Thirty-seven percent of people end up paying medical bills with credit cards, and of those, three-quarters finance their medical bills via credit for multiple months.
A patient describing their medical bills as "high stress and low priority," is exactly the opposite of what revenue cycle leaders want to hear, but that's the finding of a new VisitPay survey.
It found that 35% of people say they would consider putting off treatment for COVID-19 to avoid medical bills. In addition, 39% are more worried about dealing with the financial burdens of the illness than contracting it in the first place. In addition, 66% of people said the pandemic has had the greatest impact on their personal finances this year.
"The most important takeaway from the survey is how dire people's financial situations have become," Kent Ivanoff, co-founder and CEO of VisitPay, tells HealthLeaders via email. "If you are leading an organization in charge of capturing/recovering that revenue, you need to be empathetic to your patients' circumstances."
Medical bills in general are a huge stressor for patients as well, with 60% citing them as a top source of stress. In fact, medical bills land at No. 2 among bills that causes them the most stress, behind only credit card bills.
That stress doesn't lead to a greater likelihood to pay, though: Patient in the survey ranked medical bills last among common bills (including credit card, phone, internet, and cable bills) that the prioritize in a given month.
Consumers are frustrated with many elements of the medical billing experience, including surprise costs (31%), confusion on how much insurance is paying (20%), and unclear charges and dates (18%).
In addition, 37% end up paying medical bills with credit cards. Of those people, three-quarters finance them via credit for multiple months, "with just under half reporting they are using a credit card from four months to longer than a year," Ivanoff says.
"This timeline, combined with a credit card interest rate in the mid-teens, at best, and into the 20-30% can create significant financial stress for the patient," he says. "When compared to the financial repayment offerings that a healthcare system might provide, longer terms and lower interest, the impact of these long-term balances and high-interest rates seem significantly impactful."
These dire financial circumstances, paired with the low priority patients give medical bills, means that health systems need to find better ways to help patients pay their healthcare costs. Ivanoff says without an individualized plan in place for people, systems wont reach patients at all.
He says next steps should include three things:
Proactive communication: "The entire healthcare system, not just the revenue cycle, needs to be proactive with patient communication. People are avoiding care because of the stress related to medical billing when that doesn't need to be the case," he says. "By being upfront about costs and payment options and communicating those options in a personalized way, people will feel more empowered to take control of their healthcare and engage with the system."
Ease of payment: "The process of paying needs to be made easy. Our data shows people don't prioritize paying medical bills," he says. "By making it easy to pay, through channels they want, and with an experience they expect, you can build transparency and trust with your patients which will result in positive financial outcomes for patients and providers."
Plenty of compassion: "We have seen in our results that people have been impacted severely by COVID. This has created a tremendous amount of financial uncertainty for people and they need new ways to repay their debt," he says. "Systems should look into extending repay periods during this crunch and look to offer more compassionate financing options to meet people where their needs are."
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona members who are treated by HonorHealth will be able to use the OODAPay platform to manage and pay their medical bills.
Real-time healthcare payment company OODA Health has added another health system to its roster: HonorHealth, which serves 1.6 million people in the greater Phoenix area.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona is also part of the collaboration, in which Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona members who are treated by HonorHealth will be able to use the OODAPay platform to manage and pay their medical bills.
OODA Health enables "a new type of revenue cycle arrangement" in which OODA pays the provider for the patient portion of the balance at the same time the payer sends its payment to the provider, according to Sophie Pinkard, co-founder of OODA Health.
"From the provider's perspective, they've been paid. There's no additional revenue cycle work," Pinkard told HealthLeaders in a 2019 interview. "OODA aggregates those bills across providers and bills the patient under the payer's brand."
OODA reports that in a pilot program with Arizona patients earlier this year, 96% reported satisfaction with the OODAPay billing experience, especially the option to set zero-interest payment terms.
“This collaboration underscores HonorHealth’s mission to apply transformative technologies and payer-provider collaboration models in service of the patient experience,” Paul Briggs, senior vice president and CFO of HonorHealth, said in a statement.
