Care Management

COVID-19 provided an unexpected use case for patient portals. In a matter of weeks, the benefits of remote patient access were undeniable. Patient portals allowed patients to schedule, register and pay for care from the comfort and safety of home. Now, as the latest omicron sub-variant triggers another surge in case numbers, providers are again reminded of the value in making digital channels available to minimize face-to-face interaction. With staffing shortages continuing and patient numbers rising, it’s worth recapping the benefits of patient portals. Why should healthcare providers prioritize patient portals? Here are 7 reasons: 1. Patient portals can be used to communicate safely with patients as Covid-19 cases rise Health officials may be cautious about reinstating extreme measures in response to the latest wave of infections. However, they can’t afford to be complacent about an uptick in hospital admissions. Patient portals can mitigate the risks associated with increasing foot traffic by allowing patients to schedule and register for care without attending in person. Completing paperwork from home eliminates the need for patients to share clipboards or sit in stuffy waiting rooms, while online scheduling platforms enable staff to manage the flow of patients safely and efficiently. Remote patient monitoring, secure messaging and online prescription refill requests can also be managed via portals, further reducing the need for in-person visits. 2. They can ease pressure on understaffed teams Providers need to find efficient ways to handle the administrative workload that comes with higher patient volumes. It’s even tougher given increasing retirement and resignation figures. More nurses are embracing the occupational benefits of remote and virtual care and are opting to switch from high-stress facilities to telehealth positions. While this speaks to the growth and impact of remote healthcare, it leaves a gap to be filled in hospitals. Patient portals can alleviate some of the burdens by reducing the need for staff input at various points in the patient journey. For example, online scheduling reduces the number of calls to call centers. Pre-filled data and automated registration can reduce the risk of errors during patient intake, which are time-consuming to fix. Portals can also be used to help patients navigate the payments process, speeding up collections and reducing the time staff spend chasing payments. 3. Patient portals can address inefficient patient access workflows Because patient portals are tethered to the patient’s electronic health record (EHR), they provide a hub for every piece of data relating to the patient. Patients can access that golden record at any time. They get an engaging and transparent experience, and are less likely to call up to ask questions – they already have the answers. They can also check data to make sure that it's accurate, which helps avoid the delays and misunderstandings that cause friction for patient access teams. It's important to ensure that the portal itself doesn’t introduce friction. Patients need to be able to enroll in the portal without too much trouble. Automating the patient enrollment process and implementing a multi-layered identity-proofing solution can create a secure and efficient way for patients to get the most out of their portal, without compromising safety or efficiency. 4. To improve patient engagement and meet consumer expectations One of the biggest reasons to invest in patient portals is because patients say they want them. Research from Experian Health and PYMNTS found that 44.1% of patients have obtained test results through patient portals, while 18% used patient portals to fill out forms for their most recent healthcare visit. Overall, two-thirds said they use patient portals. Beyond offering a convenient patient experience, this is also a matter of patient loyalty and retention: 61% of patients say they’d consider switching providers to one that offered a patient portal, which could have a significant impact on revenue. 5. They can boost revenue by offering easy ways to pay Experian and PYMNTS research shows that around a fifth of patients uses their portal to make payments. Unfortunately, 16% of those patients said they’d faced difficulty viewing invoices, setting up payment plans and making payments through their portal, which suggests some room for improvement. Experian Health’s Patient Payment Solutions solves these challenges. A range of self-service, mobile-optimized tools simplify the patient financial journey by giving patients upfront pricing estimates, personalized payment plans and easy ways to pay. 6. Using patient portals can improve health outcomes (especially for “frequent flyers”) Patient portals also play an important role in promoting better health outcomes for patients. Research shows that when patients have access to their medical information, they feel empowered and prepared to speak to their doctor and adhere to care strategies. Multiple providers can engage with the patient through the same platform, and see what other treatments are being prescribed. This helps improve communication between the patient and provider and helps improve care management. It’s especially useful for older patients and those with chronic conditions. In this way, portals support effective care coordination, helping value-based care providers achieve their goals of reducing healthcare costs, promoting population health and closing the gaps in care that have widened over the last few years. 7. Patient portals can support compliance with price transparency regulations Finally, portals offer a route to ensuring compliance with new regulatory requirements around price transparency. The No Surprises Act and hospital price transparency rule call on providers to give patients accurate, upfront cost estimates so they can plan for their financial responsibility more easily. Patient Payment Estimates can be delivered in several ways, including through patient portals. And as noted, once the patient has their estimate, they can also be directed to easy and convenient payment methods, including through their portal. Whether it’s a surge in COVID-19 cases, rising inflation, or labor shortages, providers must find ways to build resilience, stay competitive, and continue to offer patients the flexible and transparent healthcare experience they desire. Patient portals should be part of the plan to open the digital front door. Contact us to find out how Experian Health helps healthcare organizations deliver a reliable and secure patient portal experience.

