For many individuals, health care costs persist long after an illness or injury has been treated. Recently, NPR covered the issue by spotlighting a family in Louisville, Kentucky, whose cancer treatment debt ballooned to more than $300,000.
"The time between discovering a lesion on [the patient's] pancreas and requiring surgery to remove it was just a few weeks, so when their family doctor recommended a noted surgeon, the family didn't hesitate to use his services," explains the report. "They knew he was out of their health plan's network of doctors, but at that stage, it was the least of their worries."
A combination of complicated treatments and rising costs cause families to face unmanageable debt for years after procedures have been done. While new rules may preclude these debts from factoring into credit scores, the mountain of bills can still place incredible strain on personal finances. Americans regularly cite the cost of health care as a leading worry through every stage of life. Parents worry about affording care for their children, uninsured adults are daunted by the possibility of an accident and seniors fear their savings won't be sufficient to cover end-of-life care.
Families aren't alone in feeling the strain from mounting debt. This also leaves accounts receivable professionals in hospitals scrambling to track down payments on many different cases. As a result, offices can run inefficiently and administrators may be bogged down in a high volume of patients.
When care facilities outsource receivables management, they reduce the burden on individual administrators to manage an overwhelming caseload. This allows them to focus on the most high-priority cases and eliminate backlogs. Contact us today to learn more about Professional Medical Services' offerings for accounts receivable management.