Tag: patient engagement
When nearly 80% of health outcomes can be traced to non-medical social and economic factors, we need to look beyond the medical world to improve them. Perhaps a lack of transportation prevents a patient from attending an appointment, or juggling two jobs makes it difficult to collect a prescription. Maybe a patient’s care plan calls for lifestyle changes that are simply unrealistic in their current circumstances. When life gets in the way, there’s only so much the physician can do. Creating and maintaining a healthy, happy population truly takes a village – from your clinical team to the community resources around your organization. For many healthcare providers, there’s probably a lot more going in their ‘village’ than they realize. Do you know who your patients really are, beyond their lab tests? Do you know what nearby services are at your disposal to help you offer the best possible care? Knowing your patients and your health improvement ‘village’ means you can offer a personalized experience to your patients, to improve their care management and ultimately help them achieve better health outcomes. 3 ways to tailor care management for better patient outcomes Let’s imagine two patients, who have both recently broken their wrists and been treated in your facility. Gene is 71 years old and David is 34. From the clinical perspective, it might be reasonable to assume that David, being younger, should simply receive discharge directions and a time for a follow-up appointment, and be on his way. Gene, being older, might require a series of follow-ups. But thinking of the village analogy, is there more you could learn about Gene and David to engage with them in a way that’s tailored to their specific needs? Here are three ways social determinants of health data can help you do just that. Use non-clinical data to get to know your patients Non-clinical data can help you learn more about your patients and the lifestyle factors that might affect their health. This allows you to address issues like excessive healthcare utilization, preventable readmissions, no-shows and low patient engagement. Surveys at the point of registration are one way to get fresh socio-economic insights. But these can be cumbersome to implement, and findings can be limited by the nature of the questions. You might also review geographical and community-level data to discover your local population’s income, housing situation, employment status, and so on. This can be useful for population-level care planning, but it’s not patient-specific. A better way is to analyze securely collected marketing data for more specific and accurate information. This could tell you that Gene’s living situation actually has a minimal impact on his ability to access care, healthy food and reliable housing. Additional follow up appointments may still be appropriate, but perhaps less urgent. By contrast, you might find that David has limited access to care because he lives alone and far from public transportation. His lifestyle suggests he’d be unlikely to prioritize getting gas to drive to a follow-up appointment over getting to work. In this situation, a remote health appointment might be the better plan. Know your community resources Once you know what David and Gene might need, you can point them towards any appropriate community resources to increase their chances of a quick recovery. Of course, to do this, you need to know what and where these resources are. For example, can you link David to an appropriate home health or telehealth program, or is there a non-emergency medical transportation service in your area to get him to his appointments on time? If Gene needed support to follow a healthier diet, would a local food bank be available? If either had an unstable living situation, would you know which local or national housing coalitions could help put healthcare within reach? Tools such as NowPow, Aunt Bertha and Healthify exist to connect the dots between patients, providers and wider community resources, and close the gap in holistic care. Be proactive and preventative by holding conversations with your care teams prior to seeing patients When you have reliable insights and data analytics to anticipate what patients like David and Gene might need, you can work with your care teams to develop a shortlist of options ahead of time. In this way, they’ll have realistic and ready-to-use solutions to give the patient right there and then. To truly get the most out of social determinant of health data, your care coordinators need easily digestible patient profiles which they can understand and use in a split-second. Bringing the whole patient into the care plan Healthcare is growing more and more sophisticated in identifying ways to better manage care for patients by using data science and machine learning to predict health events. These insights help coordinate care plans that are preventative and proactive. Essentially, it’s about knowing your patients as well as possible, and being able to quickly match them to the services they need. — Discover how we can help you leverage social determinants of health data for your patient population, so you can bring in the whole ‘village’ of resources to support them on their healthcare journey.
