Existing habits can be hard to change. Many people—especially your older patients—are used to getting a bill in the mail, writing a check, finding a stamp, and then mailing the bill back to their medical provider. If you wonder if you can get patients to pay their medical bills online, the answer is yes. Patient payments software makes it extremely easy for patients to stop sending payments through the mail, and start paying medical bills online.
Care providers from many specialties are exploring ways to provide their patients with online bill pay options. But first, patients need to be motivated to make the switch.
The first step to change your patients’ behavior is to understand why they might resist paying their medical bills online. Two of the most common reasons people are hesitant to use a patient payment solution are:
- Not wanting to learn new software, and
- Concerns regarding online bill paying security issues.
By considering why they might want to keep things the status quo, you can identify ways to promote online bill pay options to your patients.
Four ways patients benefit from paying medical bills online
- It’s easy. They do not need to create an account or install an app. Which means patients don’t have to remember a new password.
- It’s secure. Messages and payments are sent via a secure, HIPAA-compliant text or email.
- It’s convenient. Patients can pay medical bills with two taps on their smartphone. That’s less time that it takes to write out a check.
- It’s for all age groups. The preference between receiving email or text messages varies for different generations. With NexHealth, patients get to choose if they want to receive a text message, or an email to send their secure payments.
As patient payment software becomes more prevalent, patients will start asking their medical providers, ‘how do I pay for my medical bills online?’
But, what about your practice? What are some of the stumbling blocks you might encounter when implementing a new payment system? The last thing you want is to make an ‘improvement’ that causes headaches for your staff. Take the time to evaluate a new patient payment software to understand all the features to make sure it will work with the programs you currently use to run your practice. Plus, consider if the software has other features you might consider adding to your practice in the future.
Four ways your practice benefits from patients paying medical bills online
- It integrates with other software. Knowing how many medical providers already use some type of software, NexHealth was designed to integrate with hundreds of practice management software.
- It puts you in charge. By offering multichannel communications, you get to decide how to send a bill that matches your patient’s preference.
- It improves practice management. Your patients’ payments are synced with your bank, so your balance is always up to date.
- It results in faster payment. Once given an easier way to pay medical bills online, 80% of patients pay within 10 business days.
Your patients can be enticed into changing their habits and embracing online bill pay. However, you need to do your research to make sure you find a patient payment solution that meets both your needs, and the needs of your patients.
With all the patient payment online options available, how do you choose the one right for your practice?
This chart lets you quickly evaluate the various features of various patient payment solutions. When you’re looking into the ways patients can pay consider if the software has other features you might consider adding to your practice in the future.
Comparison of patient payment software
| Email/ text patients directly | Pay via email | Pay via text | Deposits directly to your bank account | Requires app or portal login | Offers online scheduling | |
| NexHealth | yes | yes | yes | yes | no | yes |
| Kareo | no | no | no | no | yes | yes |
| Patientco | yes | no | no | yes | yes | no |
| SolutionReach | yes | no | yes | yes | no | yes |
| Weave Payments | Text, yes
Email, no |
no | yes | yes | no | yes |
Today, you might be looking for a patient payment solution. In the future though, you might want to consider adding other software to streamline your processes. That is why you might want to select a software that can grow with your practice. In addition to providing a way for your patients to pay medical bills online, NexHealth offers patient communications, online scheduling, reputation management and email marketing.
Will a patient payment solution integrate with my existing practice management system?
NexHealth has a partnership with leading medical software companies such as Doctor Logic and quip. In addition, NexHealth has built over 30 integrations with leading practice management systems including:
- Curve Dental
- Denticon
- Dentrix
- DrChrono
- Eaglesoft
- Easy Dental
- eClinicalWorks
- MacPractice
- MDLand
- Nextech
- Open Dental
- Orthotrac
- PracticeWorks
- QSI
- SoftDent
- Zenoti
Interested in learning more about NexHealth patient payment software? Here’s a case study of a dentist who uses NexHealth for a patient payment solution and he says his patient love to pay medical bills online.
