It’s critical that before performing a financial consultation, that CAs reframe their mindset. Make sure to leave any fears at the door, because fears can create unnecessary collection problems (remember, F.E.A.R. stands for False Evidence Appearing Real).
Think about the pricing in your practice (maybe your CAs fear it’s too high). Now, without even knowing what you charge, I can promise you that your fees are not too high because the service you provide is virtually priceless. However, do your CAs truly get that?
For a moment, think about things that are free. Library books are free…when was the last time you walked into the library and the shelves were all empty? Free doesn’t equate to value. In reality, people actually tend to assume that a higher price means higher worth—wine is a great example.
Or maybe your CAs are concerned because the patient doesn’t have insurance to cover their recommended care. Do they also realize that there is no insurance for buying clothes, for light bulbs, for dining out, for movies, TVs, iPads, or buying cars, computers, groceries, cosmetics, plastic surgery, batteries, coffee, landscape, jewelry, travel, -- we could go on forever, right? The point is: people spend billions on each and every on one of these each and every year.
For the most part, people spend money on what they WANT. If it’s important to them, the majority of people figure out how to financially manage it. How many times have you heard people complain about their finances, yet those same people continue to spend money on new golf clubs or their hair and nails, or cute shoes or handbags, accessories for their dog—whatever is important to them? In our practice, we had a severely disabled client on Medicare who had signed a financial hardship in our office to reduce his copayments, until we realized he was paying for weekly massages out-of-pocket at our practice. It’s typically not an issue of affordability.
Fear is just one of the barriers to higher practice collections. Find out how to break through fear and many more mindset barriers in the Patient Payments Systems course. Here are the modules included in this newly updated online video presentation:
