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Did you ever have someone tell you, “there’s no magic pill” for reaching a goal? It’s a somewhat ironic analogy, given that so many people struggle to take their meds as prescribed. Following a medicine schedule actually takes a lot of organization and discipline, never mind the financial and emotional cost of having a daily reminder that you’re not well. It’s estimated that 50% of patients don’t take medications as prescribed. Sometimes a patient is busy and misses a dose. Maybe they forget whether they’ve taken it already and accidentally take double. Perhaps they feel better and decide to stop a course of meds early. Or maybe they can’t get to the pharmacist to get their refill on time. Unfortunately, medication non-adherence (MNA) can have a more direct impact on a patient’s condition than the specific treatment itself, according to the World Health Organization. Non-adherence is thought to contribute to nearly 125,000 deaths and 10% of hospitalizations each year. It costs the health care system between $100–$289 billion each year, and according to a study by Walgreens, for every 1% improvement in adherence, $50 can be saved in healthcare spending. The causes are varied. Of course, patients have a role. But healthcare organizations operating at various points along the care continuum can also play a big part in helping or hindering patients in sticking to their prescriptions. Doing so is in everyone’s interest, as tackling non-adherence can help reduce readmissions and avoid more serious medical conditions, improve patient loyalty, yield financial savings and create a better experience all around. Here are three ways different healthcare organizations can help patients stay on track with their meds: 1. Keeping accurate patient records from hospital to home When a patient is hospitalized, it’s fairly easy for them to stick to a medicine schedule. Drugs are dispensed in the same building and brought right to the patient’s bed at the appropriate time. The problems arise when the patient goes home. They may leave hospital with new prescriptions which can be confusing and if they already have a prescription, the admission itself can disrupt their usual routine. As things stand, hospitals tend not to be reimbursed for interventions to improve adherence, so these are less likely to be prioritized during care transitions. But given the likely improvements to patient outcomes and consumer loyalty, and the fact that hospitals could save $37 for every dollar spent tackling MNA, these interventions are worth a second look. A simple but effective place for hospitals to start is in improving patient identities. When your clinical teams know they have a 100% accurate and up-to-date record for each patient, including their current prescriptions, they can help the patient stay on track and prescribe new medicines with confidence. New identity management platforms such as Universal Identity Manager can help you keep track of patients and their meds, reducing the risk of medical errors and avoiding billing mistakes associated with duplicate prescriptions and preventable readmissions. This ‘golden thread’ of patient information can also improve communications within and between providers in your health system, such as Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), pharmacies and other community providers. 2. Understanding and addressing wider barriers to adherence Common barriers to adherence often relate to a patient’s circumstances at home, such as not being able to get to the pharmacy because of a lack of transport, or because the opening hours don’t fit with their work schedule. For patients juggling work, childcare and other responsibilities, refilling their prescription can easily slip down the to-do list. Pharmacies can help by offering logistical support such as automatic refill programs, home delivery and help with organizing medication into pill boxes. But how do you know which intervention will be most relevant? This requires a wider understanding of the make-up of your patient population and their needs, preferences and behaviors. Understanding the social determinants of health can help you identify the specific barriers to care for your healthcare consumers, so you can put in place the right response. 3. Develop patient engagement strategies to help patients take their meds It’s not just those directly involved in providing care who can help improve MNA. Payers can help in two major ways: firstly, by supporting members to overcome barriers such as cost and confusion, and secondly, by working with hospitals and pharmacies to help them develop effective strategies to reduce non-adherence. For example, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona (BCBSAZ) has introduced a text messaging service to send reminders to members about their prescriptions, with a $45-50 discount on copays for those that refill on time. It’s hoped this program will tackle behavioral barriers to adherence such as procrastination or forgetfulness, while also addressing price concerns. Chris Hogan, Chief Pharmacy Officer at BCBSAZ described the program “as being a very high tech, modern, simple and effective addition to our overall initiative to improve medication compliance.” This kind of personalized patient engagement can be very effective in helping patients to stay on track. With ConsumerView, you can access a wide range of high-quality demographic, psychographic and behavioral consumer data, to help you offer personalized support such as digital reminders to your patients. You can develop engagement strategies tailored to the specific needs of your patients in just a couple of clicks. Could one of these strategies help your organization do more to improve medication management? Learn more about how we can help you help your patients – and your bottom line.

