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Consumers are bearing a bigger burden of healthcare costs than ever before. As the third largest payer behind Medicare and Medicaid, many patients find themselves struggling to foot the bill, with implications for hospitals and health systems. According to a TripleTree report published late last year, consumer payments will reach $608 billion by 2019, thanks to growing enrollments in high deductible health plans (HDHP), decreasing payer reimbursements, and increasingly personalized insurance plans that come at a premium. Almost half of those under the age of 65 are enrolled in an HDHP. These rising out-of-pocket payments can cast a long shadow on the patient's experience. The payment process is often stressful and confusing, and many are unable to pay without careful budgeting or some form of financial support. And for providers, the growing admin costs of chasing payments can create a serious cash-flow problem. A forward-looking, patient-centered approach to billing is critical. A good starting point for providers who want to reduce friction around payments, optimize revenue and build a positive relationship with consumers is to look at how data and technology can improve customer payment processes. You can do this in three ways: transparent pricing, patient billing tailored to each individual's financial situation, and simplified admin processes all provide greater clarity and reassurance for patients. Make patient billing easier​​​​​​​ with transparent pricing ​​​​New guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) call for hospitals to list chargemaster pricing on their websites, so consumers can make informed decisions about their treatment and plan accordingly. Unfortunately, the complexity of pricing structures and the way it's presented can still be very confusing for consumers. CMS Administrator Seema Verma tweeted that "While the information hospitals are posting now isn’t patient-specific, we still believe it is an important first step & sets the stage for private third parties to develop tools & resources that are more meaningful & actionable." Patients are encouraged to tell the CMS if they can't find pricing info on their hospital's website, using the hashtag #WheresThePrice. However, there’s been a lot of criticism that the CMS requirements do not meet consumer expectations. Health leaders should aim to provide consumers with accurate personalized estimates, using data-driven technology. Most healthcare organizations already have the basic data they need to generate estimates for basic services, including: claims data real-time eligibility and benefits information payer contracts charge description master (CDM) information. Riley Matthews, Senior Product Manager for the Patient Estimate Suite at Experian Health, says: "We're finding facilities are getting backlogged with calls while patients are trying to call in to speak to a live person to try to get an estimate… If a patient is comfortable understanding what they owe, they're going to be much more comfortable paying for their services." Giving patients accurate estimates upfront empowers them to understand their financial responsibility so they can make quicker, better decisions, and improve their overall experience. Personalize patient payment plans for a better patient experience The growth of consumerism in healthcare calls for a friendlier approach to the billing process, both for a better patient experience and to avoid non-payment. This means recognizing each patient as an individual with different needs and tailoring your offer at each stage of the revenue cycle. Some will be able to pay their whole bill up front, while others might need to spread it over a number of months, or seek support from a charity. Issuing the bill and hoping it gets paid isn't going to cut it – you'll be wasting time and money on repeated, unnecessary collection attempts. Instead, why not personalize each patient's payment plan based on their individual financial situation? No surprises for them, no missed payments for you. Insights from credit data can help you identify the best collection approach for each patient, so you can work with them to find financial assistance, set up payment plans in advance, or outsource payment to an appropriate co-payer. Simplify the admin process to improve patient collections These days, most of our life admin is done online, from banking to travel. Healthcare needs to do the same. You can make healthcare payments easier for your patients by giving them access to their accounts online, so they can manage it when it suits them. This is about making the revenue cycle as frictionless and consumer-friendly as possible. Data-driven technology makes it easy for patients to obtain accurate price estimates, set up or modify their payment plans, check their insurance details, combine payments to different providers, and facilitate mobile healthcare payments. Terry Manifesto, a Senior Director at El Camino Hospital, worked with Experian Health to allow patients to access and manage their data through a self-service portal: "We're providing a lot more estimates than we could before, because it's 24/7, on the go – a patient can use it from their mobile device, from their laptop, or their desktop." With healthcare consumerism and outcomes-based care trending upwards, the dynamics of healthcare finance are shifting. A collections approach based on compassion and simplification is the key to building trust and optimizing revenue at the same time.  

