How To Use Patient Statement Printing Services For Effective Healthcare Communication?
Healthcare organisations like hospitals deal with a tremendous number of internal operations every day. Optimising patient communication is not a strong suit for most healthcare organisations. Even something as simple as patient statement printing is not an easy task for hospitals.
We get it; healthcare organisations have bigger things to worry about than sending patient statements.
But what if we tell you there is a way to optimise your patient statement printing delivery. How would you feel about optimising patient communication without lifting a finger? And would you believe us if we tell you that you can do all this while saving money and resources for your healthcare organisation?
Using patient statement printing and mailing services for your healthcare organisation could be the answer to your questions, let us see how.
What Is a Patient Statement?
A patient statement is a medical or hospital bill that a patient needs to pay for all the healthcare services they received. Healthcare providers like hospitals and clinics send out numerous patient statements daily via regular mail or electronically.
The statement summarises all the services rendered by the healthcare provider and a breakdown of the healthcare charges. Healthcare organisations usually outsource patient statement printing as they do not have the equipment or resources for bulk printing and mailing.
Patient Statement Printing Services
As you can infer from the name, the patient statement printing service involves printing and delivering patient statements. Most healthcare organisations, including hospitals and clinics, use this service to streamline patient communications.
Healthcare providers like hospitals spend significant money and time sending patient statements, especially when it comes to postal mail. Nonetheless, many patients still prefer to receive their healthcare documents in physical form.
And sometimes, hospitals send patient statements via mail and electronically so the patient does not miss them. Another reason to employ a medical statement printing service is automation. Advanced print and mail software solutions like PostGrid fully automate sending patient statements.
Why Should You Employ Patient Statement Printing And Mailing Services?
There are numerous reasons why healthcare providers like hospitals, clinics, etc., employ patient statement printing and mailing services. We already saw the primary benefits of outsourcing your healthcare communication. Below are some compelling reasons that push healthcare organisations to outsource the printing and delivery of patient statements.
Easy Customisation of Patient Statements
Easy customisation is the most significant advantage of patient statement printing and mailing services. When we say customisation, it isn’t just limited to changing the name and address of the patient or printing accurate details of their healthcare services.
A patient statement printing tool like PostGrid allows you to customise the content and the envelope of the statements. Customising the statement envelopes with your hospital logo and brand colours enables the patient to identify the sender quickly.
One of the reasons why patients miss your patient statements is because they misidentify your mailer as junk mail. Customising the envelopes eliminates that risk and boosts your mailer open rate significantly.
Saves Money and Resources
The primary reason why some hospitals do not use patient statement printing and mailing services is that they think it’s expensive. But in reality, the hospitals that do not outsource their statement printing process lose more money.
Let us explain why you are losing more money without a patient statement mailing service. Assuming that you send out patient statements weekly, the patient statements must reach the patient accurately. Naturally, you may think that your patient statements reach their destination accurately.
But what if it doesn’t? You likely already have a high return or mediocre deliverability rate for your mailers. Of course, this is a manual process we are talking about here. Even scarier is that it doesn’t take much to print to the wrong address. Everything from misspellings to fraud attempts can lead to undelivered mail.
Address Verification
To ensure your patient statements always reach their destination, use a patient statement mailing that offers address verification. For example, print and mail automation tools like PostGrid also provide an address verification software that guarantees the deliverability of your mail.
The address verification tool matches your patient’s address against Australia Post’s official address database and verifies its deliverability. You can do the same with international addresses, as PostGrid has access to all significant address databases worldwide.
Hence, patient statement printing and mailing services like PostGrid ensures the deliverability of your hospital’s medical documents. Not only does it directly save money on the statement mailing process, but it also boosts the rate of on-time medical bill payments.
New Responsibility Distribution
A discussion on layoff usually follows the debate on automation in any industry vertical. However, with patient statement services, it won’t be your biggest concern. Why? Because hospitals and clinics usually have a dedicated printing facility.
And even if they have a dedicated printing facility, the chances are it is not an elaborate one. The truth is that printing patient statements are not a core function of your healthcare organisation. Hence, medical statement printing services facilitate new responsibility distribution within your organisation.
New responsibility distribution can mean two things. One, you can move your employees from patient statement printing and mailing to another aspect of your healthcare organisation needing help. Or, you can free up responsibilities for the person taking care of patient statements besides their primary responsibility at your organisation.
Better Accuracy and Lower Risks
Having in-house patient statement services may seem convenient at first glance. But, if you examine it further, you will see several risks involved in printing patient statements by yourself. For instance, there will always be some human error in an in-house process.
Manual or human errors are not so easy to eradicate because, after all, we are humans. Even missing a single digit in the postcodes could mean the patient will not receive their medical bill. Employing patient statement printing and mailing services like PostGrid eliminates this risk.
Furthermore, healthcare communication deals with sensitive data. There are international and national compliances like HIPAA and GDPR that regular hospitals cannot handle alone. A compliant patient statement printing service like PostGrid can bypass these regulations and protect your patient data.
Shortens Days Sales Outstanding (DSO)
Days Sales Outstanding or DSO refers to the time required for your organisation to receive service payments. When it comes to the healthcare industry, the DSO is anywhere between 40 to 45 days. Using a medical statement printing service, you can minimise the DSO for your organisation.
No, we do not imply that merely sending and receiving patient statements minimises DSO. But, you have the option to add services to speed up healthcare payments. For example, you can print a QR code or pURL that leads the customer to an online payment gateway.
Furthermore, you can even provide affordable healthcare plans to boost your healthcare payments. Employing patient statement services like PostGrid allows you to provide these payment options to patients. You can also use a similar approach for your healthcare marketing mailers and implement a multichannel marketing strategy.
Factors To Look For In a Patient Statement Printing Service
Above we saw why your healthcare organisation needs a patient statement printing service. Now let’s see how you can pick an ideal service provider for printing your patient statements and other medical documents. Following are the main factors you need to consider when searching for a print and mail partner for your healthcare organisation.
Statement Customisation Capability
The first thing you need to ensure when selecting patient statement services is to ensure they support customisation capability. It includes not just the patient statement itself but also the envelope you use to send it.
Tracking and Status Updates
Ensure the service provider you choose allows you to track your mailers and get accurate information about their status. The patient statement services should also give you access to the necessary analytic data for streamlining your internal operations.
Address Correction and Verification
Ensure the service provider you choose offers an address correction and verification capability. Use tools like PostGrid, which offers fully automated print and mail service and address verification.
Marketing Capability
Your patient statement printing tool should offer diverse capabilities and at least allow essential marketing capability. For example, you can use PostGrid’s tool for sending marketing materials and inserts, including brochures, postcards, etc.
Conclusion
Healthcare organisations like hospitals deal with many internal operations, and optimising communication often takes a backseat. However, doing so could do more harm than you think and lead to unnecessary losses. Hence, hospitals must employ patient statement services.
Using an advanced software solution like PostGrid, you can easily optimise healthcare communication via mail. It allows you to customise your patient statements, including the envelopes. Furthermore, it saves you valuable time and resources by boosting the deliverability of your medical documents.
It is also worth noting that medical statement printing services like PostGrid comply with international and national regulations. PostGrid ensures the security of your patient’s sensitive information, so you don’t have to worry about data leaks.
It would be best if you also made it a point to select patient statement services that support marketing operations like PostGrid. Doing so can ensure superior communication marketing capability for your healthcare organisation.
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The post Patient Statement Services: Automated Mailing of Medical Records & Statements appeared first on PostGrid.
source https://www.postgrid.com.au/patient-statement-automated-printing-mailing/
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