Tag: Patient Collections

Imagine being able to offer your patients a financial experience that doesn’t stress them out. That makes patient billing quick and simple. That knocks off a few minutes from each patient registration. And that even boosts your revenue. These are just some of the benefits attendees at last week’s Cerner Health Conference were considering as they discussed opportunities for faster innovation, smarter working and transformation in the future of healthcare technology. When it comes to working smarter, attendees seemed to agree that one aspect of the healthcare experience comes out top for providers and patients alike: the cost of care. This is especially true because patients are increasingly responsible for paying their healthcare costs. And since the way services are reimbursed is constantly changing, patients are often left in the dark about how much they’ll have to pay, or how they’ll be able to afford it. Patients are struggling under the weight of financial burden We know this can have serious implications for their physical, emotional and financial health. A recent survey by the Nationwide Retirement Institute showed that as many as one in three patients aged 25-45 are delaying medical care because they’re worried about the cost, instead keeping their fingers crossed and hoping that the issue will disappear by itself. A third shop around for better prescription prices, with many not taking their meds as often as instructed in order to save money. More than half of patients wouldn’t be able to afford an unexpected bill over $1000, while a staggering 530,000 families are bankrupted by medical costs every year. Healthcare providers often end up bearing the burden of uncompensated care, or waste valuable time and resources working to uncover missing or undisclosed coverage. Either way, all this wrangling for payment has a major impact on the organization’s bottom line as well as the patient financial experience. To tackle some of these challenges, we’ve teamed up with Cerner® to support healthcare organizations to provide more compassionate and convenient billing practices. At last week’s conference, we launched the Cerner Consumer Financial Engagement suite, a newly embedded experience within Cerner’s Consumer Framework that will optimize the billing process for both patients and providers, powered by Experian® data. 3 ways the Cerner Consumer Financial Engagement suite can optimize your patient collections One of the biggest pain points for patients when it comes to managing their healthcare bills online is needing to switch between different systems for different administrative tasks. This new partnership will let patients who use the Cerner Consumer Framework access and manage all aspects of their online healthcare account in one place, creating a more convenient financial experience. The new tool will help providers improve patient collections in three ways: Smarter patient engagement When you have insights into your patients’ financial circumstances and propensity to pay, you can make more informed decisions about how to approach collections and get them on the right program from the start. Using Experian’s industry-leading datasets, providers will be able to use the Consumer Financial Engagement suite to spot patients who may benefit from alternative payment plans or financial assistance and make personalized offers that are compassionate and relevant. Giving patients a one-stop-shop for managing bills Patients are coming to expect a better experience – similar to what they might see in online retail and financial services. When it’s easy for them to settle their bills, they’re more likely to conclude their healthcare journey on a positive note and feel reassured about sticking with your organization the next time they need care. With an all-in-one patient dashboard showing current billing information, insurance deductible status, transparent cost estimates and tools to activate pay plans or financial assistance, the Cerner Consumer Framework creates a frictionless and transparent billing experience, leading to fewer late or unpaid bills and more satisfied patients. Simple and efficient collections When it comes to payments, proactive communication can help ward off some of the sticker shock that comes with unanticipated treatments and bills. The new financial engagement tool uses a simple interface that makes medical billing clear and quick for patients. When consumers aren’t put-off by the technology, they’ll be more likely to act promptly to get billing out of the way. In addition, providers will be able to add their own branding, so the patient experience is consistent from start to finish. Creating a positive patient financial experience powered by reliable data In today’s climate of increasing costs, big data and healthcare consumerism, data and analytics are now the driving force behind an efficient revenue cycle. Person-centered healthcare services that prioritize quality and patient outcomes should be a given, but the financial experience is an integral part of the total equation. This is especially true when we consider that the three biggest pain points for consumers during their healthcare journey are all related to payments! Learn more about how data-driven technology, such as the new Cerner Consumer Financial Engagement suite, can help you offer patients a better financial experience and optimize revenue at the same time.