When it comes to value-based care, there’s really just one measure that matters: patient satisfaction. As CMS incentivizes providers to help patients find better care, improve population health and lower healthcare costs, more top health systems are seeing patient engagement as the path to value-over-volume success. Patients are finding themselves footing more of the bill for medical expenses, so elevating the patient experience is essential. If they’re not satisfied, they’ll simply take their dollars elsewhere – not what your CFO wants to hear. Helping patients feel more engaged in their health creates a more satisfactory experience, and in turn, boosts patient loyalty. And what’s more, by giving them opportunity to make informed decisions about their care, you can also reduce preventable admissions, avoid no-shows and fix the revenue leaks in patient collections. It’s beneficial for everyone. Here are four strategies to help you boost patient engagement and create a more consumer-friendly experience in your organization. 4 ways to boost patient engagement 1. Use segmentation and customization The first route to consumer-friendly care is about treating each patient as an individual. With advances in data analytics, it’s now possible to group your patients according to risk (whether that’s risk of a particular disease, exposure to a social determinant of health, or likelihood of non-attendance at follow-up). This allows you to be more targeted in your marketing efforts, provide patients with information that’s more relevant to them, and help each patient move to the next stage of their healthcare journey. Stanford Medical School sees this data transformation as central to its vision of “‘Precision Health’ – a more preventive, predictive, personalized and precise” approach to healthcare. Analytics give you a wealth of insights about the clinical, financial, behavioral and social factors affecting your patients, so you can personalize your patient engagement strategy to each member’s specific preferences and needs. As noted in research undertaken by Frost and Sullivan on behalf of Experian Health: “Analytics help us select patients who will respond to engagement strategies and de-select patients who won’t respond are needed. Not everyone responds to engagement in the same way.” By prioritizing precision marketing, you can create a culture of precision care. 2. Help patients take ownership of their health journey Value-based care is an opportunity to empower patients to be active players in their health. Greater transparency into the billing process, access to healthcare data and consumer-friendly tech can all help patients see what’s happening at each stage of the process. When they’re more informed, they’re more likely to adhere to care plans, turn up to appointments and successfully navigate payments. Your patient portal is a good place to start. Research shows that use of portals enhances patient engagement, satisfaction and health outcomes. Patients can access their records, view test results, schedule appointments at a time that suits and sort out bills with less of the stress. It helps patients ask the right questions and builds a trusting patient-provider relationship. 3. Improve the patient financial experience When two-thirds of Americans are worried about being able to cover unexpected medical bills, any way you can make the payment process more transparent is a big plus. Help your patient navigate the financial side of their healthcare experience with clear, real-time information about their coverage status, estimated co-pay calculations and appropriate payment plans based on their specific circumstances. Putting them at ease will help them meet their financial obligations without leaving a bad taste. In this way, you can build consumer trust and optimize your revenue cycle at the same time. 4. Use SDOH data for proactive outreach Research shows that medical tests and treatments alone are not enough to determine the outcome of a patient’s healthcare journey. We should be paying more attention to the social and economic factors that can get in the way of care. Because when patients struggle to access care, it’s harder for them to follow treatment plans or show up to important follow-up appointments. In a value-based world, tackling social needs is a growing priority for providers seeking to improve population health. When you have a more complete grasp of each patient’s motivations, support networks and personal circumstances, you can create a more efficient patient engagement plan. You’ll avoid wasting resources on patients who aren’t in a position to respond and instead can adopt outreach strategies to help those patients access the care they need. This might include offering alternative payment plans, signposting to logistical support such as childcare or transport, or referring to local community services, such as cooking classes or social clubs. To do this, you need reliable, relevant and accurate consumer data and the capability to draw actionable insights. Experian Health’s unrivaled consumer marketing data can help you better understand your patient population so you can communicate with them and support them in the most effective way. Consumer-friendly care is the new currency in value-based accounting – and the key to positive patient engagement. Find out more about how Experian Health can help your organization lift your patient engagement strategies for greater patient satisfaction, better health outcomes, and a healthier