Experian Health announced it has acquired MyHealthDirect, a SaaS-based company specializing in digital coordination solutions in scheduling. We interviewed Jason Considine, Experian Health general manager of patient engagement and collections, to learn more about the acquisition, as well as opportunities arising in healthcare due to the rise in consumerism. What led to Experian’s interest in MyHealthDirect and the ultimate acquisition? We’ve had a relationship with MyHealthDirect for several years. Experian Health has been reselling the MyHealthDirect solution since 2017, and we’ve long recognized that their platform’s digital care coordination capabilities would be a great match with our existing solutions. MyHealthDirect\'s platform links patients with the right providers, offering online scheduling tools and referral coordination to ensure more timely access to care for patients. These solutions have proven to increase appointment and referral rates, improve call center efficiency, reduce no-shows and enhance the overall patient experience. By coupling this technology with our Experian data, we can ensure patients are getting the care they need in the management of chronic diseases and wellness programs. This acquisition evolves our core revenue cycle management capabilities and helps us make gains in the patient engagement space with all-new innovative offerings. You referenced “digital care coordination.” What does this mean and how does it apply to healthcare? Digital care coordination, as it applies to the MyHealthDirect suite, is comprised of self-scheduling, call center, referral coordination and automated outreach solutions, making it easier for people to access healthcare. By combining these scheduling solutions with Experian’s existing digital patient engagement solutions, we can deliver a seamless consumer-centered experience – from serving up an estimate, to streamlining the registration process, to providing consumers with the ability to pay their healthcare bills via multiple channels. Today’s healthcare consumer expects a turnkey, personalized, on-demand experience. When you think about the best engagements we all enjoy in retail, financial services, travel and entertainment, the expectation is that the healthcare experience should be no different. We need to arm consumers with the ability to streamline their healthcare and make it easier for them to access care. Why is the scheduling component so key in the overall patient journey today? Scheduling is the one of the very first steps of the care journey and booking an appointment has traditionally been a poor experience. Common frustrations include not being able to reach the provider, finding out that no appointments are available, or being forced into a time-consuming three-way call between the health plan and provider. Without fast and easy access, patients may not be able to get the care they need. When healthcare plans use technology to better connect patients to needed care, quality scores for patient experience rise and efficiencies are gained. Can you give us an example on how more automated approach to scheduling could lead to better health outcomes for the consumer? Sure. Take for instance an individual who is living with diabetes. It is important for this person to have regular check-ins with their provider to monitor their condition and adjust care plans accordingly. If this person is challenged to see their provider, or doesn’t have regular appointments booked, they could run the risk of becoming an unhealthy diabetic, being faced with additional health challenges. By tapping into digital appointment scheduling, a provider or payer could create an automated outreach plan to make the scheduling hassle-free. Appointments could be streamlined and scheduled directly on the phone via IVR or text, and appointment reminders can be delivered. How do you see providers responding to the rise in healthcare consumerism? It’s no secret that healthcare costs are rising, and consumers are increasingly bearing more of those costs. Providers, therefore, are telling us they need to deliver a better experience. They are asking for digital technologies to gain rich insights into consumer behavior and then adjusting their care delivery plans accordingly. They recognize that consumers have a choice on where to take their healthcare business, so they need to compete. In the case of scheduling, MyHealthDirect conducted some research and revealed 66% of patients would switch providers for more convenient access. In that same study, 77% of patients think the ability to book, change or cancel appointments online is important. My point? Those providers and payers investing in on-demand tools to interface with their consumers will win, simplifying many of the administrative tasks associated with healthcare. — Learn more about scheduling solutions.