For many patients, the unknown cost of unexpected care is a source of anxiety: two-thirds of Americans are “very worried” or “somewhat worried” about being able to cover unexpected medical bills. No wonder, when around 56% say they wouldn’t be able to afford an unexpected bill over $1,000. In cases where insurance doesn’t cover the entirety of the bill, responsibility for paying the balance falls to the patient. The lack of price transparency leads to confusion and stress for patients, and unnecessary administrative costs for providers, who are left to chase payments from growing numbers of self-pay patients. Moving towards more transparent pricing Traditionally, patient billing has been calculated at the end of the revenue cycle, after insurance adjustments have been made. In recent months, a push for meaningful price transparency is emerging as a result of consumer demands about the cost of care, pressure from governing bodies, and bipartisan support for a legislative solution to surprise billing. In response, healthcare organizations are increasingly looking to move patient billing to the front of the revenue cycle, to give consumers greater clarity about what to expect when their bill arrives. Estimating patient liability is far from simple. It calls on front office staff to make complicated calculations based on insurance benefits, charges, contractual adjustments and provider discounts. If staff are doing this manually, they may find themselves using outdated pricing lists that don’t include current insurance information, rates and discounts. So how should providers ensure their front office staff have the right tools in place to give accurate, personalized estimates for each patient? Data-driven technology can help reduce surprise billing Data-driven technology that automates, simplifies, and unifies the revenue cycle can ensure timely communication on billing between healthcare providers and insurers. This means your front-office team can base estimates on accurate, up-to-date information. To reduce the risk of errors creeping in, price transparency and collection practices should be standardized across the enterprise. A pricing transparency tool eliminates the need for manually updated price lists and removes the guesswork that often leads to mistakes. It can also include reporting features that let you track potential and actual collections, so you have greater insight into the opportunities for revenue cycle optimization. Helping patients navigate the cost of care As patients bear more out of pocket payment responsibility, they expect a better consumer experience. Creating an optimal patient collections strategy and frictionless experience is ever more important. Full transparency calls for accurate and up to date pricing to be available to patients before they receive care, along with a detailed breakdown of what their insurer will cover. When they know what the difference is, they’ll know upfront how much they’re likely to need to pay. Additionally, clear and proactive communication around the billing process can help eliminate the shock factor, improve the patient collections process, and create a better patient financial experience all round. You could provide a text-to-mobile experience that delivers a text message with a secure link to the patient’s estimated bill. Or you might integrate a price transparency tool into your patient portal or mobile app, that lets patients see a personalized cost breakdown based on real-time pricing and benefit information, alongside methods for secure payment. A price transparency tool can also help you gather insights into a patient’s financial situation and propensity to pay, so you can optimize your collection strategies from the start and get them onto the right program. El Camino Hospital in California set an organizational objective to improve price transparency. Terri Manifesto, Senior Director (Revenue Cycle) says: “We decided to do a soft launch of a patient estimator tool, and the very next day, even without advertising it yet, our patients found the tool on the website and started using it. The feedback was excellent. We’re providing a lot more estimates than we could before because it’s 24/7 and patients can use it on their mobile device, their laptop or their desktop. Some advice I’d give other hospitals is to think of the patient when you’re deciding what to do to best communicate your prices. What would the patient want?” Working with a partner such as Experian Health lets you combine industry-leading technical expertise and payment tools with your own knowledge of your patients, so you can create the best payment experience for your consumers. Using data-driven technology, you can work to eliminate the pain of surprise bills and promote price transparency, resulting in greater revenue opportunities and customer loyalty.

Experian Health announced it has acquired MyHealthDirect, a SaaS-based company specializing in digital coordination solutions in scheduling. We interviewed Jason Considine, Experian Health general manager of patient engagement and collections, to learn more about the acquisition, as well as opportunities arising in healthcare due to the rise in consumerism. What led to Experian’s interest in MyHealthDirect and the ultimate acquisition? We’ve had a relationship with MyHealthDirect for several years. Experian Health has been reselling the MyHealthDirect solution since 2017, and we’ve long recognized that their platform’s digital care coordination capabilities would be a great match with our existing solutions. MyHealthDirect's platform links patients with the right providers, offering online scheduling tools and referral coordination to ensure more timely access to care for patients. These solutions have proven to increase appointment and referral rates, improve call center efficiency, reduce no-shows and enhance the overall patient experience. By coupling this technology with our Experian data, we can ensure patients are getting the care they need in the management of chronic diseases and wellness programs. This acquisition evolves our core revenue cycle management capabilities and helps us make gains in the patient engagement space with all-new innovative offerings. You referenced “digital care coordination.” What does this mean and how does it apply to healthcare? Digital care coordination, as it applies to the MyHealthDirect suite, is comprised of self-scheduling, call center, referral coordination and automated outreach solutions, making it easier for people to access healthcare. By combining these scheduling solutions with Experian’s existing digital patient engagement solutions, we can deliver a seamless consumer-centered experience – from serving up an estimate, to streamlining the registration process, to providing consumers with the ability to pay their healthcare bills via multiple channels. Today’s healthcare consumer expects a turnkey, personalized, on-demand experience. When you think about the best engagements we all enjoy in retail, financial services, travel and