Tag: patient experience
With the ability to research products, compare price information, and conduct transactions all from their mobile devices, today\'s consumers are more savvy than ever. They expect an unprecedented level of transparency from companies. In fact, they demand it and will easily take their money elsewhere if a company doesn\'t follow through. Consumers expect the same high-level transparency from healthcare providers, and the demand is growing as patients are forced to bear more out-of-pocket costs for medical care. They want to avoid surprises, such as higher-than-expected cost estimates for services or insurance that may cover only a small portion of the expense. Price transparency initiatives are becoming increasingly more important in healthcare systems, and providers must embrace new capabilities to meet patients\' expectations. The old model of billing patients weeks or months after they’ve received services is no longer viable. Billing needs to move to the front of the revenue cycle management process, and a number of Experian Health\'s solutions are designed to help do just that. 3 tools for greater price transparency in healthcare As patients are responsible for a higher percentage of their healthcare costs, healthcare providers\' financial performance depends on an optimal collections strategy that focuses on patient engagement. The advantage of patients knowing and having confidence in healthcare cost estimates makes the collections process much easier and helps drive the future revenue cycle. Here are three Experian Health solutions that can help healthcare providers improve price transparency: 1. Patient Estimates: Patient trust is built on meeting expectations. With this in mind, Experian Health\'s Patient Estimates tool brings accurate, upfront price transparency before or at the point of service so patients know what to expect and can confidently make decisions about their healthcare. Cost estimates are derived from numerous types of data, including a patient’s benefits information, a healthcare provider\'s reimbursement agreements, and payer contract rates, among others. Much of the information can be automatically populated into the system, eliminating the need to constantly update price information lists and reducing the risks of inaccurate cost estimates resulting from error. With Patient Estimates, healthcare providers can also more effectively comply with state and federal price transparency requirements. 2. Patient Statements:Accurate price information is one thing, but even if the patient’s billing statement matches the cost estimates, collections can be a challenge if the statement is hard to read or understand. Patient Statements is a communications tool that simplifies and customizes patient billing statements, complete with important, easy-to-understand updates and messages. Making billing statements straightforward for patients to manage helps healthcare providers build a stronger level of trust when it comes to payments. Personalizing the statements with marketing and educational information turns them into valuable resources that create a better overall patient engagement experience. 3. Patient Self-Service:With accurate, upfront price estimates and simple, useful bill-paying systems and statements, healthcare providers can more successfully integrate our online self-service portal. Experian Health\'s Patient Self-Service tool digitally delivers cost estimates and statements to patients. It also allows patients to securely make payments and conveniently schedule future appointments from their desktop or mobile devices. Patient Self-Service brings the high level of price transparency to healthcare providers that consumers now expect. This makes it more likely for patients to meet their self-pay responsibilities and return for future healthcare services. Patient Self-Service also helps healthcare providers more efficiently comply with \"meaningful use\" Stage 2 program requirements. The capabilities for price transparency that these solutions provide is just a small sampling of what we offer today, and we’re continuing to research and develop even more useful tools. In addition, we’ve recently launched an extensive consumer research project to better understand patients’ wants and needs. We’re excited to use these insights to continue developing solutions that help healthcare providers improve engagement with patients.