Big data is helping every industry take giant leaps forward. Healthcare should be no exception. Household names like Amazon, Netflix and LinkedIn have made personalized consumer experiences the norm: predicting your next purchase, suggesting products you’ll love, and tailoring your news feed to your preferences. The modern consumer experience is intuitive and frictionless. Patients have come to expect the same of all the companies they do business with – including their healthcare provider. Like these consumer-driven industries, information about lifestyle, interests, purchasing behavior and even social media activity can all help create a more comprehensive picture of each consumer patient, and how they choose their provider. By understanding patients as individual customers, providers can use consumer data insights to offer personalized experiences, creating loyal customers and brand advocates. From building awareness about your brand to customer support interactions, these insights ensure your efforts resonate in the right way with the right consumers at the right time – and in a way that makes the consumer feel like they’ve chosen a provider that ‘gets them.’ We’ve all seen headlines about bad players using consumer data in a negative way, so compliance is key to avoid any mis-steps. Making sure you stay compliant with consumer privacy and data protection laws will keep your organization safe. Data-driven healthcare marketing is a huge opportunity The providers who thrive in the era of value-based accounting will be the ones who embrace a consumer insight-based approach throughout the customer journey. In fact, research suggests companies that leverage consumer insights outperform peers by 85% in sales growth and more than 25% in gross margin. But here’s the rub: while it’s a massive opportunity, using consumer data must be done safely and securely. Consumers don’t want to think about their data being traded in the shadows, even if they’re happy to live-tweet the data from their smartwatch. Trust and transparency are paramount. So, what’s a consumer-centric, security-conscious healthcare provider to do? 3 ways to stay safe and secure using healthcare marketing data Working with consumer (or marketing) data is somewhat new to health. The rules for how you source, store and use it bring a whole new set of compliance concerns. Failure to comply can result in eye-watering fines, not to mention the potentially devastating loss of trust. If you’re handling it in-house, beware of vendors popping up with data solutions that don’t quite make the grade. Here are three ways to practice good data hygiene and keep your organization compliant: Safe sourcing First things first: know where your consumer data comes from. Is your vendor collecting this data from original sources, or via a third party? Do consumers know their data was collected, and how it would be used? Can you point to the original source’s privacy policies? When you use consumer data, make sure you know its source and can quickly point to the privacy policies associated with the data. Working with original source compliers of consumer data, like Experian, can ensure you meet privacy policy rules. Consumers should always be told their data is being collected, why, and by whom. Despite the challenges around the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), its main requirement is actually pretty simple: don’t use consumer data without active consent. GDPR may or may not apply to your organization, but it’s a good model to work to, especially as others are following its lead (like the California Consumer Privacy Act). Safe storage Tales of data breaches at Yahoo and the English National Health Service send a shudder through healthcare C-suites everywhere. And no wonder – a Ponemon Institute Study found the average cost of security breaches is around $3.62 million per incident, while consumers are reported to be more worried about data privacy than losing their main source of income. Safe to say, secure data storage and processing should be a top priority for your organization. Writing for Law Journal Newsletters, Mark Sangster says: “Privacy and data responsibility must be as important to the officers of a business as profitability is to the investors. As such, privacy and compliance blur together, and security becomes the guardian, keeping the others in check.” Familiarize yourself with the rules around storing marketing and non-medical consumer data, such as ensuring you have a written data security policy, identifying data protection officers, and having strict controls on access to data files so that it’s never shared with anyone who doesn’t absolutely need to see it. The Direct Marketing Association and American Marketing Association both have handy resources on ethics, regulations and data privacy. It may not be light bedtime reading, but it’ll keep you right. Appropriate use of data Marketing data is there to help you find promising prospects and keep them interested. Use it to guide your messages and content. It should never be used to deny services to anyone or create unequal access, so always keep an eye out for potential adverse effects. People love to get useful information, but when it’s a little too specific about their lives, that’s verging on creepy! Don’t give the impression that you know solid facts about them. For example, instead of writing “Dear Family of 4”, choose images that would resonate with that family, or offer health fair invites focusing on pre-teen or infant health, according to what marketing data tells you is more relevant. With marketing data, you can avoid wasting time and money (and the embarrassment of) sending your geriatric services promotion to young newlyweds. Or you can connect the dots between services that marketing data suggests will appeal to the same demographic, such as women’s clinic patients who are interested in fitness, who may appreciate a poster about your orthopedics or dietetics promotion. Mastering healthcare marketing best practice Using customer insights to drive your marketing strategy has huge payoffs for patients and providers. Partnering with a reliable data steward will help you take your data analytics to the next level, and stay compliant at the same time. As the gold standard for consumer data privacy, Experian Health offers access to clean, original-source data and robust analytics platforms that give you the most comprehensive view of your health consumers – and peace of mind when it comes to compliance.