entertainment, the expectation is that the healthcare experience should be no different. We need to arm consumers with the ability to streamline their healthcare and make it easier for them to access care. Why is the scheduling component so key in the overall patient journey today? Scheduling is the one of the very first steps of the care journey and booking an appointment has traditionally been a poor experience. Common frustrations include not being able to reach the provider, finding out that no appointments are available, or being forced into a time-consuming three-way call between the health plan and provider. Without fast and easy access, patients may not be able to get the care they need. When healthcare plans use technology to better connect patients to needed care, quality scores for patient experience rise and efficiencies are gained. Can you give us an example on how more automated approach to scheduling could lead to better health outcomes for the consumer? Sure. Take for instance an individual who is living with diabetes. It is important for this person to have regular check-ins with their provider to monitor their condition and adjust care plans accordingly. If this person is challenged to see their provider, or doesn’t have regular appointments booked, they could run the risk of becoming an unhealthy diabetic, being faced with additional health challenges. By tapping into digital appointment scheduling, a provider or payer could create an automated outreach plan to make the scheduling hassle-free. Appointments could be streamlined and scheduled directly on the phone via IVR or text, and appointment reminders can be delivered. How do you see providers responding to the rise in healthcare consumerism? It’s no secret that healthcare costs are rising, and consumers are increasingly bearing more of those costs. Providers, therefore, are telling us they need to deliver a better experience. They are asking for digital technologies to gain rich insights into consumer behavior and then adjusting their care delivery plans accordingly. They recognize that consumers have a choice on where to take their healthcare business, so they need to compete. In the case of scheduling, MyHealthDirect conducted some research and revealed 66% of patients would switch providers for more convenient access. In that same study, 77% of patients think the ability to book, change or cancel appointments online is important. My point? Those providers and payers investing in on-demand tools to interface with their consumers will win, simplifying many of the administrative tasks associated with healthcare. — Learn more about scheduling solutions.

Whether it’s due to pressure from governing bodies or price-shopping health consumers, many healthcare organizations are being challenged with price transparency efforts. With so many moving parts to determine a patient’s financial liability, how can accurate patient estimates be provided in a timely manner? Giving patients the right pricing information at the right time Like many healthcare systems, Blessing Health relied on various printouts and spreadsheets of price lists from different departments of the hospital to provide patient estimates. Lists needed to be manually updated, and the staff often relied on outdated information. The process wasn’t standardized, and estimates were inconsistent across the enterprise. While Blessing wanted to make sure that patients were getting accurate information, the estimates didn’t consider a patient’s insurance information. Since patients weren’t understanding their true financial obligation, it caused frustration among patients and employees. In today’s competitive environment, it’s important to reduce instances in the patient journey that might cause irritation. A recent report from Trends in Healthcare Payments, notes that patients who are satisfied with billing are five times more likely to recommend the hospital. At a time when hospitals are being asked to do more with less and reduce the cost of care, manual processes and work must be reduced and automated with data to provide accurate information. Patient liability estimation is a complex process of calculating multiple components, not easily available to users, including insurance benefits, charges, contractual adjustments and provider discounts. If hospital staff are manually estimating the processes, they could be using outdated pricing lists which may not include application of insurance benefits, contract rates, and discounts. As consumers gain access to pricing information, health leaders should invest in data-driven technology that can provide consumers with accurate personalized estimates. Most healthcare organizations already have the basic data they need to use automated technology to construct estimates for basic services, including claims data, real-time eligibility and benefits information, payer contracts and charge description master (CDM) information. Blessing Health knew they needed to find a way to advise patients of their financial liability, as well as give staff a tool they could confidently use to request patient payments upfront to increase collections. They wanted real-time estimates that were personalized based on a patient’s insurance and contract information. To do this, Blessing Health reached out to Experian Health to integrate Patient Estimates into their Allscripts® workflow. What to look for in price estimator tools Healthcare organizations should implement price transparency and collection practices that are standardized across the enterprise. A pricing transparency tool eliminates the need for manually updating price lists, and removes the guesswork and tedious manual processes, which often result in outdated, inaccurate estimates. Price transparency software should also include reporting features that give greater control over the process and can be agile in managing transparency initiatives as well as track potential versus actual collections. A price transparency tool should highlight a patient’s financial situation, as well as their propensity to pay, allowing you to optimize your collection strategies from the start and get patients on the right programs. To help reduce traffic to call centers, a price transparency tool should be integrated into consumer-facing estimates that are personalized and available through a web portal or mobile app. Price estimation can help with patient collections Through an automated, data-driven process, Blessing Health is now able to provide personalized patient estimates that are 80 percent to 90 percent accurate. (Inaccuracies result from unexpected tests or procedures.) As a result, Blessing Health benefited from a 58 percent increase in point-of-service patient collections. Based on the cost to implement these services, Blessing Health experienced a 1,200% return on investment. After realizing success on the hospital side, Blessing Health implemented Patient Estimates for their physician group as well. — Learn more about how you can empower the patient financial experience.