OODA Health partners with many health plans and providers including Anthem, Dignity Health, a part of CommonSpirit Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Blue Shield of California, Hill Physicians Medical Group, and others.
Mon Health's patient advocacy program and pre-access service center work in tandem to help people in its rural West Virginia communities to receive fast and affordable care.
High-performing patient access departments can help pave the way for smoother collections and increased patient satisfaction. But in rural areas, they take on an even more important function by enabling healthcare delivery for people who might not get it otherwise.
That's been the case at the West Virginia–based health system Mon Health, where the revenue cycle is about much more than dollars and cents.
"Really, it becomes a higher purpose, particularly in connecting the population with healthcare providers and then also connecting them with resources," says Candice (Candi) Powers, MBA, CRCR, CRCA, Mon Health's chief revenue cycle officer.
She says that in West Virginia, there's a perfect storm of a lack of healthcare access, poverty, and chronic illness.
"West Virginia is not the healthiest state," Powers notes.
When compared with other states, it's ranked highest nationally in the prevalence of heart attack and coronary disease, and second-highest nationally in the number of overweight or obese adults. It's second-highest in the prevalence of adults whose general health is either fair or poor, according to the state's Department of Health and Human Resources.
It's also among the poorest states, with 17.8% of people living in poverty in 2018, the fourth-highest percentage in the country, says the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy.
Add to that the spate of rural hospital closures across the country—176 since 2005, according to the Sheps Center at UNC—and accessing healthcare becomes even harder.
"We've got lots and lots of chronic conditions that [patients] are trying to manage, so it becomes even more critical to help folks find resources," Powers says.
That's where the revenue cycle comes in.
"Financial counseling and patient advocacy become [a] critical … community health benefit in the rural setting," Powers says.
At Mon Health, the focus on community health and patient access has taken shape in two main ways, both of which involved working with the firm PatientMatters, which also recently launched a pre-access tool called IntelliRural specifically for rural hospitals.
Those efforts include a pre-access center at Mon Health Medical Center, as well as patient advocates who are employed by PatientMatters and work at all three of Mon Health's campuses: Mon Health Medical Center, Mon Health Preston Memorial Hospital, and Mon Health Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital.
The pre-access and patient advocacy efforts work in tandem to help enable patient access, says Gordon Jaye, vice president of operations at PatientMatters.
"The advocacy program … really is about getting people access to care, and the pre-access service center is making sure people get to the care quickly," he says.
A centralized hub
Mon Health has set up a pre-access center at Mon Health Medical Center to not only streamline and centralize patient access, but also to proactively reach out to patients before their service. Eventually, the pre-access center will be systemwide. Mon Health Medical Center centralized registration at the same time.
"We have a central hub where the revenue cycle validates orders, schedules patients, [and] makes sure services are authorized before they arrive," Powers says. "We validate insurance, communicate [what] estimated balances are going to be, so that [patients] can have a more seamless transition to [the] point of care."
Once a physician has ordered a service, the pre-access center will reach out to the patient regardless of any action from patient. That's important if a healthcare system has a disengaged patient population that might not act on a physician's orders right away.
The pre-access center also does prior authorizations, which is another important part of patient access.
"People defer their care until an authorization has been obtained from their payer by the service line, and when you centralize all of this work, the patient doesn't get bounced around all over the institution looking for this information," says Jaye.
Powers notes that although "the pre-access service model isn't anything new," many institutions struggle with how to tackle it because it's so fragmented. That's why Mon Health used a partner to help streamline it.
"When it is decentralized, it is such a large undertaking, particularly if you employ a lot of physicians," she says.
That work has already started to pay off. In the first six to seven months of the pre-access center being in place, Mon Health reduced no-authorization denials by $600,000, which Powers says is "directly attributable to the pre-access service centers."
In addition, Mon Health's average registration time dropped to six minutes, and average wait times were under five minutes.
