Deep Dive into the Patient Financial Experience
Our usual posts include stats and metrics on client success or industry trends. Results are our bread and butter. That said, for this post, we want to be a bit more anecdotal and dig into the importance of the patient experience. Obviously, given who we are, we’re not diving into the clinical experience. We want to talk about the patient’s financial journey. It should be noted that healthcare is (or should) be realizing that a very poor financial experience can ruin (or even prevent) a great clinical experience.
The patient’s financial journey starts at scheduling. This should be easy and often is. Where the industry can potentially complicate things is when we add estimation and proactively ask for payment against that estimation. It’s an interesting topic because it’s a great concept and one that can help providers avoid the challenges and inefficiencies of post-service billing and collection. In fact, in many cases, we align our solution with these capabilities.
What we need to be cognizant of is the pure experience (or tone) it can set with the patient. For example, I happened to be sitting with one of our team leaders recently when she received an estimate via email for a visit that is scheduled a couple weeks from now. That email attempted to state a deductible amount along with the “potential” balance that would be due. It didn’t clearly explain what they meant with the deductible value. Was the current amount? Applied amount? Remaining amount? That broke golden rule #1…don’t confuse the patient. The email pro-actively asked them to pay with a relatively simple process. Let me be clear. I fully appreciate the need to attempt to get patients to pay earlier in the process. But we need to be realistic about consumer behavior. Her initial reaction included two statements: ”What do they mean by deductible amount in this case?” and “I’m not gonna pay this until after my visit…why would I do that?” In other words, the current tone of this patient: confusion and subtle irritation before going to her visit. Ideally, this isn’t how we want to start the patient financial journey. Did she go as far as cancelling her appointment? No. Would a new patient (if this was their initial visit to this provider)? I think a “maybe” is warranted. But let’s move on.
Our patient goes to their visit and has a good clinical experience. Now we need to consider how to avoid a poor billing experience. This starts with the relationship between the provider and any of their outsource entities, whether that’s a contracted provider or RCM/Billing service. Did the provider clearly explain those relationships to the patient or make sure that the billing experience would consider them? If not, you risk more confusion, irritation and reduce your potential to get the patient to pay you. This is a common mistake. The patient billing experience should include basics:
· Be dynamic in your communication method. Insert the virtues of electronic communication and the reduction of paper statements here.
· Clearly identify the provider visited. Here’s where the relationships can take this process off the rails. Provider contracts with billing partner. Billing partner system doesn’t identify (or properly brand) for the provider. Or, bill comes from a 3rd party provider that the patient never knew existed. Process is now broken.
· Clearly identify charges and any prior contributions - insurance or patient. The consumer psychology is simple - the fees were $1000. My insurance covered $900. I paid $40 at the front desk during my visit. Therefore, this $60 bill makes sense. Therefore, I will pay it.
· Clearly identify services (without the Latin). Most people didn’t go to med school and/or study Latin text books of human physiology. Use common language descriptions.
I’d also encourage providers to stop being scared to remind patients that they owe them money. No one “enjoys” paying bills. Some people will delay or avoid paying regardless of balance. But there are also many people who are fine paying what they truly owe…they just need a reminder. Sending them another paper bill shouldn’t be considered a reminder. Should you stick with the call method? A well-trained real person with strong verbal communication stills…maybe. A robo-call…only if you want slightly irritated to become incensed.
Our journey continues. Now the patient is comfortable to pay. Are you going to add blockers for them to do so? Many providers do. Why? Because they don’t take the time to consider and execute on basic consumer science: simplicity and options. You should make it easy for them to pay you. Assuming they’re going to remember another set of login credentials for your portal or be willing to fill out a 12-part form isn’t consumer-friendly. Make it simple for them to securely reach the “Pay Now” button. Once they do, give them options should their balance warrant it. What type of options: future payments and payment plans. A future payment is a single payment that is scheduled to happen. This scheduling is likely to be around the time the patient would assure they have the funds in the proper account to pay. Simple.
Everyone knows and uses payment plans, but not everyone executes them properly. They should be controlled and set up to the providers specification, while allowing for the patient to accept and execute via click or two. Once set up, they should run automatically including notifications to the patient that a new payment will be run and give them an opportunity to change their card via self-service. Simple.
Additional tactics to enhance the patient’s payment experience (with options) include allowing card, ACH/eCheck, and alternative payment types such as ApplePay and GooglePay. If it’s simple to get to your self-service payment capability and you provide options, they will pay you. And we’ll save this for the next BLOG…AND THEY’LL DO IT SELF-SERVICE with LESS or ZERO staff interaction.
The journey doesn’t quite end there. What happens after a payment is executed? Receipts should be immediate, electronic and accessible in the future. What will happen if the payment needs to be adjusted, cancelled or refunded? That process should be simple for the provider representative to execute. What will happen when the next bill arrives - will it be easier for me to make another payment? The card should now be securely on file so I can just choose my payment type without keying the same information (remember filling out the 12-step form). Will this same solution continue to add features to make my understanding of my bill and my ability to pay it simple? Access to your health plan deductible information is a good example here.
All of these things should be considered as part of a great patient financial experience. To wrap up, healthcare providers are in a tough position. They have a more complex revenue cycle than most industries, dealing with consumers that are (potentially) emotionally compromised. They should be allowed to ask for their money. That said, they should do it with the consumer experience in mind. Even if the provider asks for more money upfront, it doesn’t change that they need to get better at executing on billing and collecting from patients.
