Tag: high-deductible health plans

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. Riley Matthews, Senior Product Manager 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. 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.  

Between 2015 and 2017, patients’ direct responsibility for their healthcare payments grew by 29.4 percent, according to a study by Black Book. On average, that left each patient with more than $6,200 in deductible and out-of-pocket expenses for the year. But patients aren't the only ones who have had to grapple with these changes; the shift has changed hospitals' revenue models as well. In the same Black Book study, 92 percent of hospitals reported having trouble with collections using traditional solutions. The choice that many hospitals face is to either write off losses on late payments or pay exorbitant fees for collections agencies to pursue them all. Neither option is ideal, and for some healthcare providers, neither one is possible. Fortunately, there’s a third option that doesn’t involve pursuing all delinquent accounts — just the ones that are worth the effort. How Experian Health optimizes collections for you Experian Health’s Collections Optimization Manager is designed to help your organization sort out which patients are able and willing to pay from the ones who can’t or won’t pay. That helps you streamline the collections process and stabilize your revenue cycle. Experian Health's collections software does this in three important ways: 1. Segmenting patients by likelihood of recovery The first step in streamlining your collections process is to identify which patients will actually pay their bills. Experian Health's Collections Optimization Manager segments your patient population according to each patient's ability to pay, taking into account his or her unique financial situation and health coverage information. 2. Directing patients to the appropriate personnel Some accounts can be outsourced to a collections agency, while others should be directed to a financial assistance program. Using the Collections Optimization Manager to analyze your patient population helps reduce the cost of collections by showing you which type of personnel can best help each patient. 3. Keeping updated data on payment benchmarks The Collections OptimizationManager isn't a one-time solution; it's a dynamic system that continuously monitors each patient’s successful or missed payments. This data is immediately aggregated in the collections manager and kept up-to-date, ensuring healthcare providers have a real-time picture of a patient's financial situation. Optimized collections in action Healthcare’s patient-dependent revenue cycle is forcing hospitals and other healthcare providers to change their collections strategies. By using Experian Health's collections software in tandem with our other revenue cycle management solutions, you can reinvent your entire billing and collections process. It not only boosts your revenue, but also helps you provide patients with more personalized, compassionate financial options. For example, after Altru Health Systems, a healthcare provider in North Dakota, implemented Experian Health's Collections Optimization Manager, it identified 4,000 accounts that were eligible for nearly $2.7 million in assistance. This helped customers in need and boosted Altru's successful rate of collections by 114 percent by identifying accounts with a high propensity to pay. "Partnering with Experian Health has allowed us to be an advocate for our patients while also protecting our bottom line," says Stan Salwei, Altru's patient financial services manager. "Within 10 months of implementing, we were able to completely revamp our internal collections strategy to more effectively provide financial solutions for our patients in an ethical and compassionate manner." Experian Health does more than just provide the tools; we'll consult with you and your team personally to find the most effective ways to use them. If you have not yet implemented a streamlined collections strategy, contact us today.

