Health
Savings Accounts Change Collection Model for Doctors, Soon Pathologists
Health
Savings Accounts (HSAs) are on the rise in the United States.
According to a fact sheet from the White House this month, “The
number of Americans with HSAs has tripled from one million in
March 2005 to the more than three million reported in January
2006. The number of Americans with HSAs is currently projected
to increase to 29 million by 2010.” These accounts consist
of a contribution made by an employer to an employee’s tax-free
savings account. The HSA is combined with a high-deductible insurance
policy ($1,000 to $5,000) to help people pay pre-deductible expenses.
People with HSAs love the accounts because they can use the money
in their account for over-the-counter medications, massage therapy,
lasik eye surgery, and other “elective” medical procedures.
When a real emergency does arise, however, HSA account holders
often find their account under-funded and have trouble paying
their medical bills.
Because payment in the HSA scenario is the responsibility of the
patient and not the patient’s insurance company, providers
of all types need to get in the habit of collecting from the patient
at the time the service is rendered —or even before it is
rendered (in the case of routine procedures with predictable costs).
The days of billing patients in the weeks following a procedure
are coming to an end. Unlike post-service claims with health insurance
companies, patients are far less likely to respond to an after-the-fact
bill.
The upside to collecting for patients with HSA accounts at the
time of service is that most HSA account holders have a debit
card connected directly to their account which they can use to
pay their medical provider. Therefore, if they have the money
in their account, they will usually be amenable to paying at the
time of service.
The HSA insurance model creates new payment for pathology group
practices, because there is no direct contact with the patient.
So how can a pathology practice prepare to deal with patients
covered by HSA insurance plans? First, when HSA patients come
into a patient service center to provide specimens, it is a good
proactive measure to notify them in writing that they will be
responsible for payment at the time the tests are done. Second,
office staff must be trained to know the different types of insurance
policies and to know that HSA patients must provide payment at
the time of the test. They should have the knowledge needed to
help HSA account holders realize that they can use their HSA debit
card to pay.
Finally, both clinical laboratories and pathology groups must
be prepared to deal with the new type of patient-consumer that
has an HSA account. These patient-consumers will look at medical
services like retail commodities. They will balance cost and quality
in making a decision on which medical facility, laboratory, or
physician to use. For this reason, laboratories must develop patient-friendly
price schedules for all laboratory services. These should be competitive
with the cost of services offered at comparable laboratories.
HSA-insured patients are likely to seek out laboratories with
prices that match or beat competitor’s prices. Adapting
to HSA account holders will require a significant effort by laboratories.
However, the drastic reduction in lag time between services rendered
and payment received lower the patient default rate. In the long
run, that should make laboratories more profitable.
Related Articles:
HSAs: A new paradigm in payment and collections
Fact
Sheet: Health Savings Accounts: Affordable and Accessible Health
Care
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