Things You Need to Know About a Digitized Healthcare Payment System

Healthcare organizations are just like businesses at the end of the day. In spite of the fact that they work to say lives and cure diseases, they are businesses entities that are bound by revenue streams just like companies in every industry. If medical practices or hospitals begin to lose money for an extended period of time, they too would have to lay off staff, cut back on wages, and struggle to improve their revenue streams.

In light of this, it should come as no surprise that provider organizations have their own dedicated healthcare payment system. With the rapidly advancing digitization of many workflows, the implementation of digital solutions for healthcare payments is a given. But what exactly is a health payment system?

In simple words, a healthcare payment system is a digital solution that enables medical organizations to manage the revenue streams and track billing for each patient. In other words, it acts as a consolidated system for healthcare providers to handle the financial aspects of their organization. In a system as complex as American healthcare, any solution that engenders better management of the financial part of the operations is bound to help improve the bottom line. Let’s look at some advantages of using health payment systems - 

Bundled Payment

A digital solution for healthcare payment systems goes a long way in helping to bring about and normalize bundled payments. Unlike the fee-for-service model of medical payments, this model of reimbursement pays multiple providers a fixed amount for coordinating a single episode of care. As an example - imagine there is a man who needs to undergo knee surgery. In this case, there is going to be an orthopedic surgeon, a radiologist, nurses, and a physiotherapist who are going to be involved in the procedure and its immediate aftermath. As per the fee-for-service model, the insurance payer would have to pay each of the professionals separately, and also for the medication

On the other hand, under a bundled payment model, the entire cost of the surgery - right from admittance to the hospital to the discharge - is paid in one lump sum by the payer to the provider organization. This form of payment reduces the bureaucracy and also the cost of care. It has been touted as one of the most promising ways to help reduce the overall cost of healthcare in the United States.  

A digital health payment software goes a long way in instituting bundled payments at provider organizations.

Specialty Billing

Healthcare providers tend to vary according to the type of service they provide. So, the processing of the payments would also vary according to the type of service. Providers in this context would include dentists, psychotherapists, radiologists, pathologists, physiotherapists, and even veterinarians. A specialty billing feature within healthcare payments solutions can be tailored to meet the processing requirements of all types of providers.    

Conclusion

Digital solutions for health payment solutions have engendered better management of medical billing, patient data, and better revenue cycles. As the system moves towards value-based reimbursements, health payment software is bound to play a greater role in the industry.