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Roundtable: Collections and the ACA, Part II
Three panel experts discuss using technology to increase collections and the difficulty of figuring out what the expected payment will be. Plus, will patients unable or unwilling to pay just switch to new doctors?
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
roundtable discussion on collections issues at medical practices and whether newly insured patients under the Affordable Care Act with exacerbate the issue,
In part two of thepanelist Bill Hannah opens the segment by discussing the technology he’s witnessed practices use to increase patient collections by collecting beforehand.
However, panelists Brian Bourke and Daniel Kantor, MD, point out that won’t always help considering how difficult it can be to figure out what the expected payment will be.
“It’s going to be very difficult to say you’re going to collect that money right up front, especially since you might not know exactly what that is until it’s been calculated by the insurance,” Kantor says. “And so does that mean you just won’t see them next time until they pay? Then they’ll just go to another physician or provider. So it’s going to be very confusing, especially since people can switch insurances on the exchange.”
