allow clients to remember and show up to their own appointments without having to talk to anyone in a medical office. Research has shown that most people prefer appointment reminders because it reduces missed appointments and the need to reschedule them or even pay a fee for the missed appointment.  Your staff can control when the automated appointment reminders are sent to patients. Growing numbers of practices have started sending 2 reminders – a call 48 hours in advance and a text message reminder 24 hours prior. This software is flexible and easy to use.

Besides just appointment time, the reminder system can be customized to advise patients about other things they may need to bring with them to their appointment to ensure a proper examination, review, or procedure can be done. Reminders about their insurance cards, referral paperwork, what they should and should not do in advance of the appointment – all of these things can be added into an appointment reminder so that everything that needs to get done is able to be done. For medical offices, appointment reminder software increases productivity since medical staff isn’t spending an excessive amount of time trying to reach patients to reschedule a missed appointment.

1-800 Notify Appointment Reminder Service

At 1-800 Notify, the reminder service web site is easy for both patients and medical staff.  The appointment reminder service benefits both patients and offices because it keeps calendars full and patients on-time for their appointments.

Find out More About Appointment Reminders with 1-800 Notify

Not all appointment software is the same. With 1-800 Notify, you will be able to customize your appointment reminder so that it does all the work you need it to easily for you! It is a full-featured software that is user-friendly and simple to use from the office side as well as the patient side. Once you try it, you’ll wonder why you hadn’t thought of this sooner!

Find out more about the 1-800 Notify Appointment Reminder Software and other services that can make your medical office run much more efficiently and effectively.

Call 1-800-939-1853 to get more information today!

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