How Leaders Are Using Patient Portals to Drive Patient Experience, Improve Collections

Patient portals are now instrumental to revenue cycle operations and care coordination.

Patient experience has grown in importance for hospitals and health systems, particularly regarding the revenue cycle. With patients responsible for more of their care costs, the healthcare economy is evolving to accommodate a patient-consumer market.

Patient portals have made processes quicker and more efficient, but they’ve also enabled patients to be more involved in their care, from making payments to scheduling appointments.

Billing and Payments

The rise in patient portal utilization has taken some of the strain out of the billing and payment process.

When Allegheny Health Network was looking to streamline its insurance and billing processes, the system found a financial engagement platform that allowed them to integrate data from patient’s insurance, provider, and financial institution.

Patients can also select payment plans and access other self-service tools on the platform.

Some providers and systems have seen success in expanding their accepted payment methods. For example, Lake Washington Physical Therapy was able to decrease its accounts receivable by 47% within the first month of implementing an electronic billing platform.

“We saw more volume, better margins, and less open spaces,” CEO Ben Wobker, previously told HealthLeaders. “PatientPay and our billing services have helped us get a best-in-class payment per visit, which is really important. We don’t have to see as many people because we’re getting what we actually are billing.”

Front End

The rise—and need—for telehealth solutions during the pandemic required providers to expand their digital presence and accessibility of their services and care information. Patient portals play a significant role in front-end processes, allowing patients to schedule appointments, verify their insurance, and pay copayments.

There’s a phrase that goes, “If you build it, they will come.” However, it isn’t enough for providers to simply have a patient portal. They need to let patients know about the platform and the tools available to them.

Through its Every Patient, Every Time initiative, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital was able to increase its patient portal utilization from 27% to 83%. The hospital’s ongoing performance management of the portal helps them pinpoint inequities in their patient population to address alongside local government.

“[Performance management] becomes a critical component of success because now you can measure how you’re doing in real time,” former vice president of digital health, Ravi Patel, previously told HealthLeaders.

“And then be agile enough to flip the switch and go back and forth [to see what is and isn’t working.”

Where patients are able to message members of their care teams and view test results online, providers benefit from lowered administrative burdens, like at Illinois-based Springfield Clinic.

To expand its digital presence, the clinic partnered with a telehealth platform to manage tasks like patient self-scheduling and clinical documentation. The platform also pairs with the clinic’s EHR to streamline data collection.

“The most ironic part about this is that people understandably expect that technology reduces the human interaction,” Zach Kerker, the clinic’s chief brand and advocacy officer, previously told HealthLeaders.

“But what we’ve tried to do is use technology to complement a better human experience.”