Yale New Haven Health is an award-winning academic healthcare system, and a big part of why its people achieve success is because they continually ask, “How can we do better?” For two years, the financial preservice team used focus groups and other feedback to learn about the financial concerns of patients and their loved ones. Then, they pursued a rigorous, tech-driven transformation to better develop estimates, identify patient payment solutions, explain billing and collections, and engage with patients. Yale New Haven Health employees and executives view patients’ financial care as an important facet of healthcare. By pairing their own dedication and know-how with Experian Health products, they’ve improved the patient experience and increased staff satisfaction. Here’s how: Create transparent, plain-language patient estimates The preservice team wanted to give patients cost estimates that were easier to understand and more accurate. Now that they’re using Eligibility, team members know exactly what procedure a patient is having and are better equipped to verify eligibility and explain the patient’s deductibles, co-insurance, and out-of-pocket expenses. For example, the team has standardized the varying (and sometimes cryptic) eligibility responses returned by hundreds of different insurance companies and other payers. Team members give patients the same clear answer — no matter how many ways payers use to describe what their plans will and won’t pay for. Find alternative payment solutions Another challenge confronting Yale New Haven Health was helping patients find ways to pay for procedures. The preservice team deployed Coverage Discovery, which can find and verify insurance coverage that patients didn’t even know they had. As patients register for their procedures, the tool searches for previously overlooked Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial insurances. Patients can sometimes avoid costly self-pay situations, and Yale New Haven Health avoids write-offs and unwarranted charity designations. Also, the preservice team is watching trends in what Coverage Discovery finds so they can spot potential problems earlier and identify payment alternatives sooner. Make it less painful to receive a bill It’s nearly impossible to achieve pain-free billing, but the confusing terms and codes found on most healthcare statements shouldn’t add to the pain. As part of its financial care transformation, Yale New Haven Health started using Patient Statements to combine hospital and physician billing into one easy-to-understand document. It even added customized messages to further explain the procedures and costs. Patients have said that they’re happy with the new design. Give patients a way to be self-sufficient Patients want an easy, digital way to evaluate options and understand what products and services cost. Healthcare is no exception. Yale New Haven Health uses Patient Self-Service to serve up a self-service portal that gives patients a greater say in their healthcare and connects them to their providers. For example, patients can set up their own payment plans (within parameters set by Yale New Haven Health). It saves time for the patients and the preservice team, which enjoys a reduced volume of customer service calls. Yale New Haven Health already had a relationship with Experian Health. It was already using Payer Alerts and Collections Optimization Manager to improve back-end revenue cycle operations. This time around, it focused on preservice processes and added Eligibility, Coverage Discovery, Patient Statements, and Patient Self-Service to its financial care system. These tools have garnered more satisfied patients, to be sure. They’ve also served as physical expressions of Yale New Haven Health’s commitment to excellence. Staff members can take greater pride in their jobs knowing they have the tools to better fulfill their patient-centered mission. A lot is said about treating the whole person instead of just the disease. By approaching financial care as an important companion to clinical care, Yale New Haven Health has discovered countless ways to answer the question “How can we do better?” Learn more about Yale New Haven Health’s patient financial care transformation. Read the case study.
Yale New Haven Health (YNHH) established a goal to elevate the patient financial experience by compassionately educating patients about the finances surrounding their care, and educating staff on the tools and methods for delivering that message. YNHH embarked on a two-year patient financial advisory initiative, including patient and family advisors, to hear opinions and learn valuable information directly from consumers. According to Sharlene Seidman, Executive Director Corporate Business Services, with Yale New Haven Health: “We needed a consumer-focused price transparency strategy that would bring us on par with other industries, like retail. Our goal was that when patients discuss their overall YNHH experience, it is not just reflective of their clinical care, but their financial care as well.” Since going live with Eligibility and the Epic integration in May 2016, YNHH has made major strides toward meeting its pre-service excellence goals in four key areas 1) the right technology, 2) best practices, 3) patient interaction/engagement, and 4) employee culture and education. Read the full case study here
There aren’t too many situations in which an individual purchases a product or service, but is NOT asked to pay for it right away. Healthcare, however, is somewhat unique in that regard, often avoiding a retail-based experience where patients receive service, but pay quite some time later, whether in full or the balance. Not surprisingly, this approach often times adversely impacts healthcare organizations in many ways. Best-case scenario, patient payments, while unpredictable, are received, but not in a timely manner and after a good deal of effort on the collections staff’s part. Worst-case scenario, the organization is left holding the proverbial bag, forced to write off bad debt, when payment could have been received if handled differently. In between, there are poor cash collections, increased revenue cycle costs and lower patient satisfaction. Organizations can avoid this perfect storm with a more precise approach to optimizing patient revenue. By leveraging tools that empower and improve upfront financial counseling communication, healthcare organizations stay one step ahead by accurately predicting patient responsibility payments and enhancing pre-service collections. When fueled by data and analytics, these tools offer a powerful two-pronged approach to minimizing risk and driving revenue: Avoid patient payment delays. Without knowing what insurance companies allow, many providers postpone collections until payer reimbursement is received. Healthcare organizations should instead have access to the latest contract terms, payment rules and fee schedules in order to identify patient and payer responsibility much earlier in the revenue cycle. Increase time-of-service collections. By proactively using patient payment data and current payer contract terms to calculate the amount owed by the patient at the time of service, organizations can effectively collect either a portion or all of that payment upfront. In the end, data-driven estimates of patient payment responsibility allow healthcare organizations to capture more revenue at the right time and boost cash flow. An added bonus is enhanced patient satisfaction because there are no confusing bills or ongoing collections calls, enabling a more personal experience for the patient. Hospitals have an opportunity to use data and analytics to improve the revenue stream and patient satisfaction. Learn about how Experian Healthcare Patient Responsibility Pricer can improve your collections on the front end of the revenue cycle and enhance the overall the patient experience.