Providers can improve the customer experience and bottom line with the power of data and analytics. Introduction In an increasingly competitive and consumer-driven healthcare marketplace, it’s no surprise that providers are working harder to acquire and retain customers. Higher out-of-pocket expenses combined with more choice and control in when and where consumers receive care are driving more retail-like shopping behavior. As a result, healthcare organizations are looking for ways to slow or stop customer churn, drive audience engagement, and redefine how they interact with their customers instead of seeing them through a clinical transactional lens. Providers understand that they must deliver a positive overall experience to maintain a favorable brand in the community and earn customer loyalty, key factors in maintaining their financial solvency. While there are many facets to consider in providing customers a great experience during their healthcare journey, there hasn’t been much attention paid to the intersection between the clinical and financial sides of this experience. According to findings from an Experian Health study among 1,000 consumers and select providers, the greatest pain points and opportunities for improvement around the complete customer healthcare journey center on the financial aspects, from shopping for health insurance to understanding medical bills. This means organizations that want to meet the new demands of consumerism in healthcare and improve the holistic customer experience must address the end-to-end revenue cycle. Typical consumer healthcare journey* *Consumers revealed 137 “jobs” or “needs” associated with their healthcare experience, with varied levels of importance, difficulty and satisfaction. Money matters give consumers high levels of discomfort Using a “jobs to be done” methodology, qualitative insights were gleaned as to the jobs, or microtasks and decisions, consumers associate with a healthcare journey. Despite the staggering number and complexity of different “jobs” consumers must undertake just to access the care they need, patients’ biggest dissatisfaction centers on the process of paying for their care. Of all the activities included in a consumer’s healthcare experience — from acquiring health insurance to making appointments with providers to receiving treatment — the top “pain points” relate to money matters. Specific issues for patients surveyed include: Understanding how much is owed for services and if the amount is a fair market price Making sure they have money available to pay for services Determining what financial support is available (e.g., a payment plan) Ensuring that what is owed to the provider is accurate Understanding the amount covered by their health insurance [click on image to enlarge]   Providers also feeling the sting from unpaid collections, lack of customer service   The most glaring opportunity for improvement in the patient experience comes early in the journey — price transparency. Patients are understandably confused about what their health insurance covers. They can’t always understand medical bills, and they have difficulty finding out how much their out-of-pocket charges will be and what payment options are available to them. Providers are also suffering — from unpaid collections, low customer satisfaction levels and an inability to address issues holistically. Here’s what providers had to say: We’re addressing the patient experience in one-off initiatives. Help us holistically improve the end-to-end patient journey. Providers said key impediments to progress include lack of clear and consistent prioritization, significant interoperability issues, and complicated organizational structures. They are frustrated by how hard it is to execute holistic changes efficiently. We need to measure our customer experience better. We want to standardize an approach that will drive progress and impactful change. Providers don’t have a clear path to move from customer experience as a concept to a measurable discipline. It’s a priority for them, but few are using a measurement system they feel is helping them understand and improve their patient experience. Patients are suffering, in part due to a lack of understanding of their charges. We want to set better expectations and make the charges and the value of our services easier to understand. Rising patient responsibility and the proliferation of high-deductible health plans drive the desire for full transparency in costs. Managing expectations at each step is crucial to providing the most accurate information to the patient. We’re not equipped to address customer acquisition and loyalty. Help us efficiently attract more consumers and keep them with us long-term. The focus has always been on healing people, with less attention to the business and marketing aspects of providing care. Providers need to focus efforts on acquisition and loyalty, but they’re generally understaffed and lack the skills to do so. There’s no doubt that healthcare organizations want to evolve and are thinking differently about how they deliver services and the value associated with those services. Ultimately, those that see driving customer engagement and redefining how they interact with their customers as a necessity, rather than a luxury, will succeed. Revenue cycle solutions for today’s consumerism environment    Where to start? Key areas that can be addressed in the healthcare financial journey include: Comprehensive data – One of the core components of a patient-centric revenue cycle begins with the ability to use reference data to address duplicate medical records, understand a patient’s propensity to pay and identify social determinants of health. Incorporating this type of outside data into the revenue cycle won’t just create better patient experiences from the moment patients begin interfacing with staff, it will also optimize revenue for health systems while enabling a revenue cycle that puts the patient at the center of care. Patient identification – As hospitals must now deal with hundreds of thousands of electronic patient records, spanning multiple systems and departments, the traditional technologies for managing patient information are no longer sufficient. Using sophisticated matching technology and outside data sources can improve patient identification and prevent duplicate or overlapping records that result in inappropriate care, redundant tests and medical errors — as well as improving data accuracy for clinical, administrative and quality improvement decision purposes. Insurance reconciliation – Organizations can use automated technology to monitor claims data, real-time eligibility and benefits information, payer contracts, and charge description master (CDM) information to ensure that payers are meeting their obligations fully and achieve accuracy and transparency in healthcare costs. Closing the gap in payer contracts and reimbursement allows organizations to focus on providing transparent cost estimates throughout every patient’s continuum of care and helps patients know their costs so they are better prepared to pay them. Price estimates – Providing accurate patient estimates is quickly becoming the norm for health organizations. But to ensure patient satisfaction rates are being met, health organizations need to empower patients with a frictionless financial experience. By incorporating credit data into the patient billing process, health organizations can enable a people-first product design to price transparency and collections that extends benefits to more people by understanding the unique financial needs of each patient. Self-service portals – One way to engage patients is with an online and mobile-optimized experience that’s proactive, smooth and compassionate to empower patients to set up payment plans, apply for financial assistance, estimate the cost of care and review insurance benefits. Conclusion   With so much to consider when addressing the evolving patient/customer journey, providers are well-served to start by improving their customers’ financial experience. As the link between customer satisfaction and a health organization’s revenue continues to grow, efforts to create a better financial experience are crucial. Using comprehensive data and analytics to power the revenue cycle and customer relationship management initiatives will allow health systems to encompass the end-to-end customer journey to ensure streamlined operations, measure and improve performance with payers, and provide accurate insights into each unique customer and their needs. The key to establishing this customer-centric mindset is embracing the power of data and analytics. From offering access to automated, personalized tools to providing price estimates to informing about charity aid options and offering payment plans — all these innovations help customers feel they can make better decisions about their care and how to pay for it. The result is more satisfied customers and an improved bottom line for providers.