Patient advocacy
Mon Health has also added patient advocates, who work at all three of its facilities. The advocates help schedule appointments and proactively reach out to uninsured patients to screen them for Medicaid or Medicare eligibility, or help them enroll in a health insurance exchange plan. They also help patients apply for these programs, aiding with paperwork and gathering documentation.
"It's a pretty labor-intensive process for John Q. public to get through," Powers says. "It only takes one event, and, without coverage, these folks would be facing some really difficult choices … choices that we don't want the community that we serve to face."
That's especially true for Mon Health's rural population, which Powers notes might be willing to be seen in the emergency department if it's "an absolute emergency," but often doesn't proactively manage health issues because of cost or lack of coverage.
In fact, the average monthly referral volume from the combined facilities is more than 500 self-pay referrals monthly, and the two smaller facilities service more than 60% of their self-pay volume through the emergency department.
Mon Health also helps facilitate pharmaceutical assistance, helping patients to apply for financial assistance programs that pharmaceutical companies offer.
Powers says that the patient advocacy work makes her the proudest.
"That's really where I feel like we're doing community-based, noble work and getting people connected with resources that maybe they would never even seek medical treatment without," she says.
More patients are willing to jump ship to other providers in search of a better digital experience.
More patients than ever are using digital tools for healthcare billing, finds Cedar's annual Healthcare Consumer Experience Study, which was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
They're also more willing to jump ship to other providers in search of a better digital experience.
Billing-related text message use alone has grown by over 200% in the past year, while email and patient portal use have grown by 82% and 34%, respectively.
Despite these strides, the study finds that 31% of consumers don't think their healthcare providers have done enough to improve their patient billing and payment processes. In addition, 37% want touchless check-in.
"Exceptional end-to-end patient experiences are now the norm, and that's no exception for the financial journey," Arel Lidow, president and co-founder of Cedar, said in a statement.
The study also shows that 54% of patients have had a medical bill go to collections, citing the following reasons:
An inability to pay (24%)
Poor or outdated billing and notification processes (22%)
They think they were billed incorrectly (17%)
They found the bill too confusing (11%)
Overall, 90% of respondents express worry about rising healthcare costs over the next five years, and 84% are worried about paying their healthcare costs in the next year.
In addition to asking patients about their financial experience, the study also probed healthcare digital habits and preferences in general and found:
28% of consumers have switched or stopped going to a healthcare provider because of a poor digital experience, a 40% increase from 2019
49% wish their digital healthcare experience was smoother and more intuitive, like experiences with Amazon, Netflix or Uber
68% say it is important to be able to customize their experience with a healthcare provider
54% of respondents note that they consult online reviews to choose a healthcare provider, with 98% of them saying that those reviews are influential in some way
65% say that they would be very likely to recommend a healthcare provider or write them a good review if they offer a great digital experience
53% of consumers would consider switching doctors to get touchless paperwork and virtual care, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic
It also asked questions related to COVID-19, and revealed:
57% of consumers have delayed care due to the pandemic
44% of consumers would like a vaccine before engaging with care
44% want telemedicine options (44%)
In light of the pandemic, 41% want digital communication and forms
The new TransUnion Healthcare analysis also showed that inpatient volumes were down 9% below pre-COVID-19 volumes during the week of October 25-31.
After experiencing some post-COVID-19 rebound, hospital visit volumes recoveries have remained stagnant, finds the latest TransUnion Healthcare research.
The analysis of more than 500 hospitals across the United States found that emergency department visits were down 26% compared to pre-COVID-19 volumes, which is only one-basis point lower than ED volumes 10 weeks prior.
"No change is also news," Jonathan Wiik, principal of healthcare strategy at TransUnion Healthcare, tells HealthLeaders.
The new analysis also showed that inpatient volumes were down 9% below pre-COVID-19 volumes during the week of October 25-31, which is also one-basis point lower than the level recorded in mid-August.
While ED and inpatient visits have stayed flat, volumes for other care settings have stayed at or above pre-COVID-19 levels. Outpatient visits have largely remained about the same as pre-COVID-19 levels, and telehealth visits are much higher.
