Patient Collection Rate Falls to Nearly 48%
A new analysis shows a sharp decline in the patient collection rate in 2022 and 2023 as providers write off more bad debt from patients with insurance. February 28, 2024 - Healthcare organizations are finding it harder to collect patient financial responsibility, a new analysis from Kodiak Solutions indicates. The analysis of patient financial transactions from over 1,850 hospitals and 250,000 physicians nationwide showed a sharp decline in the patient collection rate, from 54.8 percent in 2021 to just 47.8 percent in 2022 and 2023. Total payments made on the nearly 3 million fully resolved medical claims from commercially insured patients during the two-year analysis period were about $5.2 billion. However, the cash providers received was barely a quarter of the total charges, which were $21 billion at the time. Patient financial responsibility accounted for about $1.1 billion of the over $5 billion in total payments received, or about a fifth of total payments. But providers co