What Is E-Invoicing & E-Statement?

An electronic invoice, or e-invoice, is the electronic transmission of invoices from your practice to your patients. It’s a method of billing where you send a document containing how much a patient owes you via their preferred communication channels like email, SMS, or fax rather than traditional mail. 

The purpose of an e-invoice is to collect payment for products sold or medical services rendered to a patient.

An e-statement, on the other hand, is essentially a digital version of a statement of account. It contains a breakdown of a patient's medical bills, corresponding payments, and pending balances for a specific period.

Unlike an e-invoice you send after every visit, procedure, or sale, an e-statement is only sent to patients at set intervals, like monthly or quarterly.

How E-Invoicing & E-Statements Help Your Practice

Adopting e-invoicing and e-statement into your practice brings benefits your business and patients can enjoy. From reducing cost and manual work to improving patient convenience and satisfaction, e-invoicing revolutionizes the way you do billing.

Cost Savings

One of the most significant benefits of e-invoicing is its cost-efficiency. Compared to paper-based invoicing, e-invoicing saves you money on paper, printing, envelopes, postage, and other logistical and miscellaneous costs. 

And because you can generate and edit statements using templates and send large batches with a click, you can save thousands of dollars on overhead costs. You can see and feel these cost-saving benefits more on e-invoices than e-statements since you must send an invoice for every service rendered.

Convenience

An electronic invoice or statement allows patients to access their medical bills online anytime and anywhere. At a time when retail healthcare is taking the country by storm, you want to provide the most convenient experience to your patients possible. Because 74% of patients prefer digital payment methods to pay for their medical bills, the convenience of viewing their invoices or statements online can instantly improve their overall experience.

Read More: How to Stay Competitive & Thrive Amidst the Retail Health Wave

Meanwhile, from an administrative point of view, e-invoicing eliminates tedious manual work, giving your staff more time and freedom to focus on other tasks. That helps you maximize productivity without the need for additional staffing.

Faster Delivery

With traditional paper invoicing, patients may have to wait several days or even weeks for their bills to arrive in the mail. This delay can be frustrating for patients who need to pay their bills promptly to avoid late fees or penalties. The long wait in between could also lead patients to overlook or forget their bills, further delaying your collections.

Since you can send e-invoices instantly, patients can view and pay their bills immediately, increasing your collections and reducing delinquent payers.

Improved Security

Electronic invoicing is more secure than the traditional, paper-based method. An electronic invoice or statement doesn't face the same risks as paper-based ones do, like getting lost, stolen, or intercepted in the mail.

This is especially true if you have a medical billing platform with integrated e-invoicing software. Since most medical billing software solutions are HIPAA-compliant, you can rest assured that every electronic invoice or statement you send is transmitted through a secure channel.

Read More: 5 Benefits Patient Statement Software Brings to Your Practice

Environmentally Friendly

On top of saving time and money, switching to e-invoicing also helps you save the planet. Electronic invoices and statements require no paper, envelopes, or postage, meaning they have a much smaller environmental impact.

Additionally, paper medical bills almost always end up in landfills. The healthcare sector is one of the biggest contributors to paper waste, so switching to e-invoicing is a leap in the right direction if you want to be more environmentally conscious.

Improved Patient Satisfaction

Finally, e-invoices and statements can help improve patient satisfaction. Patients appreciate the convenience and speed of electronic statements, which can help improve their overall experience with your practice.

By offering e-invoicing and e-statements, you can demonstrate that you are keeping up with the latest technology trends and committed to providing your patients with the best possible service and experience.

Sophisticated E-Invoicing Software Is Key

There’s no denying digital technology's benefits to the healthcare industry. It has revolutionized many facets of clinical and practice management, including care delivery, patient engagement, and medical billing.

Switching to e-invoicing and e-statements is more than just a way of keeping up with the times; it brings tangible benefits you can see and feel in your business outcomes. However, this switch is no walk in the park. You need an advanced, trusted solution to ensure your switch to e-invoicing is seamless and secure.

That’s where platforms like billrMD can transform your practice. As web-based practice management and medical billing software, billrMD offers the most well-rounded revenue cycle management tools, including e-invoicing software. From creating a personalized design to electronically sending out statements via email, SMS, or fax, billrMD’s e-invoicing feature improves how you collect patient payments.