With the rapidly changing healthcare environment, many organizations are taking a hard look at their revenue cycle, seeking proactive ways to enhance both efficiency and performance in the era of value-based care. While the need to improve is clear, the opportunities for improvement may be obscured by myth and misperception. For example, consider the following long-standing myths about patient payment that, if not set straight, could limit your organization’s ability to optimize the revenue cycle and enhance financial performance. MYTH #1: All patients are equally likely to pay. Reality: No two patients are alike, whether you’re looking at their medical conditions or their financial data. Assessing a patient’s likelihood to pay at the earliest point in the patient encounter can help you design your collections efforts to not only increase the probability of patient payment, but also foster greater patient satisfaction. By leveraging data and analytics to segment patients, you can realize a proactive and customized approach to collections that takes into consideration a patient’s unique financial situation and payment history, and tailors payment amounts and collections strategies accordingly. MYTH #2: It’s hard to have meaningful financial conversations on the front end. Reality: Contrary to popular belief, most patients are receptive to a financial conversation with their healthcare provider. Patient access staff can serve as the gatekeepers of the patient experience, engaging patients even before their time of service with personalized and informed financial discussions about patient responsibility and payment options. With this unique patient data at their fingertips, staff can also assist patients who may have trouble meeting their financial obligations, checking eligibility for internal and external financial assistance programs and automating the enrollment process. MYTH #3: It\'s impossible to know what patients owe across a system in one look-up. Reality: Organizations can once again turn to data and analytics, using it to aggregate prior balance information from across the healthcare system. This allows patient access staff to view comprehensive open balance data as part of the registration process and use scripts to guide compassionate financial conversations. Even if these fact-based discussions don’t lead to immediate payment, the additional reminder that a balance is due often prompts a patient to action, yielding faster payment. Dispelling these and other myths is simple when an organization uses tools that leverage both clinical and financial information to increase reimbursement in an era of value-based care. These proactive efforts result in less risk, increased collections and enhanced patient satisfaction. That’s a reality that every healthcare organization should experience! What myths are you debunking at your organization?
We encounter gatekeepers every day, ranging from TSA agents at the airport and call-center operators for online retailers to office receptionists and hotel front desk staff. Gatekeepers have a tough job as they manage access, filter information, provide advice and maintain order. Their attitude and actions dramatically impact our experience as consumers. The healthcare industry must shift from a patient focus to a consumer focus — and it all starts with patient access. Patient access staff act as the frontline — the gatekeepers — as they gather critical patient information at the start of the patient visit and set the stage for the remainder of the encounter. They’re moving beyond simply performing routine registration tasks and collecting co-payments to engaging in a holistic approach to patient interactions. As a result, these critical staff members can create and facilitate compassionate financial discussions while handling revenue-related activities such as pre-service collections. It’s no small task, nor one that can be done without data and analytics. For example, staff can use tools driven by data and analytics to verify patient identity, which prevents fraud and identity theft and results in more accurate registration. Moreover, after reviewing insurance eligibility, patient access staff can leverage data and analytics to create accurate patient payment estimates, review data to assess a patient’s ability to pay and evaluate financial options. The bottom line impact creates a positive environment for financial discussions and improves collections on the front end, while reducing the likelihood of collections calls and bad debt on the back end. Patients benefit in that they gain a sense of confidence — and oftentimes relief — because they know where they stand financially and can focus their energy and attention on getting well. The time is right to establish patient access staff as gatekeepers of the patient experience by equipping them with knowledge and tools to empower them to improve the revenue stream and patient satisfaction.
