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Roundtable: Collections and the ACA, Part I
Four experts discuss the current state of medical practice collections issues, the struggle with patient liability and the assumption that the ACA means all bills are paid for.
Moderator: Roger Fontes, MD Black Mountain Orthopaedics
Brian Bourke Honkamp Krueger & Co.
Health care principal
David Kantor, MD Neurologique
Medical director
Bill Hannah Dixon Hughes Goodman Health care principal
In this roundtable, experts discuss collections issues at medical practices and how newly insured patients under the Affordable Care Act could exacerbate the problem.
Panel moderator and board-certified orthopaedic surgeon with Black Mountain Orthopaedics in Henderson, Nev., Roger Fontes, MD, introduced the panelists: Brian Bourke, a health care consulting manager specializing in optimizing revenue and billing practices at the CPA and business consulting Honkamp Krueger & Co.; Bill Hannah, a 30-year veteran of assisting health care organizations improve financial performance and the health care principal at the CPA firm Dixon Hughes Goodman; and Daniel Kantor, MD, a board-certified neurologist, the medical director of Neurologique and the immediate past president of the Florida Society of Neurology.
Bourke began the discussion by giving a brief overview of the current status of collections at medical practices — as much as 50% of patient responsibility goes uncollected. Kantor then explained that this could worsen as many confused health care insurance with health care, assuming the insurance covers their bills, leaving them nothing to pay.
“People assume that now there is the Affordable Care Act that this means suddenly all their bills are going to be paid for and they don’t have any kind of requirement,” Kantor said.