“Build it and they will come” might work for 1980s movie characters, multinational coffee franchises and beloved sports teams, but it’s not a great engagement strategy for most consumer-facing organizations – especially in healthcare. Take patient portals, for example. Giving your patients a way to access their health records can help improve their health outcomes, increase compliance with care plans, and create a more positive healthcare experience overall. But do your customers know the portal exists? Do they know how it could serve them? Do they trust it? You’ve built it, but how many patients are actually logging on? In 2017, over half the US population had access to a patient portal. Around half of those people used it at least once in the previous year. Of those who didn’t, 59% said it was because they didn’t feel they needed to access an online medical record, and 25% were worried about privacy and security. This tells us two things: If healthcare providers want to increase the number of patients using their portal, they need to proactively communicate the benefits to those patients, and healthcare providers could do more to reassure patients they take portal security seriously. If patients discover that using the portal is better than not using it, and that they can do so securely, they will be more likely to log on. You can address both in your patient engagement and marketing strategies. Perhaps the better mantra is: “if you solve their problem and tell them about it, they will come”. Balancing portal security and patient convenience Your patient portal is more than just a platform for patients to access test results, sort out bills or schedule appointments. It’s a way to nurture the patient-provider relationship. And at its heart, that relationship is about trust. One way to build trust is to ensure your portal meets the strictest of security measures without creating an excessive admin burden for patients. You can do this with a security strategy that layers up several protective measures to help you tackle common areas of vulnerability, including weak ID verification, over-reliance on password-protection, and failure to encrypt sensitive data. A few practical ways to keep your patient portal secure include: using ID verification when someone signs up for the portal using device intelligence and identity proofing when a user signs in to the portal deploying extra security checks where the risk of identity fraud is higher putting systems in place to flag and respond to security breaches as fast as possible. A solution like PreciseID® can help you take care of your patients’ privacy and security behind the scenes. They’ll see just enough to reassure them that you’re taking their security seriously, without any protracted log-in process that puts them off using the portal altogether. Marketing your patient portal so more patients benefit from it Solving your patients’ concerns about security is just one route to boosting portal utilization. Another important way to ensure more patients use and benefit from the patient portal is to actively encourage them to access their online records regularly. Research suggests individuals who are encouraged to use their online medical record by their provider are almost twice as likely to access it, compared to those who weren’t actively encouraged. So how do you convince your patients of the benefits of regularly logging on? That it’s not just a convenient way to manage their medical journey, but could result in better health? The answer lies in consumer data – the lifestyle, demographic, psychographic and behavioral information that gives you a fuller understanding of what drives your patients. Experian Health’s ConsumerView data analytics can capture insights that let you reach out to your consumers with the right message, in the right way, at the right time. Do they live a busy lifestyle? Reassure them that the portal can save them time. Are there lifestyle factors that may hinder their adherence to medication? Encourage them to use the portal to make sure their prescriptions are up to date. If you discover your consumers are big social media users, you might target your portal engagement campaign through those channels. Equally, if a consumer doesn’t have any social media accounts, there would be no point investing in Facebook ads. Personalization makes your patients feel taken care of, leading to greater trust, loyalty and satisfaction. Increase patient portal engagement today In the wake of consumerism and IT transformation across many other industries, a tailored and digitally secure healthcare service is a must. “Consumers now expect to be provided with a turnkey, individual experience that is fast and seamless,” said Kristen Simmons, Experian Health’s senior vice president of strategy and innovation. Your patient portal must be seen to provide a valuable and secure service. While there’s a way to go to increase the number of patients making full use of portals, the tools exist to support healthcare providers’ engagement goals. Learn more about how your organization can leverage consumer insights to improve patient retention and engagement.
