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Healthcare has always been driven by data, and today, providers have access to an unprecedented amount from a wide variety of sources. While this influx could be a blessing to the healthcare industry as a whole, it also poses a number of challenges, particularly when it comes to patient identity management. With a soaring volume of patient information coming in from numerous sources, identity errors become increasingly more likely, as well as the potential consequence of fatal mistakes. Keeping this in mind, the importance of effective identity management cannot be overstated. Every year, an estimated 195,000 people die due to medical mistakes. More than half of those deaths – 10 out of every 17 – are the result of identity management errors, such as duplicate records and mistaken patient identities. While current healthcare IT solutions attempt to tackle these discrepancies, they only succeed in identifying about 10 percent of all duplicate records. Consequently, patients often undergo repeated tests or receive incorrect treatment or medication that can result in adverse effects to their health. Also, there is limited coordination of patient data throughout the healthcare ecosystem. The main culprit of this is the lack of secure data transfers that compromise patient records and identity. This raises the question: How can healthcare organizations better manage the massive amounts of data related to each patient’s medical identity? Luckily, such issues can be improved with Experian Health’s Universal Identity Manager (UIM), which creates a single identity for individual patients across multiple disparate healthcare databases. Upgrade your identity management system The ability to share patient information across multiple healthcare organizations with different care management programs is at the core of optimizing overall patient care. Properly utilizing patient and population health data can dramatically improve an organization’s efficiency, raise its quality of care, and lower its readmissions rate. For patient data to be useful, however, providers require a robust infrastructure that allows for secure, precise, and accurate storage of patient data. The same framework should be able to assign patients unique identities across the entire network. In turn, a single, universal patient identity system allows for better analytical insights and more effective care personalization. This kind of management system also allows an organization to add relevant data to a patient’s medical profile faster and more accurately, creating an improved dynamic database that can develop personalized patient engagement and care plans. How Experian Health’s universal identity management software helps Administrative slip-ups in healthcare can have drastic consequences for a patient’s health and wellbeing. Eliminating these inaccuracies is the main goal of Experian Health’s UIM solution. Experian Health has the benefit of leveraging data assets available to us from being part of broader Experian. As a result, the identity management software generates and assigns a unique identifier to each patient that remains consistent across various healthcare systems, such as hospitals, therapeutic facilities, pharmacies, and healthcare payers. Drawing on decades of experience in identity management, Experian Health's multi-matching methodology approach eliminates duplicate and erroneous data through comprehensive search and alert processes. It provides a high degree of likeliness because it expands beyond the limitations of the conventional single-matching methodology that most health systems use today. Even records created on disparate healthcare systems can be automatically analyzed and assigned to the appropriate patient identity. In addition to eliminating discrepancies that could affect the quality of patient care, universal identity management also reduces medical and billing errors, ultimately minimizing an organization's risk of fraud. The solution also works in tandem with Experian Health’s suite of patient engagement and transparency tools, including its Patient Self-Service portal, to further optimize an organization’s ability to deliver personalized, high-quality care. Unique patient identifiers are critical for healthcare organizations to reduce the risks of inaccurate and duplicate records that lead to errors and low-quality care. Combined with Experian Health's suite of patient engagement and price transparency tools, its identity management software is a leap toward making efficient and reliable interoperability more possible across the healthcare ecosystem.

Consumers love the ability to research and compare prices of products on the fly so they know upfront what they’re signing up for. They’ve come to expect this level of empowerment in every transaction. Yet in healthcare, that expectation is now a demand as patients shoulder increasingly higher out-of-pocket costs.   Patients are also wary of being surprised by exorbitant hospital bills months after care. As a precaution, they want to know how much of the costs they’ll be responsible for before they receive treatment. Additionally, it would also be nice to make payments and schedule appointments online without being put on hold for hours or dealing with confusing call centers.   Until now, healthcare providers have been more or less behind the times when it comes to integrating technology into everyday workflows. With this in mind, organizations need to make price transparency and self-service vital aspects of the care they provide, and they need the right technology to do it. Fortunately, benefits of self-service portals not only include price transparency, but also appointment scheduling. Experian Health’s range of tools, such as the Patient Self-Service portal, makes it easy for any healthcare provider to catch up and equip patients with the tools they need to be confident in their care and payments.   Advantages of self-service portals   Patient engagement is the cornerstone of quality care and clinical outcomes. However, it can be difficult when patients are prematurely frustrated because they already know they’ll be hit with higher than expected costs for their visit, tests, and treatments. As a solution, moving patient billing to the front of the revenue cycle eliminates that worry, making it the first step to build trust and improve patient engagement.   The next step is making administration simple and convenient for patients. Scheduling appointments, changing insurance or address information, and asking questions about their treatment shouldn’t be arduous processes. When patients can accomplish these tasks quickly and conveniently, they feel more satisfied with their chosen healthcare provider.   