Why do patients opt for private healthcare? One obvious answer is time. They simply cannot afford to join a waiting list, particularly if they have pressing commitments such as work or family to consider.
As a private doctor, you can offer patients high quality treatment but without the delay. 
But what about the time it then takes you to invoice and get paid for the treatment you have provided? After all, a long wait for payment can have an adverse effect on your cashflow which your own business can ill afford.
I suspect that’s why an increasing number of you are following the example of private hospitals by swapping time-consuming manual invoicing systems for electronic billing.
Healthcode already processes more than a quarter of million bills each month and our billing for private practices and clinics has increased by over 25% in each of the last two years.
Of course, if you already use e-billing then you won’t need convincing that it is the most efficient way to invoice insurers. But for those who have not yet made the transition, here are just a few points to consider:
- Generating e-bills takes a fraction of the time involved in generating manual invoices, giving you and your staff more time to focus on other priorities.
- Bills are delivered securely to insurers, saving you stationery and postage costs and ensuring they don’t go astray. This also eliminates the risk of data breach.
- Invoices are checked and validated before submission so the insurer has all the information it needs to process and settle the bill quickly, without time-consuming queries. Depending on the insurer this can take between 2 to 8 weeks.
- You can submit bills securely online from any computer with internet access.
- Insurers themselves prefer to receive bills electronically.
Or as Desné Marston, practice manager at Harley Street ENT Clinic expressed it: “Before the arrival of electronic billing, a considerable amount of time was spent printing paper invoices before they were folded into envelopes and franked.
Today, though, the majority of these invoices are processed (electronically). It is a huge advantage to know that once the invoices have passed through the Healthcode system you know that they are with the insurer. There is no longer any worry that they have been delayed in the post."
At Healthcode, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that we’re on a mission to help private practices reap the benefits of faster billing and shorter waiting times which come with e-billing. To help spread the word, we have recently launched a microsite which offers more information, including articles and videos which explain how e-billing works; how to create an e-bill and how to get started.
If you would like to know more (or you know someone else who might benefit, just visit www.ebilling.healthcode.co.uk/3mwbg