The healthcare industry is locked in a never-ending struggle with collecting payments. The burden placed on patients is growing, with rising insurance deductibles and premiums increasing the difficulty faced by patients to actually make their payments. According to a recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly half of all insured adults in the US struggle to afford out-of-pocket costs and 27% have difficulty affording their deductible. Mental healthcare has been hit hard by these difficulties, with nearly one third of Americans canceling therapy sessions due to exorbitant out-of-pocket costs.

Expanding access to mental healthcare must be one of the top priorities for the US, with 21% of adults reporting mental illness in 2020. Despite their best efforts, there are certain obstacles preventing providers from truly making mental healthcare accessible to the masses and they are not to blame. Providers don’t control how much care costs, after all.

Keep reading for 3 reasons your mental health practice is struggling to collect patient payments:

Processing Errors
Processing payments is a complex and taxing job; especially when it comes to collecting patient payments, as having to follow up multiple times only creates more chances for error. There are multiple errors that can occur during this process, from having the wrong patient information on file to poor communication with the patient, and these errors can have a large negative effect on your mental health practices’ bottom line.

Fortunately, technology can either mitigate or outright eliminate many of these errors. Digital payment solutions are extraordinarily advanced and can assist your practice in streamlining and making more efficient your collections processes. Patients can now enter their own payment and contact information, rather than staff having to painstakingly enter it for each and every patient. The same technology allows patients to edit their information in case of any changes, keeping you up-to-date.

Increasing Deductibles
A deductible is how much patients have to pay out-of-pocket before their insurance kicks in. Unfortunately for patients, deductibles have been rising in recent years and this trend has shown no signs of stopping. Insurance doesn’t always help either, as around 23.6 million Americans with employer health coverage reported spending a large share of their income on either premiums or out-of-pocket costs. This contributes to the statistic mentioned above: one third of Americans are canceling mental health appointments because they simply cannot afford them.

Telehealth
One of the biggest changes the COVID-19 pandemic made to the healthcare industry was the increased reliance on telehealth. Mental healthcare has perhaps benefited from this the most; between March and August 2020 nearly 40% of all mental health visits were conducted over telehealth. Continue to availability of mental healthcare over telehealth is an absolute must as 49% of patients say they are willing to use it for talk therapy.

While telehealth is an important avenue for mental healthcare to pursue, it can also introduce complications to the billing process. With fewer in-person interactions, providers have fewer opportunities to remind patients to make their payments.