Patient Friendly Billing Project

The Patient Friendly Billing® project promotes clear, concise, and correct patient-friendly financial communications.

Purpose & Philosophy

After conducting extensive research and focus groups among patients and healthcare providers, the consensus was clear: Patient billing is a significant problem for patients and providers. Consumers want a healthcare financial communications process that is clear, concise, correct, and patient-friendly.

Clear: All financial communications should be easy to understand and written in clear language. Patients should be able to quickly determine what they need to do with the communication.

Concise: The bills should contain just the right amount of detail necessary to communicate the message.

Correct: The bills or statements should not include estimates of liabilities, incomplete information, or errors.

Patient Friendly: The needs of patients and family members should be paramount when designing administrative processes and communications.

Patient Friendly Billing® is based on the following philosophy:

  • The needs of patients and family members should be paramount when designing administrative processes and communications.
  • Information gathering should be coordinated with other providers and insurers, and this collection process should be done efficiently, privately, and with as little duplication as possible.
  • When possible, communication of financial information should not occur during the medical encounter.
  • The average reader should easily understand the language and format of financial communications. 
  • Continuous improvement of the billing process should be made by implementing better practices and incorporating feedback from patients and consumers.

Patient Friendly Billing® is a proprietary trademark of Healthcare Financial Management Association, copyright© 2019, Healthcare Financial Management Association, all rights reserved.

Additional Resources

Healthcare Dollars & Sense resources on price transparency, patient financial communications, and medical debt resolution.

Patient financial communications adoption best practices

Patient Financial Communications: Advance of Service

HFMA’s educational guides for consumers

Reconstructing Hospital Pricing Systems


Consumerism in Health Care


Patient Friendly Billing Projects: Case Studies in Customer Service