However, Wiik says the question remains: Where is that missing 26% of ED patients?
"Where did those patients go? That's what was shocking to me," he says "They're either not going at all…deferring because of [pandemic] fear, or they've replaced it with some other alternative setting."
It could be a combination of both. In November 2020, TransUnion Healthcare also conducted a survey of 1,375 people who had used telehealth services in the past 12 months.
Most telehealth patients surveyed said they used virtual health services in place of visiting their primary care physician office (60%), and an additional 8% of respondents utilized telehealth instead of visiting the ED.
It also found that:
14% of patients used telehealth without considering an in-person healthcare setting
11% of patients used telehealth instead of visiting an urgent care facility
67% of patients would be at least somewhat likely to continue utilizing telehealth once a COVID-19 vaccine is available and distributed
71% of patients said the quality of care they received via telehealth was the same as or better than in-person medical care
Of course, whether reimbursement parity for telehealth will persist in a post-COVID-19 world remains an open question.
"We're in a purgatory right now," Wiik says. "Even if consumers want it, if payers aren't going to pay it at a rate that's on-par with in person visits, [providers] will go back to in-person visits because they need to sustain their operations financially."
"I saw [patients' appreciation] front and center. Many people at the facilities I worked at would just break down and cry. I never forget the fact that patient advocacy is at the forefront of the patient experience at any facility," Pattie Froehling-Gilliam said during the HealthLeaders Grit Podcast.
In her years working in the revenue cycle, Pattie Froehling-Gilliam has become passionate about patient advocacy and helping people pay for their healthcare. Her work has gone far beyond setting up patient payment plans, instead extending into education, outreach, and connecting patients with programs.
For Froehling-Gilliam, vice president of revenue cycle optimization at Optum 360 and former director of vendor and financial counseling for Northwell Health, the revenue cycle is about so much more than the dollars that come in and out of a health system. It's also about helping people get the care they need without the heavy burden of worrying how to pay for it.
"… Being that advocate is being the educator to the patient and the patient's family, letting them understand what avenues are out there to help them," she said on a recent episode of the HealthLeaders Grit Podcast.
In the following podcast transcript, Froehling-Gilliam shares her ideas and experiences on how to improve the patient financial experience. It has been edited for length and clarity.
HealthLeaders: Why do patients need an advocate?
Pattie Froehling-Gilliam: If you walk into a room, and you ask people, 'What does your insurance cover and what does it not cover?' it doesn’t matter if you're white collar or blue collar, a CEO or CFO or somebody who is doing maintenance, people just don’t understand their insurance.
They don’t understand what's covered, what's not covered, or what coinsurance is. They understand deductible because it's pretty cut and dry, they understand copays. But the Affordable Care Act has "metal" plans [referring to different coverage tiers referred to by names like "gold" or "silver" plans]. People think they're insured but they don’t understand that they have an $18,000 out-of-pocket expense before anything is covered.
I've been a frontline leader, and I've seen people come in whose family member is quite sick and the first thing they think is, "I can't do this. I don’t have the money for it.' And it's very jarring to me to see that because the first thing that comes to them is finance.
It's not just in the front end. I've seen it on the back end when I've run call centers and financial counseling. … It's just heartfelt. So being that advocate is being the educator to the patient and the patient's family, letting them understand what avenues are out there to help them.
People think that financial assistance is only for people who don’t have any money; that's very untrue. Depending on where your federal poverty level is and depending on the policies at that facility, it could go up to 500% of the federal poverty level. That's about $115,000 for a family of four that could potentially get help.
There are drug companies out there that will help you to make sure that you get the services that you need or the drugs that you need at cost and help you with financial assistance.
This is what we need to teach the people of America to let them know—the insurance population and the uninsured population—that there are things out there to help you. Don’t wait until you're almost on your deathbed … to go and get help. We need to teach people what's out there from a wellness perspective, from different levels of acuity, to chronic illnesses. There's help out there, and that's where we fall short.
When you want to get your knee replaced or you go into the emergency room thinking that you have insurance and then you get a $2,000 bill in the mail, that's wrong.