Rudyard Kipling famously wrote, “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” That was once true of care delivery and medical payments; they were two separate departments encountered at different stages during a physician or hospital visit, and each was siloed to the activities of the other. Today, patients are avid participants in their care and are more engaged and concerned with where their healthcare dollars are spent. With that in mind, savvy providers are collaborating with patients not only on a clinical level, but also on the financial side to better navigate their options. This new approach gives patients the power to make informed financial decisions about their care, with discussions taking place prior to treatment, rather than after when an unexpected bill or lack of understanding around financial obligations can negatively impact a patient’s overall perception of their care and the organization itself. While it’s no surprise that patients are taking on greater financial responsibility for their healthcare costs due in large part to the rapid rise of high-deductible health plans, the statistics are overwhelming. In 2006, only 55 percent of covered workers had an annual deductible, which averaged $584. In 2014, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, that deductible has more than doubled to an average of $1,217 for 80 percent of the covered workforce. When you consider that slightly over half of covered workers have an annual out-of-pocket maximum of $3,000 or more, that creates a gap that providers can’t ignore for the sake of their fiscal health, or that of their patients. At the heart of achieving better patient engagement on the financial side is accurate, real-time information. Advanced technology gives providers the ability to provide patients with a more comprehensive picture of financial information and to present them with financial options that fit their needs. Three key steps to achieving higher payments and better patient satisfaction include: 1)    Be proactive – Talking to patients prior to receiving care not only results in higher patient engagement and satisfaction, it also substantially increases the amount providers can expect to collect. For example, showing online full-disclosure of billing data builds trust among patients. 2)    Provide accurate estimates – Patients deserve the right to make informed decisions based upon the cost of care. For example, providers should be able to quickly – and easily – review expected costs and explain insurance coverage. Offering patients tools, such as the ability to request a real-time estimate online, gives them more control over the financial side of their healthcare. 3)    Offer choices – Payment plans designed in cooperation with patients, such as the ability to set up automatic payments, not only empowers them, it improves payments and reduces administration burdens. Implementing these initiatives creates a more informed patient, which leads to a positive care experience and eases financial stressors. Patients are able to make educated choices and, if necessary, structure a payment plan that meets their needs or identify potential financial assistance programs. Providers also see benefits, such as increased patient loyalty as well as an improved revenue cycle and decreased administrative burdens when it comes to collections and follow up. Mr. East, meet Ms. West. By integrating the clinical and financial sides of healthcare, patients are more engaged with their care, leading to better health for the patient and improved financial outcomes for providers.

In the “good old days,” U.S. healthcare was basically free – at least that’s what patients with a good insurance plan believed. You may have had a small co-pay, but if you were employed, chances were that you and your family received comprehensive health insurance that took a barely noticeable bite out of your paycheck. Fast forward to 2014, and that rosy picture is long gone. Changing reimbursement models are compounding the financial risk for healthcare providers by placing a greater payment burden on patients. For example, a growing number of employers are adopting high-deductible health plans (HDHP) and/or health savings accounts. The number of people with HDHPs has risen from 19.2 percent in 2008 to 33.4 percent in 2014, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Out of necessity, providers are finding themselves in the collections business if they are to protect the bottom line. One of the best tools at their disposal to increase full and fair payment for healthcare services, and which has long been employed by collections agencies? Data and analytics. Real-time information and advanced data and analytics can help identify the most effective and customized collections approach based upon each patient’s financial situation. This data gives healthcare organizations the full picture of a patient, providing continuous monitoring of unpaid accounts for changes in a patient’s ability to pay. Obtaining and effectively leveraging that information is just one best practice for healthcare organizations seeking to enhance their collections methodologies. Additional must-have strategies include: Management of internal collections and agency performance with real-time dashboards and reports, and support evaluation and performance improvement.  Use of full-time revenue cycle consultants and data analysts, who work with each account to recommend “best practice” collections and outsourcing strategies, evaluate reports for opportunities and oversee champion/challenger scenarios.  Tools that help detect hidden or additional insurance coverage from Medicaid, Medicare and commercial accounts.  Creation of customized patient statements that go beyond traditional statements by facilitating financial counseling, education and greater patient engagement.  Simplified and streamlined payment processes by collecting patient open balances anywhere and at any time through eChecking, signature debit, credit, recurring billing, cash, check or money orders.  Times may be changing, but employing a well-coordinated, proactive approach to addressing the self-pay patient and capturing the balance after insurance has paid doesn’t have to be challenging. Learn how Experian Health and Passport’s patient collections tools work together to help you obtain payment certainty even with today’s new reimbursement models, by combining unmatched insight, real-time data and innovative collections solutions.