Craneware's Patient Charge Estimator empowers hospitals to quickly and easily respond to the growing number of guarantors, patients, and clinicians requesting price estimates on inpatient and outpatient procedures. Patient Charge Estimator is an ideal solution that provides ready access to the relevant hospital data sources needed by Revenue Cycle, Patient Access and the Business Office staff to provide quick and accurate estimates.

The software-produced estimates are based on the hospital's own historical claims data, chargemaster files, managed care contracts, and patient-provided insurance information. By correcting and simplifying the process of providing estimates for inpatient and outpatient services, providers can improve upfront collections, reduce bad debt, support defensible and transparent pricing, and increase staff productivity.

Improve Upfront Collections and Safeguard Cash Flow

Accurate and complete estimates provide clear and concise financial information, and outline upfront payment options. This helps create a positive patient experience, through understanding financial expectations before services occur. If hospitals don't set advance expectations on pricing, there is a much lower chance of collection at or beyond the time of service. Accurate and complete estimates allow the hospital to set appropriate patient expectations in order to safeguard cashflow through point-of-service collections. Using Patient Charge Estimator facilitates an understanding of costs associated with different treatment options, and allows the patient to begin payment or make payment plans before billing turns into bad debt.

Increase Productivity

Both clinical and non-clinical staff can easily and readily respond to estimate requests from guarantors, patients and clinicians for both inpatient and outpatient services - with the most commonly requested procedures right at their fingertips. Using Patient Charge Estimator empowers hospital staff to communicate effectively with the healthcare consumer and quickly navigate the cumbersome estimate request process. The software uses the hospital's own claims data and managed care contracts to generate high, medium and low-cost estimates, including the negotiated allowable amount, depending on the level of mitigating health circumstances, complications or add-on services required.

Support Defensible and Transparent Pricing

Patient Charge Estimator estimates and letters are saved and tracked in a database for identifying patient trends and behaviors, and comparing estimates with actual billing to support refinement of the organization's pricing strategy. By using the hospital's own historical claims data, chargemaster files, and negotiated third-party contracts, Patient Charge Estimator supports defensible, transparent pricing for regulatory compliance. Hospitals are being mandated to disclose and clarify hospital prices, so both the provider and patient understand the price of care. Learn more about State Legislation Relating to Transparency and Disclosure of Health and Hospital Charges from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Patient Charge Estimator directly supports Healthcare Financial Management Association's (HFMA) PATIENT FRIENDLY BILLING^® initiative. HFMA recently released research findings regarding the changing face of self-payment in hospitals, specifically related to the challenges hospitals face when working with patients on payment issues. Some of the highlights:

• 97% of respondents experienced an increase in self-pay accounts receivable compared with the prior fiscal year.
• Approximately 1/3 have experienced an overall increase of 10% or greater growth in self-pay balance.
• Small hospitals were most likely to experience a self-pay increase of greater than 10%.
• Receivables are growing faster than patient revenue at almost 1/3 of hospitals.
• 72% of respondents are devoting efforts towards point-of-service collections.

Patient Charge Estimator™ Implementation Services

Craneware Professional Services use their industry-wide expertise to help healthcare organizations develop policy and procedure, and design processes that improve upfront collections and quickly achieve accurate patient estimates using Patient Charge Estimator software. Implementation is designed to assist organizations in maximizing the immediate return on investment through use of the software, while establishing an effective, sustainable business process for ongoing use of Patience Charge Estimator. Other key benefits from engaging Craneware Professional Services for implementation include: software setup, onsite training, scripts for discussing estimates with patients, and the development of document variations for patient estimate letters.

To learn more about Craneware's Patient Charge Estimator™, please call 877 624 2792 or email sales@craneware.com to schedule an appointment with one of our experienced sales managers. Or, simply use the "Arrange a demonstration" or "Contact me" links found below.

Download fact sheet  |  Arrange a demonstration  |  Contact me

Information Resources

Read What Valued Clients Have Said About Patient Charge Estimator

Patient Charge Estimator is a cost-effective way to help hospitals meet the latest demands of consumerism in healthcare. But don't just take our word for it; see below what a few of our valued clients have said about what this solution has meant to them and their organizaton…

St. Joseph's Hospital in Bangor, Maine

St. Joseph's Hospital in Bangor, Maine began using Patient Charge Estimator early in 2009 to assist with upfront collections, improve cash flow, and enhance patient satisfaction. "Before we purchased this software from Craneware, price quotes were difficult to handle," said Lisa Killam, St. Joseph's reimbursement charge supervisor. "Over the past five years, we've seen a dramatic increase in demand for price quotes from patients who need to know what a procedure is going to cost. Now we're able to provide this information efficiently." To read the rest of the story, download the full case study by clicking here

Jennifer Rudd, charge master coordinator at Alamance Regional Medical Center in Burlington, N.C. had this to say about Patient Charge Estimator: "Thanks to Craneware, we can quickly give most estimates to patients while they're still on the phone,"said Rudd. "It's 100 percent better than before." Since Patient Charge Estimator collects average price information from Alamance's own claims data, Rudd is confident patients are receiving correct estimates, even when the proper codes are unknown.