Discounts are designed for specific reasons that can be applied to certain demographics or special & authorised cases. As they are available for a list of services (like tests, health packages and more), they must be managed efficiently to prevent error-based calculations at the billing or through the EOD balances. This is why planning a better way to manage discounts is essential for every lab centre.
Firstly, discounts that are managed through the front desk or at home collection registration must be traceable. Tracing any changes can help us monitor the daily finances better and ensure better flow. Let’s look at the other steps to managing this part of billing.
What are the steps to managing discounts?
Setting control with time & other constraints
A robust laboratory information management system can help you set control over discounts with time & other constraints for each test. This will ensure that there were no changes made at entering discounts on the front desk. You can implement it by setting discount criteria for every given test; such as age groups, time slots, patient premium cards, etc. This will ensure the front desk user gets direct numbers to enter rather than deciding for himself.
Enabling approval process for discount changes
While setting an exact number can help you have control for specific cases, having an approval process can help you make changes to it as and when required. Using this, the front desk user can get such changes verified from admin or other higher authority before billing it. The verification process can be done using an OTP system or by setting up any other approval process. Thus, with these steps implemented, there would be a continuous check over discount changes to prevent any financial anomaly at billing.
Using activity logs to monitor it
Better decisions are made when you have better tracking and monitoring through your LIMS software. The activity log is one such feature that you should avail from your LIMS vendor for effective discount monitoring at every stage and hour of your lab operations.