Empowering patients through information and engagement helps them manage their ailments, illnesses, or simple doctor visits more efficiently, which translates to fewer readmissions. Providers can also improve their cash flow by delivering accurate estimates and immediate balance notifications, rather than making patients wait up to 30 days for paper statements. In turn, patients and providers can both benefit from using a self-service portal because it improves virtually every aspect of healthcare administration.   Key benefits of self-service technology in an all-in-one portal   Experian Health’s Patient Self-Service portal makes it easier to keep patients informed and empowered, which not only improves the quality of their care, but also aids an organization’s financial health. For instance, manual scheduling alone takes one person or a team of full-time employees, which can be costly. On the other hand, in a self-service portal, patients interact directly with technology without the need for full-time human assistance.   The easy-to-use portal isn’t just about scheduling, though. Through the portal, patients can also check whether they qualify for financial assistance, receive support for presurgery planning and postsurgical follow-ups, and email questions to their medical team. Another helpful portal feature notifies patients about their possible qualification for charity care. If eligible, patients can avoid medical bankruptcy by setting up a crowdfunding page to help pay their bills.   Furthermore, the portal is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It's where the head of a household can review and update the entire family’s billing, account, and insurance information conveniently in one place. In addition, patients can receive a consolidated bill that's easy to understand and set up automatic payments so they know how to budget for future healthcare costs.   Combined with upfront price transparency – which is now a legal requirement in many states – the Patient Self-Service portal provides vital benefits for streamlining healthcare administration and engaging with patients on the level that they need and expect.

As healthcare in the United States shifts toward a more value-based model, reducing readmission rates has become one of the biggest challenges healthcare organizations now face. Last year, approximately half of all hospitals in the country collectively lost more than $500 million in reimbursements because they had not learned to overcome this roadblock. In most cases, the difficulty doesn’t stem from provider inadequacy, but rather from the inability to effectively coordinate patient care among multiple providers and departments. From treatment specifics and aftercare instructions to prescriptions and follow-up visits, there are plenty of cracks in the communication pavement for important details to fall through. Here's the unavoidable fact: Suboptimal care coordination results in higher readmission costs to hospitals, even for patients with highly treatable conditions. In turn, providers lose much of their profitability, which further hinders their efforts to improve quality of care. Two key (and often missing) factors in care coordination are advanced IT strategies and patient engagement. The only connection among inpatient, outpatient, and long-term care teams is the patients treated in each. Therefore, providers should make it easy for patients to be proactive in their own healthcare. In large part, that requires technology that allows all patients and their care teams to communicate easily and securely, at any time and across any device. Modernizing healthcare communication while reducing hospital readmissions If healthcare providers could simply call or instant message each other with details about patients’ medical conditions, then coordinating care wouldn’t be as strenuous. Without a secure platform, however, healthcare providers might leave sensitive patient health information out in the open for anyone to steal. That liability would be multiplied among numerous physician groups, specialists, skilled nurses, home health aides, and more, possibly affecting several cities and states. All of that is in addition to hazards created by patients who log into public Wi-Fi networks and carelessly leave their mobile devices unattended. There are a lot of elements to consider, but providing a safe and convenient communication platform for patients and their healthcare teams eliminates most security concerns. With a care coordination platform, communication is protected across a broad provider spectrum, no matter what device is used. For example, after a patient is released from the hospital, the Care Coordination Manager generates and delivers real-time messages to members within the patient’s care continuum. These messages, which include discharge details, a checklist for contacting the patient, and schedules for future visits, are automated and delivered within a closed-loop system for optimal safekeeping. Better coordination equals fewer readmissions Closing communication gaps between patients and care teams is a big factor in reducing hospital readmission rates. With this in mind, as a rule-driven platform, the Care Coordination Manager automatically sends email or texts to patients and caregivers about meaningful events. By doing so, patients and their teams stay on the same page at all times with notices for completed test results, newly prescribed medications, and schedule or treatment adjustments. With the platform's two-way, real-time communication capabilities, patients can also ask questions and receive answers about their conditions almost immediately. This helps keep patients informed and engaged, and it encourages them to seek self-care solutions rather than visit the hospital repeatedly for minor concerns. In addition, different providers on the team can easily request information from each other. The Care Coordination Manager is unique and requires virtually no additional training for doctors and staff to utilize. The platform offers all of the benefits of secure, automated communication without the time-consuming catch-up training that often comes with implementing new systems and processes. Of its many advantages, however, the most significant is that the Care Coordination Manager patches up the cracks in care coordination and communication where important patient care information often gets lost. When patients and their healthcare teams can connect and discuss sensitive health information without the worry of security and efficiency, the better care becomes. As a result, organizations can reduce readmission rates across the board, which equally benefits patients and healthcare institutions, all while keeping the main goal of providing quality care top of mind.