Tag: Data and Analytics

As Spotify and Amazon can attest, digital technology plus personalization is a winning formula. Consumers want anytime-anywhere access to the services and products they enjoy, without having to sift through irrelevant information. They want tailored recommendations that will make their life easier. More than eight in ten consumers say they’re more likely to choose businesses that treat them like a person instead of just a number. The pay-off for business—and health plans—is huge: by paving the way for better services, better relationships and a better consumer experience, personalization boosts profits, too. There’s one challenge: delivering personalization requires data. Health plans that want to offer a member-centric experience need the right insights to build a complete picture of what individual members need and want. Yet many health plans are forced to work from stale or incomplete data, notably when CMS hands over a new list of members or a new employer signs on to the plan. A system like that makes it nearly impossible to provide meaningful personalization, and consequently, the member experience suffers. With originally sourced data and consumer insights, health plans can fill in the missing links in member profiles and maximize opportunities to improve the consumer experience. Here, we look at how three specific data-driven strategies could help your health plan attract and retain satisfied members and demonstrate digital excellence by using personalization to drive improvements in communications and care. Personalize member communications for maximum engagement By looking beyond simple demographic data and clinical information, health plans can discover what really matters to members. Consumer data provides detailed insights about the kind of content that will resonate most with the member’s lifestyle, interests and health circumstances. Health plans can tailor their marketing messages accordingly, by highlighting articles about the treatment of relevant medical conditions or sending reminders ahead of annual check-ups.Health plans can also discover when and how to communicate with members so they’re most likely to respond. When member profiles reveal who prefers an email or a text and when, health plans can elicit higher levels of engagement, improve the consumer experience and see better results from targeted outreach campaigns. Make improvement decisions based on the most relevant data Consumer insights can also be used to develop improvement plans that zero in on exactly what members need for the best possible health outcomes. Combining insights on patient behavior patterns with an understanding of the challenges facing individual members means health plans can segment members, so the right support goes to the right place.For example, efforts to drive up medication adherence are going to be far more successful if based off accurate and current member profiles. Specific members can be sent automated, personalized reminders to fill out prescriptions in good time before they run out. Compare that to a “spray and pray” awareness campaign using generic messages that are likely to be ignored. Data-led improvement strategies are operationally efficient and create a better experience for members. Help members overcome social barriers to health Finally, when member profiles include a snapshot of how social and economic factors influence their ability to access healthcare, health plans can take action to offer support. Closing the gaps in care that arise when a patient fails to turn up to their appointment or ends up being readmitted to hospital, can often involve quite simple solutions. If data suggests the member has small children, but there’s no other adult in the household, it makes sense to cross-promote childcare services. Similarly, if the member isn’t known to own a car, a health plan could offer information on free transportation.Understanding these social determinants of health can help health plans offer proactive support so members enjoy better health outcomes in the long run. Experian Health’s rich datasets give health plans access to member-level insights on more than 330 million consumers, with data analysis and automation tools to help make business decisions based on the most relevant, current data. Contact us to find out how we can help provide the personalized experience members are looking for.

Four in ten Americans live with multiple chronic conditions. For these individuals, life is punctuated with physician appointments, visits to the pharmacy and referrals to different specialists. Their care should be coordinated with orchestral precision, but the reality is somewhat less harmonious. Snail-paced scheduling systems, poor communication and mismatched patient records can lead to a lack of proper support for patients, confusion about how the care plan is managed, and potentially dangerous (and costly) gaps in care. For health plans, quality markers are missed and incentive payments start to dwindle.