The President, members of Congress and consumer advocates are all demanding price transparency within the healthcare universe. The major push of late is President Trump’s executive order that will be issued in June 2019; while critics hope this initiative will fade, the topic has been on the industry radar for many, many years. How did we get to today’s scenario? We have a robust perspective on this subject at Experian Health because we’ve been working with healthcare organizations offering various solutions that inform consumers about the costs of their care for more than 10 years. We brought to market the first iteration of our current Patient Estimates product back in 2008, responding, in part, to the growing issue of medical debt and inherent risk to providers not getting full payment for services. The challenges presented by medical debt are well documented, but the important point to focus on is that as long as Americans continue to lack the ability to pay for their care and health organizations struggle with collections, the push towards price transparency will continue. Perhaps this is much needed progress? Since 1957, nearly 75% of Americans have consistently reported being insured but unable to pay their medical bills, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control. Now, more than 50 years later, many legislators hope mandated price transparency will alleviate the surprise factor of medical costs and spur a more competitive environment. In 2008, helping patients understand their costs was intended to improve providers’ collections success. The term ‘price transparency,’ with additional connotations (e.g. better experience for the patient, improved efficiencies), popped up about the same time as the introduction of very high deductible health plans. The phrase started gaining traction following passage of the Affordable Care Act, and as patients were responsible for more of their medical costs. Add in the rise of consumerism within healthcare and Americans’ digital lifestyles, and it’s no surprise there are calls for pricing to be as easy to understand as they are in the retail space. We harness the power of data and analytics to fulfill these needs in the marketplace. The healthcare industry was ripe for change more than a decade ago, as evidenced by the desire of organizations to leverage what we could offer. While there is continued debate on the transparency topic, the good news is today’s data-driven technology can create a patient financial experience that is friendly, understandable and accessible, delivering the good-faith estimates many consumers, legislators and the industry-at-large wish to see. Consumerism drives price transparency expectations Ultimately, the financial aspect to care is a key component to consumers’ satisfaction with a provider. This realization began to bubble to the surface over the last several years. In fact, Experian Health conducted research last year to understand consumer pain points during the healthcare journey. Consequently, it was no surprise when the study revealed consumers’ biggest frustrations and challenges – above clinical areas – is dealing with the financial aspects of healthcare: 90 percent of respondents ranked worrying about paying their medical bills as a very important to extremely important pain point. 30 percent acknowledged the challenges of determining what financial support options (e.g., payment plans, government grants, and hospital charity care programs) are available 90 percent reported significantly underestimating the costs associated with major medical procedures (e.g., knee replacement) The takeaway from this study is clear: consumers want a streamlined payment process that builds confidence and provides peace of mind. We know that healthcare providers want to increase the efficiency and success of their collections efforts. Ultimately, everyone benefits from clarity around pricing. So whether government-mandated or not, there is no denying that price transparency, in some form, is here to stay and a transformation in the industry is taking hold. Experian Health is leading the way to innovations that will help healthcare organizations thrive in this new era. By leveraging our expertise in data and analytics and our understanding of healthcare costs, we can help patients successfully navigate their financial obligations from primary care appointments through subsequent diagnostic procedures and surgeries. The potential is there for everyone to benefit from an evolved, modern system. Related Articles: How Blessing Health System personalized estimates to improve patient satisfaction How to make price transparency less confusing for patients
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. Dan Wiens, Director 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. Saratoga Hospital used Experian Health’s Patient Estimates pricing transparency tool to eliminate the need for manually updating price lists and remove guesswork for patients and staff. By creating a standardized pricing and collection approach, the hospital was able to increase cash collections by 400% from 2015-2018. 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.
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.
What if you could flag patients who are at risk of readmission? What if you could anticipate missed appointments or know ahead of time that someone is going to face challenges with their care plan? This knowledge could help you improve patient outcomes, streamline staff workflows and improve your bottom line. So how can you get this non-medical information and use it to improve treatment outcomes? A person’s circumstances can help us understand potential challenges in access to care to predict their behaviors More than 80% of health outcomes are unrelated to medical care. Instead, they are attributable to outside social and economic forces, such as housing, education, unemployment, low income, transportation, access to green space, loneliness, inequality and other non-medical factors. These social determinants of health (SDOH) are the living and working conditions that come together in just the right combination to either promote or a limit a person’s health and wellbeing. As a healthcare professional, you’re no doubt aware that people struggling with financial or life circumstances have a more difficult time focusing on their health and subsequently face more urgent hardships. And it isn’t just the patients who suffer. It has a negative impact on the entire healthcare ecosystem. Why providers should care about social determinants of health When patients struggle to access healthcare services, they’re less likely to follow treatment plans or adhere to follow-up visits. They’re more likely to need to come back with more serious conditions that could have been detected earlier, had they felt equipped to follow the care plan. Not only is this worrying for the patient, but it also