While LTC facilities aim to provide housing and care for the elderly, they are also businesses that need to stay aware of their bottom line to continue to provide these services.
Some patients might not have sufficient insurance coverage or financial resources to pay for their care, resulting in bad debts for the facility. Slow reimbursement from insurance companies, Medicaid, or Medicare can create cash flow problems. Private payers might also delay payments. Some patients may have copayments, deductibles, or services not covered by insurance. Collecting these amounts from patients or their families can be challenging.
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Unique aspects of nursing homes and LTC facilities can make getting paid more complex than your average business. This is why these institutions should consider working with a debt collection agency that understands the specific issues faced by these businesses.
Over the next two decades, many Americans will need nursing homes and long-term care (LTC) facilities. As the baby boomer generation goes from retirees to the elderly, these types of institutions will see a massive boom in demand. In fact, by 2040, there will be 4.3 million elderly citizens utilizing nursing home facilities.
It’s Not Always About Collecting Money
When a debt collection agency works with a standard business, it aims to contact the person who owes the debt and collect money from them or the guarantor/co-signer. For nursing homes and LTC facilities, the biggest challenge they face in collecting their accounts receivables is getting the information they need from family members or other caregivers.
Debt collection companies who specialize in working with nursing homes and LTC facilities know that collecting information is a vital part of collecting for this population and have proven methods and systems to contact family members who may not want to talk and share info. These debt collectors can do this in an ethical way that is sensitive to the situation while still compelling the responsible parties to give the information needed to get Medicaid approved faster.
It’s Not Just Collecting from the Person
When nursing homes and LTC facilities look to get paid for caring for an elderly person, it is not just that person who they can collect from. There is a larger system in place to help subsidize this type of care. A specialized debt collection company will help these institutions collect from multiple sources to get the AR paid.
These sources that a debt collection agency will help your organization tap into include the standard past due private pay balances, SSI balances, Medicare co-insurance, and more. If your institution goes it alone or works with a debt collection company unfamiliar with all the payment avenues, your facility could lose out.
That said, the right debt collection agency also knows that Medicare usually only covers a portion of LTC, and the remaining amount is covered by the elderly or his guarantor. A debt collection agency also has the tools to help collect from these parties.
It’s Not Just About the Debt Going Forward
One more reason that it makes a lot of sense for nursing homes and LTC facilities to work with an experienced, knowledgeable debt collector in their industry is because of Retroactive Medicaid. Retroactive Medicaid is a system that allows Medicaid applicants to receive nursing home coverage for up to 3 months before the date of the patient’s application. For nursing homes and LTC facilities, waiting too long to collect on a person’s AR can lead to losing out on the ability to manage the retro.
The right debt collection company knows how these timelines work and will be able to help your institution get what it needs to get Medicaid billing approved faster so you do not lose the retro. This is critical to keeping your business healthy while caring for the elderly.
Conclusion
The job of nursing homes and LTC facilities is to provide the best housing and care they can. Spending a lot of time chasing past due accounts is incredibly important, but it also takes away from the core mission. Hiring a debt collection agency that works with these institutions is the best way to improve your bottom line.