Chalk it up to the rise of high-deductible plans or decreasing payer reimbursements, but the numbers don’t lie: patients are footing more of their healthcare bills and hospitals are struggling to collect. In fact, a recent TripleTree report revealed there has been a 69 percent increase in consumer payments due to providers over the past four years. That same report also noted providers collect only 1/3 of patient balances larger than $200, with the balance being sent to collections or written off as bad debt. All this to say … collections can make or break a hospital. So, how are hospitals compromising on their collections game? Let us count the ways: 1. They treat all patients the same. Some patients may be able to cover all their care costs up front, while others need to spread out payments, or perhaps get help from a lender or charity. Logical, right? But for some reason, many hospitals take a one-size-fits-all-approach to their collections work. They’ll simply submit the bill, wait for payment and see what happens. If payment fails to come in after repeated attempts, they send the account to collections, and the agency often takes a similar approach. Scoring and segmenting patient accounts based on who has the propensity to pay –and directing them to the in-house or outsourced team most likely to collect – is a much more productive collections strategy. Even better, providers should try to determine what patients owe before a procedure, and reveal payment plan options from the start. By developing a means to estimate the cost of a patient's care, providers can deliver a figure to target for pre-operative, pre-procedure collection. 2. They lack an agency strategy. Just as hospitals can take one-size-fits-all approach with their patient collections, so too can be the case with their collections agencies. Some hospitals find themselves struggling with how to reconcile accounts placed with their agencies. Others are unhappy with their early- or late-stage collections vendor, but can’t quite pinpoint where it’s all going wrong. Advocate Aurora Healthcare, an operation with 27 hospitals and 500 outpatient locations, was trying to oversee 20 different collections agencies just a few years ago. They wanted to reduce the number of agencies doing their collections work, and gain a clearer understanding of who was performing best, but they lacked the data insights to evaluate. By tapping into a collections optimization platform, Advocate Aurora was able to reduce their agencies from 20 to four, and they started seeing double-digit increases in their patient collections. Routing accounts to the optimal collections resources, and using collection agencies judiciously, minimized their collection costs, and helped them stay focused on patients who can and will pay. 3. They rely on limited data sources. To create a truly effective collections strategy that is both predictive and insightful, hospitals need to rely on data sources that offer breadth and depth. Let’s consider an example. In the credit world, financial services companies can be looking at two consumers with identical credit scores and come to the conclusion that they should treat each the same. But with more data insights, a lender might see that one is trending up, making on-time payments that exceed the minimum balance, and the other is trending down, showing signs of payment distress. With historical data and other insights, the financial lender would likely treat each of those individuals differently. Agree? The same scenario can unfold in the healthcare space. If providers are solely looking at zip code data, or historical healthcare data, they will be challenged to offer personalized payment plans and decisions around how best to collect. Combining various data sources, including credit data, can provide hospitals with deeper insights into a patient’s propensity to pay and financial disposition. This allows healthcare organizations to identify the best financial pathway for each patient at, or before, the time of service, and will ultimately optimize their account receivable performance as well. --- By flipping the switch on a few of these strategies, hospitals can turn their patient collections game around. They’ll see gains in patient satisfaction, improvement in the accounts receivable bucket and the power data can have on segmentation. There’s really no excuse to fail.

