Patient financial services · Medical billing & RCM
Resolve every patient balance to zero or a plan.
After insurance posts, patient responsibility sits in AR aging behind unread statements. Charity eligibility goes unscreened and balances drift to collections before anyone offers a payment plan.
The reality
Patient AR is a follow-through problem.
The patient-pay bucket grows quietly. Statement cycles run on autopilot, nobody screens for charity care or sliding-scale eligibility, and accounts age past 120 days into a collections referral that recovers cents on the dollar and burns goodwill.
The operator works each balance after the EOB posts: screens against the financial assistance policy, applies the discount or self-pay adjustment, offers a structured payment plan, and only refers to collections when every resolution path is exhausted and documented.
How the operator runs patient financial services
Account PT-90412 · screening
screening- Insurance posted, $640 patient resp.
- FPL income check run
- Charity eligibility — partial, 70% off
01Screen for assistance
Checks each patient balance against the charity and sliding-scale policy using household and income data on file.
Account PT-90412 · resolution
resolving- 70% charity discount applied
- Remaining $192 calculated
- 3-month plan offered
02Apply & offer a plan
Posts the discount, then offers a payment plan sized to the remaining balance and logs patient acceptance.
Account PT-90412 · close
closing- Plan accepted, autopay set
- Balance moved to plan status
- Account closed to plan
03Close or refer
Closes the account at zero or active plan, or refers to collections with the full resolution trail documented.
The outcome
−50% of patient-AR work off the team
Resolve every patient balance to a zero or plan.
- Every eligible patient screened for charity before the bill ever reaches collections
- Balances resolved to a plan instead of aging into bad debt
- A documented resolution trail on every account before any collections referral
Common questions
Patient financial services
- What does the Patient financial services operator do?
- The operator works each balance after the EOB posts: screens against the financial assistance policy, applies the discount or self-pay adjustment, offers a structured payment plan, and only refers to collections when every resolution path is exhausted and documented.
- What impact does the Patient financial services operator have?
- −50% of patient-AR work off the team. Resolve every patient balance to a zero or plan.
- How does the Patient financial services operator work?
- Checks each patient balance against the charity and sliding-scale policy using household and income data on file. Posts the discount, then offers a payment plan sized to the remaining balance and logs patient acceptance. Closes the account at zero or active plan, or refers to collections with the full resolution trail documented.
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