We should also be teaching them what is [in] each one of these [marketplace] plans: What does it mean to them, what is the out-of-pocket expense? What are the avenues [available] to pay for it? Are they eligible for financial assistance? There are drug companies that will ensure that chronic illness patients will get their drugs every single week, so that you don’t wind up in the hospital and having to have a high level of acuity and services and post-discharge services.
That's where my passion comes into play because I saw [patients' appreciation] front and center. Many people at the facilities I worked at would just break down and cry. And, I have many letters from them that keep me grounded, saying thank you, to ensure that I never forget those people. I never forget the fact that patient advocacy is at the forefront of the patient experience of any facility, whether it's at the front, or whether it's in the back … or in the self-pay call center.
HL: If you ask most patients, they probably didn’t have an experience where someone in the business office thoroughly explained all of what you just said. Is this something that's lacking in hospitals today?
Froehling-Gilliam: Yes, absolutely. In my time at Northwell Hospital, which is probably where my passion started from a patient advocate perspective, we built a whole financial counseling department. We started with the inpatient services. We expanded that to our cancer center services … and to the emergency room to be able to have counselors there for those people who were uninsured to see if they were eligible for any government programs.
[We also offered] financial assistance as part of the discharge process, as well as educating them about out-of-pocket expenses in the emergency room.
That was the same thing that we did for the uninsured and the underinsured in our inpatient services and then we expanded it to our call center. As patients came into our self-pay portfolio, whether it was the balance after insurance or straight self-pay, we [used] propensity-to-pay scoring.
[For instance,] when New York [state's] Essential Plan was expanded, we would do some reaching out to those patients to let them know that they were potentially eligible. We were very proactive in helping all of our patients.
Now, can I tell you that every facility does this? No. But at Northwell—and I'm very proud of it—they were willing to take that chance and to invest in that whole financial counseling … because we saw a need for it. We saw a need to help patients.
HL: When it comes to dealing with patients and how it made a difference, do you have a specific story in mind that made an impact on you?
Froehling-Gilliam: There was one lady who needed a surgical procedure, she didn’t have the money to pay for it, and she was scheduled to have the services. We gave her the financial assistance and she paid it over a length of time. Based on that surgery, her quality of life was given back to her. No one else would take the chance, and we did at Northwell. We gave her that opportunity.
You know, $150,000 for a family of four sounds like it's a lot of money, but when you start putting in just the things that they need to live on—food, mortgage or rent, gas in your car, car insurance, a cellphone, putting your lights on—$150,000 will go pretty quicky. Now layer on top a $6,000 or $7,000 bill.
Just to adjust it down for them, you're an angel to them. This one woman, that's exactly what she said: "You're an angel, and I'll never forget you." I think it's really important and it's the right thing to do.
HL: How did you get into this line of work?
Froehling-Gilliam: I was working in a company that was a billing and collection agency and I just had so much passion for it. I was there for 28 years just helping people.
It has driven me for the last 42 years to just get better and strive to have more passion for people to help them. It just hurts me that there are so many people who have insurance who don’t utilize it from a wellness perspective because they're afraid.
Get out there and educate them. And take them off the defensive. … People get defensive when they see high bills. Teach them what questions to ask. People who get big bills have a tendency to get on the phone and kind of be on the defensive, and say, "I don’t understand why I owe this bill."
If I can make a difference in one person's life or 10 people's lives, then kudos to me. There's a reason why I'm doing it.
The bills themselves stood in the way of people paying, with only 43% of respondents to a new survey saying they fully understood their most recent medical bill.
Patients crave healthcare cost information and are more stressed about their medical bills than their actual medical procedures, yet 65% of them are unaware of the upcoming CMS price transparency rule, finds a new survey.
Waystar surveyed 1,000 consumers who have received a medical bill from a hospital or specialty provider for medical treatment within the last six months and found that 56% have received a surprise medical bill.
In addition, 48% have been late on a medical bill payment, money issues aren't the only reason why.