As of January 1, 2019, thousands of hospitals in the U.S. are being required to post an online list of the cost of their services due to a new requirement by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). However, amid growing confusion about which fields are required or what format the list of standard services needs to be in, many health systems feel this new law will only create confusion among patients. One health system described the new requirements as, “It would be like walking into a car dealership looking at a new car, asking the salesman how much the car was going to cost and having them hand you the parts catalog. Obviously, when you have the parts catalog, you don't know what parts are in your car or which ones you're going to use or how much labor is going to go into making the car." While posting the list of prices is required by CMS, some health systems have invested in the needed technology to make it easy for patients to shop online for care. For example, in an interview with Modern Healthcare, El Camino Hospital explains they “launched a consumer self-service tool in May 2017, after about a year of development work with Experian Health. Since then, more than 3,000 people have visited the hospital's website, selected one or more of about 90 medical or surgical services they were interested in, entered their insurance information, and received an instant out-of-pocket cost estimate the hospital claims is 95% to 99% accurate.” Health systems like El Camino Hospital know that patients want to avoid costly surprises, and they should be able to understand their financial obligations upfront, including deductibles and copays. In fact, McKinsey research found nearly three-quarters of participants were worried about healthcare expenditures. Legislative help The new CMS requirement is only one of a few initiatives in the works from a legislative standpoint. In an effort to help patients, some members of Congress are trying to bring attention to the topic. A bipartisan group of U.S. senators in 2018 wrote a letter to healthcare stakeholders and experts requesting information in an effort to learn more about price transparency as they considered possible legislation on the matter. Also in the letter, the senators cited the lack of state laws and regulations requiring healthcare providers to make that information available to patients. More than 40 states were cited by the Catalyst for Payment Reform and the Health Care Incentives Improvement Initiative in 2016 because they were deficient in healthcare transparency legislation. And that same report found that some patients were paying thousands of dollars more than others for the same procedures, depending which healthcare provider they used. Alleviating patient stress Transparency in billing creates more satisfied patients because they know how much they will be paying for services, which makes it easier for them to budget. Going to the hospital is usually a stressful time for patients and their families. An easy way for healthcare providers to alleviate that stress is to help patients understand their costs upfront Most healthcare organizations already have the basic data they need to use automated technology to construct estimates for basic services, including claims data, real-time eligibility and benefits information, payer contracts and charge description master (CDM) information. Experian Health has the technology to help healthcare organizations convert this information into patient costs through Patient Estimates. This kind of transparency provides several benefits to both providers and patients. Online estimates published on healthcare provider websites give patients access to the information any time, including late at night and on weekends. And these estimates can be obtained confidentially, so patients who may be uncomfortable asking about certain procedures can find that information on their own. And that helps them be more relaxed about making appointments and scheduling treatments because they have confidence they won't face billing surprises. This feel-better result of having prices at their fingertips has a clear benefit for the healthcare providers as well. Patients are able to plan and pay for services, decreasing unpaid balances for hospitals and other healthcare providers. Ability to budget for healthcare costs Patients who know what to expect can budget wisely and actively take charge of their healthcare bills. They go in with their eyes open, which leads to improved revenue cycle management. In the end, both the patient and the hospital get what they want. With Congress and state legislatures looking at transparency in healthcare, providers can expect to see more of these rules. Healthcare organizations can get ahead of them with software like Experian Health's Patient Estimates. Healthcare consumers don't like surprises in their billing. Price transparency gives them the information and peace of mind they need to secure healthcare services and be assured that they know what they will be paying for them. Learn more about how Experian Health can help you achieve price transparency for your patients.  

