Rhett Wilkerson: Understanding Reimbursement and Drug Costs Helps Tailor Payment Plans to Patients

Having the most up-to-date information on potential reimbursement and drug costs allows providers to educate patients and create payment plans that fits their needs, said Rhett Wilkerson, BA, director of patient financial services dedicated to American Oncology Network at Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute.

Transcript

Are practices making it a priority to include financial counseling for patients within their revenue cycle management?

Yeah, practices are making it a huge priority. As important as it is for the patient to find out what treatment they’re going to be having, it’s equally as important that they find out how they’re going to be paying for that treatment. The earlier you can give them that information, the better prepared they’ll be to either make that payment or find some sort of assistance that would help them

How important is this as drug costs continue to increase and patients are held accountable for more cost-sharing?

That’s the main driver of 1 of the reasons why it’s so important. We have to make sure that we’re covering our drug costs, so if someone’s not able to pay, how we put together that payment plan could very well be determined on what that drug cost looks like. So, it’s important for us to always have the most up-to-date reimbursement and drug costs so we can put together payment plans that fit for folks if they’re not able to make full payments at time of service.