NEW ORLEANS, LA (March 4, 2013) – Aspen Valley Hospital has reported that it increased front office patient payments by 124 percent with InstaMed, the leading Healthcare Payments Network, and by applying patient payment best practices. These changes also allowed the hospital to reduce administrative time and costs to process payments by 65 percent and to increase days cash on hand by 52 percent.
Aspen Valley Hospital announced these results at the HIMSS13 Annual Conference and Exhibition. Debby Essex, Director of Admissions for Aspen Valley Hospital, will discuss how the hospital reduced costs and increased days cash on hand at the HIMSS13 Summit for Healthcare Information and Financial Technology (SHIFT) Education Session titled, “Accountable Care Act: The Business Side of Care,” on March 5.
InstaMed has published the hospital’s business results in a case study conducted in collaboration with Aspen Valley Hospital. Read the full case study here.
Prior to InstaMed, Aspen Valley Hospital was not effectively collecting patient payments in the front office during patient visits. This increased the amount of work required to collect in the back office, leading to a decrease in days cash on hand. To solve this problem, the hospital deployed InstaMed to every point of patient interaction. This enabled the hospital to accept payments at all points of patient interaction, including: an online patient portal; all clinical and administrative locations; educational classes; and even iPads used for inpatient discharge. Aspen Valley Hospital also developed innovative collection processes and policies, such as a prompt-pay discount for patients and a team-oriented incentive program, to collect in the front office.
“InstaMed delivered the tools to make these process and policy changes successful,” said Terry Collins, CFO of Aspen Valley Hospital. “Now, we get paid at every point of patient interaction and we can access real-time reporting on payments across all of our locations. This enables us to empower our staff to collect more payments during patient visits. As a result, we are collecting more money in the front office, and the entire payment process is more efficient across all of our locations.”
“Hospitals and health systems all over the country are struggling to collect, process and report on patient payments efficiently,” said Bill Marvin, President and CEO of InstaMed. “Aspen Valley Hospital has implemented patient payment best practices by offering convenient payment options at all points of patient interaction. These best practices automate every step of the patient payment process and facilitate culture changes in an organization, which result in more money collected. We are thrilled that Aspen Valley Hospital has achieved such dramatic results with InstaMed.”
About Aspen Valley Hospital
Aspen Valley Hospital (AVH) is a 25-bed community hospital that represents the best of two worlds –the warmth and friendliness of a small town and the technical expertise of a major medical center.
In fact, we have received national awards for patient satisfaction year after year from Avatar International, a leading research and consulting firm that administers patient surveys. In addition, we were recently named one of the top 20 Critical Access Hospitals in the country.
Although orthopaedics and sports medicine are a primary focus of AVH, a full range of services is offered. With board-certified specialists in 25 different fields of medicine, we are prepared to care for a broad range of medical issues.
AVH is fully accredited by The Joint Commission and is also designated a “Critical Access Hospital.”