The Vancouver Clinic was facing the same problems that all healthcare organizations grapple with: too many claims denials and too much bad debt. So, Paul Brown, the clinic's chief financial officer, turned to his background in manufacturing technology to see how his organization could find efficiencies. He used his experience and knowledge to inform his and the clinic's roadmap to implement change. The first step was looking at quality. In manufacturing, every step in the process is studied closely and tested to ensure absolute accuracy. Vancouver Clinic did the same. From a patient perspective, it wanted a seamless experience, including making appointments, reducing patient time at reception, ensuring labs were returned quickly, and making sure patients had quick access to any prescriptions they needed. Although the improvements Vancouver Clinic wanted to make originally were seen as a technology project, it quickly became evident that improving the process would also require training for staff and defining performance indicators. However, as technology played a key role, Paul reached out to Experian Health to implement some much-needed automation in the revenue cycle process. One big goal for the partnership was to improve revenue and collections, which is important as U.S. healthcare spending continues to skyrocket. Spending has reached $3.5 trillion, and Medicare bad debt adds up to more than $3.69 billion. Experts predict these numbers will continue to grow, and soon, the nation will spend close to 20 percent of the gross domestic product on healthcare alone. Vancouver Clinic was also grappling with these issues. It had higher-than-average claims denial rates, which cost the clinic $10.5 million each year. It also had higher-than-average bad debt of $3.5 million. The goal was to reduce that by 50 percent, and the numbers are going in the right direction. To get there, Vancouver Clinic took a multifaceted approach to implementing software solutions. One solution was Payer Alerts, which creates authorization updates that reduce errors and inconsistencies before claims are submitted. When they’re detected, the alert format is easy to read and understand so corrections can be made quickly. Other technology solutions included Eligibility, which simplifies the insurance verification process; Payment Safe®, which is an efficient and seamless way to process patient payments; and Claim Scrubber, which helps submit clean claims to payers and reduce claim denials. The results for Vancouver Clinic were quick and dramatic. Claims denial rates dropped more than 30 percent. The denial rate, which was around 14 percent, is now under nine percent. Vancouver Clinic also reduced bad debt through more efficient patient processing by ensuring the clinic has the right insurance and personal information on patients. By collaborating with Experian Health, Vancouver Clinic has turned things around and has already realized a reduction in claim denials and bad debts to save them $2.3 million. An additional benefit of implementing these software changes is the ability for patients to use the self-service portal for the clinic. It allows patients to get estimates for services, set up payment schedules, pay their bills, schedule appointments, and provide feedback to the health system. Giving patients the ability to take control of these tasks simplifies the process for everyone, reduces busywork for staff, and improves patient satisfaction. Another efficiency that was implemented for staff was revamping software work lists. By reducing the number of lists they had to manage, employees were able to streamline their work. In an effort to maintain and continue to improve efficiencies, several key performance indicators are monitored to ensure quality throughout every step of the process. In much the same way that manufacturing keeps an eye on each process along the way, Vancouver Clinic has sought to improve every detail to create a seamless experience for patients. Through its continued partnership with Experian Health, it is well on its way to getting there.

Healthcare consumerism, which describes the ability of patients to shop around for the best value of care, has affected every aspect of the industry. Keeping up with those changes has challenged most institutions as patients become more savvy about healthcare costs and their choices.   But the freedom for patients to choose is only one side of the coin. The other is wrought with financial pain points that come with making the traditional billing model fit the new healthcare consumerism. For instance, organizations have to give patients precise cost estimates, but when patients change insurance coverage or companies change their policies and practices, providers struggle to keep those estimates accurate.   And patients who are hit with unexpected costs after they’ve received treatment are less likely to be able pay their bills. Hospitals and providers suffer from uncollected bills, which is compounded by claims denials.   Fortunately, the idea of healthcare consumerism inherently provides the solution to the pain. Emulating consumerism that's present in other industries, such as retail, means offering accurate and transparent pricing, eliminating uncertainty, and offering patients convenient and comprehensive financial options. Like other industries, healthcare already has a wealth of IT tools to make that possible.   Headaches for patients and providers   Simplifying financial pain points requires one significant change — hospitals and providers must deliver clear, simple information about what factors into their pricing. The first step is ensuring your system can keep up with the constantly changing details of insurance policies, supplier contracts, and everything else that affects those costs.   An automated IT solution can collect up-to-date insurance data, claims history, a patient’s financial situation, your organization’s price, and more before generating an estimate. When this data changes, estimates are no longer accurate, which is why healthcare pricing is so complicated. Therefore, tracking them and updating your system automatically can make it easier.   Most of the industry already uses analytics to some degree. Combined with automated financial data-gathering tools, those analytics can help organizations identify patients who are financially at risk and might qualify for additional funding options. Along with clear and accurate estimates, patients highly value a provider that cares enough to offer affordable financing options.   Alleviating those pain points   Keeping up with policy and other financial changes as quickly as they occur makes healthcare consumerism as beneficial for hospitals and providers as it is for patients. For example, Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers was able to reduce claims denials by 27 percent after implementing payer alerts and patient estimate solutions.   The same strategy helped the College of Medicine at Baylor University collect nearly $4.2 million in underpaid contracts, which it would have missed otherwise. Both organizations have also significantly boosted patient satisfaction with their financial processes, which has led to more positive experiences and reviews.   You can also alleviate financial pain points for patients and your organization by seeing healthcare consumerism as an opportunity instead of a burden. Patients demand the same level of cost transparency and certainty from every other industry. Healthcare organizations now have the incentive (and the means) to prove that they can offer the same level of service.

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.