51% couldn't pay because of financial problems
37% assumed their insurance would pay for it
19% were unclear about how much money they owed
18% said it was because the bill was incorrect
16% just forgot
13% weren't sure when the payment was due
As illustrated by this data, the bills themselves stood in the way of people paying. In fact, only 43% of those surveyed said they fully understood their most recent medical bill. That number was even lower among Gen Z/Millennial patients (37%).
When asked what they needed to understand their bills more, respondents said:
An upfront explanation from their provider about what their insurance will cover (46%)
A simpler bill that only includes essential information (40%)
A more clearly written explanation of benefits (37%)
Access to online resources to walk patients through their bill (33%)
Having a medical professional explain it to me (27%)
The survey also asked respondents what would make it easier for them to pay their bills on time, and wanting more clarity and assistance were prominent responses:
Financial assistance because they can't afford to pay on time (51%)
A clearer explanation of what is owed versus what insurance will cover (42%)
Payment plan options (38%)
A clearer explanation of when payments are due (24%)
Consumers also revealed that they do seek out cost information: 67% have asked about price before going to the doctor or hospital, and younger consumers do it more often, with 83% of Gen Z/Millennials doing so, compared to 63% of Gen X and 50% of Boomers.
Although 46% of consumers say that their provider proactively gave them an upfront cost estimate for healthcare services, those estimates weren't always accurate.
Only 38% said their estimate was completely accurate compared to the final bill they received, and 54% said it was only somewhat correct or not correct at all.
The survey also drives home the point that personalized estimates make a real difference for patients, with 81% of them saying that know their actual out-of-pocket costs (rather than the standard price, which will be required by the new CMS mandate) would prompt them to more actively pursue care.
A survey finds that 35% of Millennials received a surprise medical bill in the past 12 months, and more than half of those bills were for more than $2,000.
Millennials seem to be hit harder by surprise bills than older generations and have less money in the bank to pay for them.
According to a survey by HealthCareInsider.com, 35% of Millennials received a surprise medical bill in the past 12 months.
That's compared to 27% of Generation Xers and 24% of people who are Baby Boomers or older.
Millennials get whacked with big bills, too: 51% of Millennials who got a surprise bill said it was more than $2,000.
Compare that to 41% of Gen Xers and 33% of Baby Boomers and older respondents who got bills greater than $2,000.
Plus, 57% Millennials said they have $3,000 or less in savings that they could use to pay those medical bills, and among that number 22% have no money in savings that they could use for medical bills.
In addition, 22% of Millennials said they don't have health insurance, and only 28% get their primary health insurance through their employer.
Although they're getting smaller bills, older patients are in better shape financially and in terms of health insurance coverage than their Millennial counterparts.
For instance, 27% of Gen X and 34% of people Baby Boomer age and older said they have more than $3,000 available to pay medical bills. In addition, just 17% of Gen X and 3% of Baby Boomers and older don't have health insurance.
As the COVID-19 pandemic wears on and worsens, revenue cycle leaders need to think about long-term, consumer-driven solutions to stay afloat and ahead of competitors.
Hospital discharges are down, consumers are losing their insurance coverage, and the number of patients with high-deductible health plans continues to rise as the COVID-19 pandemic wears on and worsens, according to the latest Kaufman Hall consumer survey, "The State of Consumerism 2020," which is fittingly subtitled "Special Report: The Missing Consumer."
Because of these and other factors, revenue cycle leaders need to think about long-term, consumer-driven solutions to stay afloat and ahead of competitors.
"In the long run, whether a given provider ultimately regains 90 or 95% of their pre-pandemic volumes will have an enormous impact on margins, which will in turn influence the decisions that health system leaders make around the direction of future operations," Paul Crnkovich, managing director at Kaufman Hall and the report's author, tells HealthLeaders via email.
"More recently, consumers have become more comfortable accessing care in traditional care settings, and virtual visit volumes have tapered off," he says. "But revenue cycle professionals and other health system leaders will be dealing with the impact of COVID-19 on volumes, margins, and operational decisions for years to come."