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Inflation is giving the cost of healthcare a run for its money. The Consumer Price Index rose by 8.3% year-over-year in August 2022, compared to a rise of just 2.9% in the Health Care Price Index. However, slower price increases do not necessarily mean healthcare will get an easier ride than other businesses. Healthcare contracts are agreed in advance with government and commercial payers, so any effects of inflation could simply be delayed. How should providers factor such economic unpredictability into their revenue cycle management strategies? Healthcare is usually more resistant to wider economic shocks than other service sectors, so rising inflation doesn’t necessarily mean there’s an urgent need to change course. Providers are always working to maintain a healthy revenue cycle and will continue to do so now. That said, the lingering financial effects of the pandemic, staffing shortages and increasing operational costs mean that provider cash flow is sensitive to any added pressure. While there’s currently no sign that patient collections have been significantly affected by inflation yet, patients may assume that health costs will increase too, along with everything else. This might lead them to delay elective care, which could affect providers’ bottom lines. As non-COVID patient traffic slowly returns and state and federal aid ends, rising inflation presents an additional hurdle to providers’ financial health. Providers will need to tighten their patient collections process and safeguard their bottom line. Download the white paper to learn how inflation is impacting healthcare and get strategies to optimize collections and avoid revenue loss. Providers that want to bolster their revenue cycle against the potential impact of inflation should focus on increasing workforce efficiency to manage costs and mitigate the risk of deferred care, to maintain a steady inward cash flow. They’ll also want to be prepared for any potential shift in patient payment reliability that could occur if inflation persists. Automated solutions and self-service digital tools can help to solve these issues. Minimize workforce inefficiency with automation and self-service solutions Questions to consider: How can digital technology and automation improve efficiency and ease pressure on staff? Where can patient self-service solutions help reduce the need for staff input? Inflation is likely to hit providers hardest in relation to payroll expenses. Staffing shortages lead to increased costs as providers raise salaries to attract and retain new staff, pay overtime costs, and hire more temporary workers. Reduced purchasing power will only exacerbate these challenges. Automation and digital tools can help address staffing shortages and keep a lid on payroll costs by increasing efficiency in existing workflows. For example, digital technology can allow patients to take care of many administrative tasks themselves, thus reducing the demand for staff input. Online self-scheduling and registration allow patients to book appointments and fill out pre-service paperwork without taking up valuable staff time. These tools leverage data and automation to pre-fill patient information, which reduces the risk of costly errors and saves time for patients and staff. Further along in the patient journey, automated collections can eliminate much of the manual work that puts pressure on understaffed teams, while increasing the likelihood and speed of payment. Collections Optimization Manager helps increase workforce productivity to make better use of staff time and avoid unnecessary revenue loss. Advanced analytics are used to prioritize accounts by payment probability, which will be increasingly useful should ongoing inflation increase the risk of patient bills going unpaid. Consumer data helps identify the most appropriate communications method for each segment, so the right message can be sent at the right time to boost the chances of collecting a greater percentage of money owed. Automation also helps reduce staff costs to collect, while bumping up the amount of money that comes in the door. As hospital operations become more expensive on the whole, maximizing efficiency in collections is increasingly important. Maximize revenue by removing friction for patients worried about the cost of care Questions to consider: How can providers help patients better understand their bills? How can digital technology make it easier for patients to access and pay for care? The second step is to make sure that dollars keep coming in the door. Managing household bills can be challenging for patients, and there’s no suggestion that the rise in inflation during 2021 has added any new pressure to patients’ ability to pay for healthcare. Experian Health’s clients also continue to see very low levels of delinquency. However, despite pay raises, many consumers are worried that price inflation will overtake any increase in household income, especially as energy and food prices go up. They may decide to cancel or postpone elective care until they’re sure of their financial situation or move their medical bills to the bottom of their priority list. In reality, costs for patients haven’t increased, because of the delayed effect of inflation in healthcare. That’s why it would make more sense for patients to seek elective care sooner rather than later. Given reports of pricing concerns, providers should consider ways to reassure patients about their financial obligations and make sure they don’t miss out on the care they need. Here are some ways that providers can support their patients: Providers can help patients get a better understanding of their medical bills and payment options, by incorporating solutions that offer greater price transparency. Upfront patient estimates delivered directly to their mobile device, with links to appropriate payment plans and payment methods, can help them plan with confidence. This will help to reassure patients that prices have not increased drastically due to inflation, so they are dissuaded from deferring care. Finding missing or forgotten insurance coverage is another strategy to give patients certainty around how their bills will be covered. A tool such as Coverage Discovery can run repeated and automated checks for previously unknown government and commercial coverage, using multiple data sources. Self-service patient access and patient payment tools can help to reduce friction during scheduling, registration and billing, so patients see fewer reasons to postpone care. Liz Serie, Senior Director of Product Management at Experian Health, says, “Automation and patient self-service features can help address the risk of patients choosing to put off visiting their doctor or getting a procedure they need. Many patient access and patient payment activities that would normally require staff attention can be easily pivoted to an innovative patient-facing experience. This will reduce friction for patients and help providers manage staffing shortages and cost pressures.” “Automation and patient self-service features can help address the risk of patients choosing to put off visiting their doctor or getting a procedure they need. Many patient access and patient payment activities that would normally require staff attention can be easily pivoted to an innovative patient-facing experience. This will reduce friction for patients and help providers manage staffing shortages and cost pressures.” - Liz Serie, Senior Director of Product Management Find out more about how Experian Health’s digital tools and solutions can help healthcare organizations create a financial safety net and protect their revenue cycle against the possible impact of inflation.

