HFMA: Hospital self-pay receivables climb

New research from the Healthcare Financial Management Association has concluded that hospital self-pay receivable levels have climbed significantly since the last fiscal year. According to researchers, small hospitals saw the biggest increases.

According to the HFMA, receivables are growing faster than patient revenue at nearly one-third of hospitals responding to its survey. Meanwhile, more than one-third of hospitals saw self-pay receivables climb by 10 percent or more.

Not surprisingly, hospitals are reporting that the growth of aging self-pay receivables is having an impact on overall hospital performance.

To address this issues, upwards of 70 percent of respondents said that they were devoting "moderate" or "substantial" efforts to implementing point-of-service collection options.  However, these efforts are being hampered by problems in estimating the cost of services.

Get more information from the study:
- read this HFMA News piece
- review the HFMA study executive summary

Related Articles:
HFMA releases revenue cycle recommendations
Survey: Revenue cycle execs focused on patient collections
HFMA ANI 2009: Revenue cycle management rules the day