Communicating Patient Pay Details with Older Generations

Posted on by

Learning to communicate DME patient pay details effectively with the older generation is critical to ensure timely payments. The older generation often has difficulty understanding their financial responsibility, leading to delay in payment, negative referral feedback, and reviews.

Providing staff training on communication tips and strategies can significantly improve your collection times. Since it can take time for staff to become clear communicators, many businesses consider working with a DME Billing Company, like Medbill, to increase their collection times. 

Benefits from Learning Clear Communication Skills

When there are poor communication skills with the older generations, it can reduce staff’s efforts to provide effective patient care resulting in slower collection times. Whereas, when DME providers learn to use clear communication techniques, there are several benefits.

  • Create positive patient relationships
  • Increase collection times 
  • Reduce phone communication time with the patient 
  • Strengthen the patient and DME provider relationship

Tips for Communicating with Older Generations 

Here are several helpful tips for when your staff needs to communicate with the older generation.

  • Establish Rapport – Introduce yourself, don’t speak quickly, ask questions one at a time.
  • Don’t Rush the Conversation – Allow the patient to express concerns, ask questions, don’t interrupt them.
  • Help Them Feel Comfortable – Ask if you need to repeat the question or information and remind patients you’re there to help them understand their financial responsibility.
  • Use Active Listening Skills – Provide frequent responses as the patient talks (responses can include “okay” or “I understand”).
  • Speak in Short Sentences – Keeping sentences simple will help the patient to understand you easier. 

Dos and Don’ts on Clear Communication

  • Don’t be informal during the conversation. 
  • Do use formal language like Ms., Mrs., Mr.
  • Don’t assume, insinuate, inflame, and ignore patients. 
  • Do be kind, courteous, helpful.
  • Don’t ignore the patient’s emotions or concerns.
  • Do show empathy and acknowledge their concerns.
  • Don’t ask multiple questions at once.
  • Do ask one question at a time and allow the patient to respond.
  • Don’t assume the patient understands the information you shared.
  • Do allow them to ask questions to make sure the information is understood.

Improve Patient Communication with DME Outsourcing 

The Medbill patient pay team are expert communicators and have developed effective strategies for communicating with older generations. Our team is 100% US-based and can speak clearly, and their empathy allows them to navigate patient calls successfully.

The Medbill patient pay services can increase your time and money so you can focus on other valuable business responsibilities. Contact us now to learn more about our DME patient pay services.