  How well do you know your customers? Do they have kids? Do they drive an electric car? Are they working two jobs? Do they use social media? Are they more likely to watch the Beyoncé documentary or live stream the PGA tour? The more you understand your patients and their inclinations, the more you can customize their experience with your brand. You can match your marketing messages to their personal preferences. You can refer them to information that’s relevant, and not bother them with stuff that’s not. When your patients feel taken care of as individuals, your brand will be top-of-mind next time they need healthcare services. This kind of personalization is at the heart of healthcare transformation. When you see your patients as customers and prioritize their experience above all else, in your services and your marketing, you’ll see returns in the form of increased patient satisfaction, rock-solid brand loyalty, better patient outcomes, and growing revenue. Consumer insights give you the competitive advantage In our Digital Onboarding Report 2017, we found that 60% of organizations considered customer experience to be the number one way to stand out from the competition over the next three years. Healthcare brands can learn from other industries and use data-driven consumer insights to personalize their marketing strategies and enhance the customer experience. In an example from the leisure industry, Adi Clowes, Head of Data & Analytics at Center Parcs said: “Influencing customers’ decisions, buying behavior and loyalty cannot be achieved in silos – it’s about using data to make a difference, connecting the business with their customers across the entire customer journey. At Center Parcs we’re committed to our vision of delivering the most personalized and proactive guest experiences at every single touchpoint. That relies on our ability to bring together millions of interactions, combining the voice of the customer with good quality data, and delivering it back to the business.” Harvard Business School points to big consumer brands like Under Armour, Rent the Runway, Peloton and Uber as examples of how consumer data can be used to make sure their brand is in the right place at the right time with the right message about the right product for each individual customer. From predicting a style of training shoe based on previous athletic purchases, to letting you know how long you’ll have to wait for a cab, other industries are leveraging data insights to optimize pretty much all aspects of the customer experience. The value for customers is immense, and so is the payoff for brands. There’s an untapped opportunity for healthcare to enjoy the same benefits. Kathy Giusti, co-chair of the Kraft Precision Medicine Accelerator at the Harvard Business School observes: “When I worked at the Gillette Co., we lived and breathed market research and consumer dynamics. We studied consumer behavior like crazy and we’re not necessarily doing that on the healthcare side as much.” Other sectors don’t think twice about leveraging consumer insights, like demographic, lifestyle and behavioral data, so why should health? Three ways to use consumer data in healthcare marketing From attracting new customers and supporting existing ones, to customer retention and future planning, insights offer value at every stage of the customer journey. Here are three ways to leverage consumer data for a stand-out customer experience:     Attract new customers Think about how many healthcare adverts you see featuring a happy family with two parents, two kids and a golden retriever, playing sports in their sunny garden. Now consider how many of your patients actually fit this image. Healthcare content often doesn’t match the reality of the condition or the patient’s life. When you learn what ‘real life’ looks like to your target population, you can throw away the tired clichés and stop relying on hunches. Insights help you determine what type of messaging and communication channels resonate best, so prospective patients feel like you’re speaking directly to them. Personalized marketing becomes a time-saver, a trust-builder and a problem-solver for your audience. The bland ‘voted best’ slogans mass mailed by your competitors won’t stand a chance. So how do you build a relationship with consumers you don’t yet know? You need good marketing data, directly from the consumer, and managed carefully by a data partner who bridges healthcare and marketing.     Segment and target your current customers Personalization is a proven way to boost retention. Research shows customized emails convert at a rate six to seven times higher than generic messages. Healthcare payers who tailor members’ experiences see five times higher retention rates. It’s a no-brainer. Consumer data lets you separate out the married couple with teenagers, who make buying decisions on impulse and like spending big on hiking and fishing gear, from the empty-nesters who enjoy horror movies and consider themselves savvy researchers when it’s time to choose a provider. How would your outreach messages differ for each family? Should you emphasize convenience or reliability? Safety or cutting-edge technology? Should your images reflect an active lifestyle or a cosy home? You could guess, or you can let the data guide your decisions and put the most relevant messages up top in your communications.     Gain consumer insights to optimize your offerings Another important way to leverage consumer data is in analytics. Let’s say you’re rolling out a new healthcare app to let patients set up appointments or check test results. Working with quality consumer data can help you identify the early adopters, and build models to help predict likely next adopters, allowing you to allocate resources accordingly. When you know a segment of your audience is uninspired by new technology, you know not to waste effort or budget trying to sell it to them in the early stages. Instead, you can give them alternatives that better match their preferences. You won’t get this from simply knowing their ailments. Clinical and claims data tells you plenty about what’s gone before, but it’s only when non-medical consumer data is pulled into the mix that we see real predictive power. Healthcare consumerism means putting patients first Perhaps it’s time to ask what’s missing from your healthcare consumer marketing strategy. Is it the consumers themselves? If so, you’re not alone. Healthcare marketing isn’t new, but marketing based on consumer insights is something that many healthcare providers aren’t fully tapping into yet. This is about using data to make a difference and connect with your customers in a meaningful way at every touch point. A one-size-fits-all approach just isn’t going to cut it.