TURNING THE CORNER
The national shutdown has been an effort to curb the number of citizens infected by coronavirus with the goal of preventing as many illnesses and deaths as possible. “Flattening the curve” has been the topic for nearly two months. As we learned in science class at a young age, every action has an opposite but equal reaction. At least one opposite reaction in this case has been a considerable impact on our economy. It isn’t the purpose of this update to debate the merits (or not) of the shutdown or whether the impact to our businesses is worth it. What we can say is that it seems we may be reaching the opposite “flattened curve,” economically speaking.
For the two weeks ending on April 25th, we appear to have hit the low point in new patient accounts added to OrthoBanc. New accounts averaged 51 per day for those two weeks. Last week we saw increasing new patient accounts each day with two days topping 100 and one day reaching 166. The daily average for the week is 101. While that is very small compared to our typical 900 to 1000 new patient accounts just 2 months ago, it is a welcome sign that your practices are coming back to life and responsible parties are making appointments.
New patient accounts are not confined to a few states or just a few practices. In fact, 150 different practices submitted new patient accounts so far this week, from 37 states. Of those new accounts, 80% have a drafting start date in May, with 17% starting in June, and the remaining 3% starting sometime from July to September.
Collecting Down Payments Remotely
To help your practice during these difficult days, we developed a tool to help you collect a down payment from your new patients. Many practices are diagnosing cases through remote communications and need to obtain a down payment to secure the relationship. Using our Breeze payment service, you can create up to five URLs with five different preset payment amounts and easily send them to a new patient either through email or text. The new patient simply follows the link, securely enters their name, address, and payment card information, then presses submit. Your down payment is authorized and settled into your bank account the second business day.
As an OrthoBanc provider, even if you are not a current Breeze client, we can fast-track your setup to have you up and running quickly. Contact us at marketing@orthobanc.com, or call (888) 758-0585, option 2. Ask our staff about creative ways other practices are using this very helpful tool.
Payment Trends
We are in week 6/7 of the lockdown and based on our data of almost 400,000 currently active responsible parties, we have noted the following:
Payment Trends
- Payment volumes remain strong, running at nearly normal levels.
- Payment failures have now increased slightly compared to last year – 5.9% vs 5.8%(LY) – but not out of line.
- Payment failure reasons remain consistent with normal patterns.
- Call volume in our call center is at normal levels.
- The number of responsible parties requesting payment deferrals has increased slightly to just under 1% (.89%) – still very low. That figure was .77% in our last update.
- Deferral requests are not biased toward one payment method: Card or ACH.
Responsible Feedback
- Our call center staff estimates that about 20% of callers are expressing some distress over their current economic situation. Our compassionate customer care team listens carefully, making adjustments as we have previously indicated, and calls typically end with your responsible parties pleased with the arrangements that have been made.
Observations
- As indicated in previous reports, the trends noted above are solid evidence that you should stay the course with your payment plans.
- You should be communicating regularly with your patients and billing parties, either through email, text or phone calls.
- In your communication, please remind responsible parties that they can speak directly with OrthoBanc should they need to discuss their payment plan. Please include our responsible portal website URL, https://my.orthobanc.com, and our phone number, (800) 636-6600. They can speak with us via email, on-line chat, or telephone.
- Availability: Our customer care team is available from 8am until 7pm eastern time, Monday through Thursday, and from 9am until 5pm eastern on Fridays. The responsible portal is available 24/7 for self-service features such as balance inquiries, updating payment methods, making on-line payments or help requests.
We certainly appreciate the trust you place in us to work on your behalf. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you desire to do so. I’ll enjoy hearing from you. My contact information is below for that purpose.
Bill Holt – President/CEO