  Recently I had the opportunity to present at a regional chapter of the National Association of Healthcare Access Management about the growing need for business intelligence to improve patient access functions, as well as revenue. In speaking with attendees, it became clear that automating the patient access workflow with real-time data can create a more efficient and accurate process. Here’s how. As the responsibility for paying healthcare bills increasingly falls to patients themselves, patient access can make or break the revenue cycle. From registration and verifying insurance details, to scheduling appointments and collecting cash payments—this is the front line for the financial side of the patient experience. When you consider that half of denied claims occur earlier in the revenue cycle at the point of registration, improving those early-stage patient access processes is the obvious place for providers to look when seeking to minimize lost revenue. Revenue loss in patient access is mostly due to errors in patient identification, inadequate data analytics and inefficient workflows. If front and back office teams were better connected and able to work together quickly to communicate and resolve issues, many of these errors could be prevented. Without reliable tools and workflows to support this, those teams often must resort to manual fixes for any errors that arise. Unfortunately, this takes time and effort, blocking opportunities to find new ways to improve decision making and business performance. Healthcare is becoming more competitive. Providers must work to leverage the right data in the right way to safeguard profits and offer a better patient experience. That said, where should you start? Doing more with less requires the right data insights There are two sides to the solution: first, you need to be sure your data is accurate from the start. Around a third of denied claims are caused by inaccurate patient identification, while 12% of patient records are duplicates. Cleaning up your data with high-quality demographic data can help eliminate preventable denials. Secondly, you need to be able to draw insights from your data to help make smarter decisions in the future. Let’s say you notice a spike in late payments from a certain population. Why is that? Looking at historical data on patient and payer behavior can point to emerging trends and help you figure out where to focus your efforts in response. Or perhaps you’ve recently added a new function to your patient portal. Analytics can help you see if and how patients are using it and evaluate its overall performance. Once you have your data and analytics in place, you can start to use it to make improvements. Automating the patient access workflow with real-time data can create a more efficient and accurate process. It will also help link front and back office staff with shared systems that minimize errors and wasted staff time. 3 ways to use data analytics to streamline patient access For providers looking to streamline their early revenue cycle processes using the power of data, three areas to focus on are: Creating a better patient experience Increasing numbers of self-pay patients means patient loyalty is a growing priority for providers. Creating a positive, straightforward patient financial experience is essential for hospitals and health systems looking to reduce the stress and anxiety many patients feel when dealing with healthcare bills. Using data insights to identify the sticky parts in your patient access processes can help you spot opportunities to improve the consumer experience. For example, are patients receiving duplicate communications because the system is failing to update demographic information? Are there bottlenecks or backlogs that are creating stressful delays for patients? A business intelligence tool such as Revenue Cycle Analytics can help you pinpoint the root cause of delays and errors so you can work to fix them—and level-up your patient experience. When Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital (MLKCH) realized patient registration in their busy Emergency Room was a bottleneck and source for claim denials, they implemented an automated platform to streamline their registration process and improve the data being captured at the point of registration. Lori Westman, patient access manager at MLKCH says: “We get fewer denials because we’re getting true verification data, and our patient volumes continue to increase. So the fact that we can take off two to three minutes, at least, on half of our registrations is speeding up the work for the team, and the turnaround time is much better for the patients.” Uncovering potential revenue loss Analytics can show you exactly where your revenue cycle is losing money. Using appropriate benchmarks and custom KPIs, you can analyze accounts across the entire cycle to make sure your existing revenue cycle solutions are performing optimally and identify new opportunities for improvement. By gathering together multiple data streams into a single dashboard, you’ll get an at-a-glance view of your revenue cycle performance, so you can drill down to the root cause of denials. This also helps link up your front and back office staff. Rather than working retrospectively to address issues as they happen, your back office team can use insights from whole system data reporting and analytics to give front office staff immediate feedback on where denials are occurring. Monitoring payer rules and performance With American hospitals footing the bill for more than $620 billion in uncompensated care over the last two decades, it’s vital to verify a patient’s insurance options as soon as they set foot in the hospital. With up to date information on payer rules and a robust process for finding missing coverage, you can avoid protracted negotiations with payers and focus on denials, rejections and exceptions. A payer dashboard can also help you assess how payers are performing against one another, so your discussions around timely payments will be based in fact. By analyzing performance around pre-service, point of service and post-service, you’ll be better placed to work more closely with payers to minimize the risk of both late payments and denied claims. Learn more about how data analytics and an automated patient access workflow can help eliminate costly denied claims, boost revenue cycle performance and improve the patient financial experience. Steven Thiltgen is Director of Analytics Consulting for Experian Health