In the decade since the Affordable Care Act sparked the transition toward value-based care and pay-for-performance care models, clinical services have been transformed by advances in diagnostics, medical devices and digital technology. However, despite a commitment to improving care quality and patient experiences, the healthcare industry still struggles to influence the factors that have the greatest impact on patient outcomes – the social determinants of health (SDOH). It’s now well-established that clinical factors have a relatively small impact on a person’s health-related quality of life. As little as 20% of the factors that influence health outcomes are attributable to clinical care. The remaining 80% includes social, economic and environmental factors – such as access to safe and clean housing, healthy food, education and transportation. Healthcare providers cannot be expected to solve these challenges alone. That said, providers will benefit from developing plans and investing in systems that foster awareness of the social determinants of health that impact their communities. This will help enable the delivery of the proactive and coordinated services patients need to live healthier lives. The pandemic intensified many of the socio-economic barriers patients face when accessing care, medication, housing and food. It forced sudden changes to the way care was delivered, making it harder for healthcare organizations to sustain high-quality services. When overwhelmed hospitals just needed to get through the day, value-based care took a hit. To support underserved communities, healthcare organizations need reliable insights into their patients’ evolving life circumstances and socio-economic challenges. SDOH data can help providers identify the right strategies to serve their patient population in the most effective way. SDOH should be at the heart of patient-centric services. Healthcare organizations that prioritize the use of SDOH data are strengthening their ability to deliver value-based care. How has the pandemic affected SDOH and value-based care? Value-based care and pay-for-performance models were gaining traction just before the pandemic, and many providers were agile enough to respond quickly to the pandemic with telehealth and other remote services. But against a tsunami of COVID-19 cases, tests and vaccination programs, reimbursement models based on quality measures such as effectiveness, efficiency and timeliness proved fragile in the midst of an emergency. As is often the case, the worst effects of the pandemic were felt most acutely by marginalized and economically vulnerable groups. For example, groups with less stable employment were less likely to have access to sick leave or remote working opportunities, putting them at greater risk of catching the virus. Many community programs were put on hold, with consequences for the individuals who relied on them for food, support, and company. Insights on the social determinants of health can help providers segment vulnerable populations that need extra assistance to take control of their health. Once these populations are identified at the patient level with insights driving one’s unique SDOH risks, providers can develop strategies to ensure the right help is given at the right time. They can offer targeted outreach to ensure patients are able to adhere to care plans and access health checks, even take their medication as prescribed. This can reduce the risk of readmission, minimize hospitalizations, and keep healthcare costs down for both patients and providers. To supplement reliance on expensive and time-consuming patient surveys (that often leave out the “why” of a patient’s circumstances), Experian Health’s SDOH solutions combine analytical expertise, machine learning and proprietary data to generate actionable recommendations on the best way to address barriers to care, medication, housing and food. Combine SDOH and consumer data to personalize patient outreach The key to successful value-based and pay-for-performance care models is treating the patient, not just the disease. Data on SDOH allows providers to offer a more personalized healthcare experience, which is even more powerful when combined with consumer data. ConsumerView pools data on patient interests, psychographics, behavioral insights and broader lifestyle insights to give providers a 360-degree view of their patients. With this data, providers can offer relevant and timely advice to help patients overcome potential obstacles to attending appointments and complying with their care plan, such as information about transportation or childcare. It can be used to personalize healthcare communications too. Rather than blasting patients with one-size-fits-all healthcare information, communications can be tailored to patients’ preferred time and format, so they’re most likely to engage with the message. Making value-based care a reality starts with knowing who your patients are and what’s stopping them from getting the care they need. Find out how Experian Health’s Social Determinants of Health turn-key solutions can give your organization the insights needed to develop resilient and responsive models of care. With these tools, your organization can lay the groundwork to improve patient outcomes, regardless of the challenges that lie ahead.

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