leads to excessive service utilization that is costly for providers. Missed appointments are estimated to cost the US healthcare system a massive $150 billion, while each unused 60-minute slot costs an average of $200. And that’s not to mention the opportunity cost of equipment and rooms sitting idle, and all those wasted hours of billable physician time. The shift to value-based care puts more pressure on providers to improve outcomes. But how can they do that when those outcomes are partially determined by factors beyond their control? Considering that 68% of patients have at least one social determinant challenge, the only sensible move is to bring solving for SDOH to the forefront of care planning. “No patient wants to skip appointments and dial 911 as their only reliable means to get the care they need,” said Karly Rowe, Experian Health vice president of product management. “We want to level the playing field by helping providers identify and solve for these socio-economic challenges that make it hard for some patients to get the care they need. SDOH has the ability to improve outcomes, lower costs and increase patient satisfaction, removing the socio-economic obstacles hindering healthcare.” An example of providers and payers collaborating to solve for social determinants of health is the Aligning for Health coalition, which in 2016 referred 33,000 patients to community initiatives. Andy Friedell, a senior vice president at Maxim Healthcare Services said of the program: “We are prioritizing community-based care and social determinant solutions for our patients and clients. In fact, we have effectively used these tools to help reduce readmissions by over 65% for high-risk patients.” How can social determinant data improve outcomes? Let’s look at two examples of how healthcare providers might analyze social determinants to help improve care management. 1. Reducing appointment no-shows For many patients, a lack of transportation is the main barrier to compliance. How do they get to an appointment or procedure if they don’t have a car, don’t live in an area well served by public transport, and can’t afford a cab? Looking at vehicle registration data and public transport services in the area would be one way for a provider to gauge access to care. But does that give the full story? Even if they can find transport, are they juggling two jobs? Do they need childcare? By synthesizing data on transportation, family arrangements, average incomes, and more, providers can anticipate the propensity of someone being unable to access care, and offer solutions such as a free hospital bus service or crèche facility. 2. Preventing escalated health conditions Understanding social determinants is not about identifying unhealthy behavior. For example, a provider might see poor health and point to poor diet. But a patient’s poor diet may not simply result from poor choices. A provider who’s aware of the potential impact of social determinants might consider the propensity of food insecurity – maybe the patient doesn’t have access to healthy food? However, putting the patient at the center and truly understanding social determinants means thinking beyond the ‘food desert’ explanation. Even where healthy food is available, the ability to eat it might be limited by lack of time to cook it, or money to buy it. The provider must adjust their lens and understand how a stressful work schedule, chaotic household and readily available cheap food converge to make it virtually impossible for the patient to even think about putting their health first with a healthy meal. As a result, a patient who could have been identified early on with symptoms indicating the onset of diabetes, for example, instead has their diagnosis delayed because they can’t get to an appointment, while their condition worsens due to their unhealthy diet. Instead of offering dietary advice or signposting to a wholesome supermarket, the provider might choose to work with a registered dietician nutritionist, direct patients to community resources, participate in community partnerships, or even engage with local planning departments and commercial developers. When you understand what drives your patients and recognize the real barriers preventing them from prioritizing or accessing healthcare, you can proactively identify opportunities to solve them. 3. Using the right data to understand and solve for social determinants of health Better care management and improved health outcomes start with understanding the whole patient and the social determinants impacting their life, and then turning those insights into actions. For providers to be proactive, preventative and patient-friendly, they need to know the patient’s socioeconomic background before they enter the room. They must have an idea of what that conversation should look like before they even say hello, and know which SDOH-related programs might be relevant to this patient. Analytics platforms can help leverage wider consumer data sets to spot patterns that affect operational efficiencies so providers can offer more patient-centered care. Of course, if you’re using consumer data, you must have confidence both in its accuracy and in your ability to safeguard consumer privacy. Both can be achieved if you work with a data management partner who can collect data from consumers at scale, with solutions that check all the privacy boxes necessary to allow this data to be used in a healthcare setting. Identity management protocols can guarantee robust patient-matching and cross-system interoperability. So if you weren’t already thinking about what social determinants of health mean for your organization, perhaps think about what you could do now to incorporate a solution that tells you what patients need, provides the right amount of context to understand what external factors might be causing or affecting that need, and then solve for it at the point of care. — The solution exists to help you. You could have the power to identify and solve for social determinants at your fingertips.