With a vaccine for COVID-19 thought to be at least a year away, healthcare providers are steeling themselves for even more cases in the fall. The big worry is that a surge in cases will hit the health system just as flu season takes hold. In a recent interview, Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), warned that “the assault of the virus on our nation next winter [may] actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through… we’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time.” Healthcare organizations are accustomed to an influx of sick patients between October and March: around 62,000 people died and more than 700,000 were hospitalized during last winter’s flu season. With 130,000 Americans losing their lives to COVID-19 in just four months, what could happen when the two respiratory diseases collide? Large numbers of patients with either virus (or potentially with both) will put renewed pressure on staff and services that are already under immense strain. Hospitals will need to prepare to manage both groups of patients as efficiently and safely as possible. Five ways to ease stress, paperwork and patient concerns ahead of a dual epidemic 1. Use data to drive your patient engagement strategy Create a flu preparedness patient engagement strategy to keep patients informed of how best to protect themselves in the context of a dual epidemic. As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, patients may be more familiar with telehealth services as a “contact-free” alternative to in-person appointments, so you’ll want to continue to promote these to minimize the spread of infection. With consumer data, you can segment patients according to risk and automate your communications, so they get the most relevant message at the most convenient time. 2. Relieve pressure on staff with automated patient scheduling Digital scheduling gives patients the option to book appointments online, at a time and place that suits them. This reduces pressure on call center staff and can give providers control over the volume and timing of in-person appointments, thus helping to reduce the spread of germs. An online patient scheduling platform can automate the entire scheduling process, integrating in real-time with your records management systems and connecting to your referral providers’ systems for a seamless patient and staff experience. 3. Screen patients proactively to discover their needs ahead of time Asking patients to fill out electronic questionnaires before their visit means their access needs can be identified and addressed before they come in. Do they need help to find transportation? Will they face any challenges in picking up a prescription? Is there something that could stand in the way of follow-up care? Screening for social determinants of health can answer these questions so you can direct patients to the most appropriate care and support. 4. Enable digital patient registration for a quick and easy intake experience Speed up the registration process by giving patients the option to complete their intake admin by phone or through their patient portal. Not only will this reduce the spread of infection in busy waiting rooms, it’ll make for a more enjoyable patient experience and free up limited staff resources for other priorities. With automated registration and consumer-facing mobile experiences, you can improve the patient experience, operational efficiencies and data accuracy all at the same time. 5. Minimize in-person interactions with contactless payments Encourage patients to clear their balances without having to hand over cash or access payment kiosks. Self-service digital payment tools allow patients to make contactless payments through their patient portal or from their mobile device. “The combined pressure from two viruses hitting health systems at once means it’s even more important for providers to leverage data for speed and accuracy. Automated workflows can help accelerate operational efficiency, as well as create a better patient experience during what’s already an extremely stressful time.” Victoria Dames, Vice President of Product Management for Experian Health Find out more about how Experian Health’s expertise in data and analytics can help your organization prepare for the coming flu season so you can offer your patients a safe, accessible and stress-free experience. We have also developed a checklist of action items for providers to consider as you prepare for both flu and COVID-19. How ready are you? Which actions is your organization instituting now?

By January 2021, millions of those who suffered job losses in the wake of COVID-19 will see their unemployment insurance end. Medicaid and subsidized coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will be a safety net for many, but nearly 2 million Americans could find themselves stuck in the ‘coverage gap’, where their household income exceeds the eligibility threshold for Medicaid, yet falls below the lower limit required to receive ACA marketplace subsidies. Without large group or government coverage, these consumers will be left uninsured or forced to purchase individual plans with high deductibles. Considering this will likely contribute to larger patient balances and more struggles with patient collections, many are bracing for a hit to their bottom line. To help minimize accounts receivable and avoid bad debt write-offs, choosing the right data model should be a top priority. Here, we look at one piece that’s often missing from the patient collections puzzle: credit data. Don’t overlook credit data in your self-pay collections strategy Many providers already use demographic and behavioral data to power patient collections, but there can be gaps in what’s known about a consumer’s ability to pay. Credit data can help fill in the blanks. Here are three ways this can be used to optimize your collections strategy: 1. Get a complete view of your patients’ financial situation for faster decision-making Credit data can reveal how a patient is managing other financial obligations, giving you insights about how to handle their healthcare account for a greater chance of payment. Have they just maxed out a credit card? Have they missed a student loan payment or fallen behind on their mortgage? If so, they’re probably going to find it difficult to pay off their medical bill. Knowing this, you can move quickly to help them find alternative coverage or offer a more manageable payment plan. Conversely, if they’ve just bought a new car or paid off a personal loan, there’s a high chance they’re in a good position to pay their medical bills too, so contacting them with a straightforward and easy payment plan means they can clear their balance promptly. 2. Segment patient accounts and allocate them to the right payment pathway The sooner you can get patients onto the right payment pathway, the more robust your cashflow will be. Credit data can help you segment accounts quickly and accurately. Experian Health data shows that when patients are segmented according to propensity to pay, collections increase by around 2% when credit data is included, compared to segmentation without credit data. Novant Health used Collections Optimization Manager to segment patients and check for available charity support or Medicaid eligibility. By getting patients on the right pathway and making sure agencies were focusing on the right accounts, they increased recovery rates by 5% and saw a rolling average return on investment of 8.5:1. 3. Create a more compassionate patient financial experience Using credit data also helps create a more compassionate patient financial experience. Instead of adding to a patient’s financial worries by chasing payments they’ll never be able to cover, you can run charity checks to see if there’s any missed coverage and quickly connect them to the right financial assistance program. A tool such as Collections Optimization Manager lets you segment patients based on their individual circumstances, for a more patient-friendly approach to collections. You can then personalize their communications and payment options so they can manage their expenses with less anxiety and more confidence. Discover why 60% of US hospitals are already using Experian Health’s advanced collections software and unrivaled datasets to optimize patient collections, and find out how we can help you build a resilient revenue cycle as self-pay accounts continue to rise.

Here's how automating the patient access workflow with real-time data can create a more efficient and accurate process.

Data-driven technology and automation can help drive improvements you meet changing consumer expectations in the world of patient access.

Here's how medical groups can look at using data and digital technology to improve patient access through digital care coordination.

A critical gap is the need for a universal patient identifier to achieve accurate healthcare data interoperability across the entire health ecosystem.

The Cerner Consumer Financial Engagement suite is powered by Experian data to optimize the billing process for both patients and providers.