How to Accelerate Payments and Protect Your Healthcare Practice from Fraud

Healthcare providers and practices have faced enormous changes within the industry over the past several years, including new billing code requirements, industry consolidation and extended reimbursement timelines.

While aspects of change may always be present in the industry, a number of treasury management tools can help healthcare providers streamline payment processes that may save your business time and money, allowing you to concentrate on more important responsibilities.

Below we’ve highlighted three of the most common challenges faced by healthcare providers as well as the solutions that can help your business run more efficiently.

1. It can be weeks for us to receive payment for our services, affecting our cash flow. Is there a way to accelerate those payments?

eZePay¹ 

One of the most common ways to speed up payments from patients or payers is to allow them to pay online. Many consumers prefer the immediate method of paying their bill by credit or debit card or through an Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment. eZePay allows your company to accept online payments without the headache and IT resources required to build and maintain your own payment portal. Customers can view and pay their bills 24/7 from a phone, tablet, or desktop computer. eZePay is also fully HIPAA compliant, and because First Independent Bank safely stores all patient banking information, there is no need for it to be stored on your company's computers. This service also allows clients to choose end-of-day or real-time reporting, which automatically integrates into many accounting systems.

Lockbox Services²

Healthcare companies that receive a significant number of checks may want to consider a lockbox service which simplifies paper payment processing and accelerates deposits into your account. A lockbox service eliminates the need for employees to pick up the mail, open and extract the mail and manually deposit checks at the bank. First Independent Bank is one of the few institutions to offer a Las Vegas-based post office box to accept and process payments and remittances - daily - on your behalf. Lockbox clients receive images of every check, document and correspondence along with standard reporting so payments can be reconciled quickly and efficiently. Like eZePay services, an archive of every payment is kept for three years but can be customized for longer periods. The lockbox service reduces mail delays and gets payments into your account as soon as possible, allowing you to concentrate on more critical tasks.

2. We use paper checks for reimbursement of patient overpayments. Are there safeguards we need to consider for protecting against fraud?

Check Payee Positive Pay³

Paper checks do contain information that can be exploited, including your routing and account number. There have been many cases where healthcare practices have been victimized. Unfortunately, mailbox theft, check-washing, and other fraudulent actions occur regularly. Check Payee Positive Pay offers superior detection and protection against these dishonest tactics. As part of your company's normal check run process, clients provide the bank with a listing of every check issued, including check number, check amount, payee and issue date. Before any check is paid from your account, all the information on the check must match what was provided. If the check number, amount or payee information do not match, you are notified via email or text to review the check images and determine whether to pay, return or void the payment. Check Payee Positive Pay eliminates unauthorized payments from your account before they occur. To protect you from potential internal fraud, administrators can choose who can approve exception items, including customized dollar threshold amounts.

ACH Positive Pay⁴

Healthcare providers that utilize Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments also have access to protections that reduce unauthorized ACH debit postings.​​​​​​​ ACH Positive Pay allows you to set payment rules, which can be vendor, amount, or time specific for each account. Your designated administrator is then able to review incoming ACH debits that do not match these set payment rules to determine which should be paid or returned as unauthorized back to the originating bank.  

ACH Debit Block⁴

ACH Debit Block is a service that completely blocks all incoming ACH debit transactions from posting to your account and automatically returns them to the originating bank. Once the service is set up, there are no further managing actions required.

3. I have personal and business accounts above the $250,000 FDIC insurance protection limit, are there solutions that provide additional protection?

Insured Deposit Solutions

There are options to help business owners with large deposits keep their money insured by staying under the FDIC insurance limit of $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank. Once a money market or deposit account reaches a balance of $250,000, the overage amount is automatically swept into a separate FDIC-insured account at a participating member bank. This service eliminates the need to open new accounts and maintain multiple banking relationships while still receiving FDIC insurance on those deposits. 

Complimentary Consultation

First Independent Bank’s healthcare banking team works side-by-side with healthcare providers throughout Nevada to provide the customized solutions and treasury management tools that allow them to concentrate on what’s important - their patients. We understand that providers have a range of needs based on many factors. The best way to determine how the healthcare banking team can help you grow your business is to schedule a complimentary consultation. Our highly experienced team offers clients more than 50 years of experience working in your industry. 

To schedule a complimentary consultation, please get in touch with First Independent Bank healthcare banking team by contacting Jennifer Hargis at [email protected].