Whether it’s due to pressure from governing bodies or price-shopping health consumers, many healthcare organizations are being challenged with price transparency efforts. With so many moving parts to determine a patient’s financial liability, how can accurate patient estimates be provided in a timely manner? Giving patients the right pricing information at the right time Like many healthcare systems, Blessing Health relied on various printouts and spreadsheets of price lists from different departments of the hospital to provide patient estimates. Lists needed to be manually updated, and the staff often relied on outdated information. The process wasn’t standardized, and estimates were inconsistent across the enterprise. While Blessing wanted to make sure that patients were getting accurate information, the estimates didn’t consider a patient’s insurance information. Since patients weren’t understanding their true financial obligation, it caused frustration among patients and employees. In today’s competitive environment, it’s important to reduce instances in the patient journey that might cause irritation. A recent report from Trends in Healthcare Payments, notes that patients who are satisfied with billing are five times more likely to recommend the hospital. At a time when hospitals are being asked to do more with less and reduce the cost of care, manual processes and work must be reduced and automated with data to provide accurate information. Patient liability estimation is a complex process of calculating multiple components, not easily available to users, including insurance benefits, charges, contractual adjustments and provider discounts. If hospital staff are manually estimating the processes, they could be using outdated pricing lists which may not include application of insurance benefits, contract rates, and discounts. As consumers gain access to pricing information, health leaders should invest in data-driven technology that can provide consumers with accurate personalized estimates. Most healthcare organizations already have the basic data they need to use automated technology to construct estimates for basic services, including claims data, real-time eligibility and benefits information, payer contracts and charge description master (CDM) information. Blessing Health knew they needed to find a way to advise patients of their financial liability, as well as give staff a tool they could confidently use to request patient payments upfront to increase collections. They wanted real-time estimates that were personalized based on a patient’s insurance and contract information. To do this, Blessing Health reached out to Experian Health to integrate Patient Estimates into their Allscripts® workflow. What to look for in price estimator tools Healthcare organizations should implement price transparency and collection practices that are standardized across the enterprise. A pricing transparency tool eliminates the need for manually updating price lists, and removes the guesswork and tedious manual processes, which often result in outdated, inaccurate estimates. Price transparency software should also include reporting features that give greater control over the process and can be agile in managing transparency initiatives as well as track potential versus actual collections. A price transparency tool should highlight a patient’s financial situation, as well as their propensity to pay, allowing you to optimize your collection strategies from the start and get patients on the right programs. To help reduce traffic to call centers, a price transparency tool should be integrated into consumer-facing estimates that are personalized and available through a web portal or mobile app. Price estimation can help with patient collections Through an automated, data-driven process, Blessing Health is now able to provide personalized patient estimates that are 80 percent to 90 percent accurate. (Inaccuracies result from unexpected tests or procedures.) As a result, Blessing Health benefited from a 58 percent increase in point-of-service patient collections. Based on the cost to implement these services, Blessing Health experienced a 1,200% return on investment. After realizing success on the hospital side, Blessing Health implemented Patient Estimates for their physician group as well. — Learn more about how you can empower the patient financial experience.
The healthcare industry is starting to embrace the use of consumer data to help achieve better treatment outcomes, engage patients in meaningful ways, market to health consumers, and identify social determinants of health among their patient population. As consumers now spend an estimated $3.5 trillion annually on healthcare in the U.S. (approximately $10,348 per consumer), they expect the healthcare industry to create modern and innovative experiences for their care journey. Those experiences can only be created through data-driven insights. When it comes to the world of data, where can we start? What if we could use health data and other variables like socioeconomics to predict missed appointments, noncompliance with medications, and patient trajectory over time? By learning how to apply data analytics to practice management workflows, we will improve the delivery of patient care by zeroing in on the best in social determinants of health. Data insights can also forge stronger customer and patient relationships, foster brand loyalty, and drive decisions around how to interact with consumers in ways that consider their lifestyles, attitudes and preferences. Those insights help deliver tailored messages to patients that are relevant to every stage of their journey. And what about applying credit data to create a personalized, nearly invisible, payment experience for patients? As patients express that paying their bill is a top pain point in their health journey, we look to use the right data insights to fuel collection strategies by offering patients financial assistance and payment plans at the point of service to ensure a positive patient financial experience. The right data can transform patient and consumer experiences in healthcare. However, it’s important to have access to clean, original-source data, as well as analytics to gain insights that drive decisions and achieve results. Household data, marketing data, credit data and of course healthcare data can all offer a more complete view of today’s healthcare consumer. If you are attending HIMSS19, join us in booth 2033 to hear one of our presentations on using data in the patient experience to earn CE credits.