Even as some patients return to in-person visits, the report shows that trouble still remains.
For example, the report cites Kaufman Hall's National Hospital Flash Report which shows that U.S. hospital discharges in September declined 5.6% year-over-year, 2.2% month-over month, and 10.7% below budget
Meanwhile, 20% percent of consumers surveyed by Kaufman Hall in September said they or a loved one had experienced a change in insurance status, down only slightly from 22% in April.
"Hospital and health system leaders agree that the COVID-19 pandemic has unmistakably accelerated demand for more consumer-friendly services and processes," Crnkovich says. "As providers continue efforts to lure back the still significant number of 'missing consumers'—and as the current wave of infections shows no sign of abating—the importance of coordinated, strategic efforts to improve access, experience, pricing, and infrastructure has never been greater."
Crnkovich offers four action items for revenue cycle leaders:
1. Reckon with telehealth
"[A] permanent shift toward a higher proportion of telehealth portends significant financial implications for hospitals," he says. "On the revenue side, providers will need to understand and plan for the possibility that lower payment for telehealth services will mean less revenue for organizations already damaged by revenue losses from COVID-19."
2. Get lean
"The reality of lowered reimbursement rates may require the development of a leaner business model and changes to in-person service levels and capacity," he says. "On the expense side, if the shift toward telehealth is broad and lasting, hospitals may be able to rethink some facility and real estate expenses."
3. Prioritize pre-service
"A strategy that has benefitted both consumers and providers is being proactive in managing pre-registration, pre-authorizations, advance financial counseling, and point-of-service collections," he says. "This alleviates consumer concerns over the cost of care and helps ensure that the health system receives proper payment for services."
4. Price and deliver care strategically
"Even before the pandemic, an increasing proportion of consumers were enrolled in high-deductible health plans, elevating awareness of out-of-pocket costs. The economic upheaval wrought by COVID-19 has further accelerated this movement, and hospitals are also facing increased regulatory requirements for transparency in 2021," he says. "Hospitals and health systems have an opportunity to embrace a more strategic, consumer-driven approach to how they price and deliver outpatient services in order to meet rising expectations for convenience, access, and value."
That's not only true for preferences you'd expect from consumers during a pandemic, like telehealth, but also for direct revenue cycle functions like patient access.
Digital access is the name of the game when it comes to consumer healthcare preferences, according to new research from DocASAP.
That's not only true for preferences you'd expect from consumers during a pandemic, like telehealth, but also for direct revenue cycle functions like patient access, finds the "State of Patient Access and Engagement" 2020 survey.
For instance, when asked "how you prefer to schedule an appointment with a healthcare provider," most respondents (48%) cited scheduling online compared to over the phone (39%) and in-person (10%).
In addition, 74% of respondents said that scheduling a healthcare appointment outside of business hours is important. This number was highest among African American respondents (91%).
Patients also crave digital tools for pre-appointment and post-appointment communications.
When asked, "what is your preferred method for receiving an appointment reminder for a scheduled healthcare visit," the majority of respondents (56%) selected digital methods (i.e. email or text message), an increase of 4% compared to last year.
Of the two methods, patients across all ethnicity groups preferred text messages for receiving an appointment reminder.
Similarly, 64% of patients also cited digital methods like email, text message, online portal, or mobile app as the preferred method for receiving post-appointment communication from a healthcare provider. That's up 6% compared to last year's survey.
Other revenue cycle-relevant findings include:
62% of respondents missed a scheduled healthcare appointment over the last 12 months, citing various reasons, including COVID-19 (27%)
Missed appointments increased 9% compared to last year's survey findings
Missed appointments varied widely across ethnicity groups, affecting Hispanics the most (85%), followed by African Americans (74%), whites (57%), and Asians (44%)
The most important issue for respondents was "not losing healthcare coverage" (cited by 40%), followed by "reducing healthcare costs" (35%) and "pre-existing condition protection" (35%)
When asked about specific care settings, 44% would prefer to receive care both in-person and via telehealth post-pandemic