Tag: patient estimates

With the ability to research products, compare price information, and conduct transactions all from their mobile devices, today's consumers are more savvy than ever. They expect an unprecedented level of transparency from companies. In fact, they demand it and will easily take their money elsewhere if a company doesn't follow through. Consumers expect the same high-level transparency from healthcare providers, and the demand is growing as patients are forced to bear more out-of-pocket costs for medical care. They want to avoid surprises, such as higher-than-expected cost estimates for services or insurance that may cover only a small portion of the expense. Price transparency initiatives are becoming increasingly more important in healthcare systems, and providers must embrace new capabilities to meet patients' expectations. The old model of billing patients weeks or months after they’ve received services is no longer viable. Billing needs to move to the front of the revenue cycle management process, and a number of Experian Health's solutions are designed to help do just that. 3 tools for greater price transparency in healthcare As patients are responsible for a higher percentage of their healthcare costs, healthcare providers' financial performance depends on an optimal collections strategy that focuses on patient engagement. The advantage of patients knowing and having confidence in healthcare cost estimates makes the collections process much easier and helps drive the future revenue cycle. Here are three Experian Health solutions that can help healthcare providers improve price transparency: 1. Patient Estimates: Patient trust is built on meeting expectations. With this in mind, Experian Health's Patient Estimates tool brings accurate, upfront price transparency before or at the point of service so patients know what to expect and can confidently make decisions about their healthcare. Cost estimates are derived from numerous types of data, including a patient’s benefits information, a healthcare provider's reimbursement agreements, and payer contract rates, among others. Much of the information can be automatically populated into the system, eliminating the need to constantly update price information lists and reducing the risks of inaccurate cost estimates resulting from error. With Patient Estimates, healthcare providers can also more effectively comply with state and federal price transparency requirements. 2. Patient Statements:Accurate price information is one thing, but even if the patient’s billing statement matches the cost estimates, collections can be a challenge if the statement is hard to read or understand. Patient Statements is a communications tool that simplifies and customizes patient billing statements, complete with important, easy-to-understand updates and messages. Making billing statements straightforward for patients to manage helps healthcare providers build a stronger level of trust when it comes to payments. Personalizing the statements with marketing and educational information turns them into valuable resources that create a better overall patient engagement experience. 3. Patient Self-Service:With accurate, upfront price estimates and simple, useful bill-paying systems and statements, healthcare providers can more successfully integrate our online self-service portal. Experian Health's Patient Self-Service tool digitally delivers cost estimates and statements to patients. It also allows patients to securely make payments and conveniently schedule future appointments from their desktop or mobile devices. Patient Self-Service brings the high level of price transparency to healthcare providers that consumers now expect. This makes it more likely for patients to meet their self-pay responsibilities and return for future healthcare services. Patient Self-Service also helps healthcare providers more efficiently comply with "meaningful use" Stage 2 program requirements. The capabilities for price transparency that these solutions provide is just a small sampling of what we offer today, and we’re continuing to research and develop even more useful tools. In addition, we’ve recently launched an extensive consumer research project to better understand patients’ wants and needs. We’re excited to use these insights to continue developing solutions that help healthcare providers improve engagement with patients.

Undoubtedly, you have been monitoring progress toward legislation for healthcare providers to furnish patients with estimates for their cost of care. And if it’s not already in place, there’s a strong chance your state will be next on the list to require price transparency. Additionally, with the continued popularity of high deductible health plans, patients are looking to price shop for their healthcare services. Patients expect more healthcare cost information available online, like in every other industry. Helping patients know what they will owe prior to service can enable them to make more informed decisions about their care and increase patient satisfaction. As more states begin to mandate providing pre-service estimates to patients, it’s critical for healthcare providers to know what solutions are available to help them comply. According to a recent Fierce Healthcare article, “Real healthcare price transparency for consumers is dependent on rich data sources that provide meaningful price information on a wide range of procedures and services.1" Experian Health is here to help! Our Patient Estimates solution is a pricing transparency tool that enables you to create accurate estimates of services, before or at the point-of-service. Patient Estimates is also offered within our Patient Self-Service portal, allowing patients to access estimates on-demand. See how Patient Estimates helped St. Clair Hospital in the Pittsburgh market. According to the June 2016 KLAS Healthcare Price Transparency Solutions Performance Report, “…clients feel [Experian Health’s] Patient Estimates is a critical element in their efforts to help patients know up front what their costs will be, and clients report overall satisfaction with the product, services, and vendor engagement. The solution is seen as very complete and robust, with strong customer support.” Experian Health's Patient Estimates can help your organization: Increase up-front collections Provide patient’s pricing prior to service Increase patient satisfaction Let us help you prepare now for state requirements that will ultimately increase accurate up-front collections and more importantly improve patient satisfaction! Call us at 1 888 661 5657 or email experianhealth@experian.com to get started!     1Ron Shinkman, “A few more states get passing grades on price transparency,” Fierce Healthcare, July 28, 2016

Experian Health is pleased to announce that its Patient Estimates solution has joined the athenahealth® Marketplace, also known as  the More Disruption Please (MDP) program. Experian Health has participated in this program since the launch of the marketplace in 2013 (starting with our Contract Management offerings) and has worked with athenahealth to integrate its industry-leading capabilities into the organization’s growing network of more than 73,000 healthcare providers. Learn more about Experian Health’s Patient Estimates solution. Read the press release To learn more about athenahealth’s MDP program and partnership opportunities, please visit https://www.athenahealth.com/disruption.

Experian Health is pleased to announce that we went live with Patient Estimates at St. Clair Hospital located in Pittsburgh, PA on February 22, 2016. A true representation of vendor and hospital collaboration and commitment, the Patient Estimates cost transparency tool gives St. Clair a competitive edge as the first hospital in its region to offer patients cost estimates in advance. Patient Estimates is not a list of charges, but an interactive and user-friendly tool that provides information that is highly specific to the individual. Estimates are designed to determine, in advance, each patient’s out-of-pocket costs (deductibles, co-pays and co-insurance) for services at St. Clair based upon his/her insurance coverage. The estimates also incorporate St. Clair’s discounts for payment on the date of service and for those without insurance. The estimates remain in the system and can be recalled for future reference. Patient Estimates is simple to use and is conveniently available 24/7 at www.stclair.org. On the home page, patients will select the “Financial Tools” option, then click on Patient Estimates. They will then enter their health insurance information before choosing one of the 100 listed clinical services (e.g., a procedure, treatment or diagnostic test) from the drop-down menu. The tool then provides a customized estimate of their out-of-pocket expenses. Patient Estimates is designed to help insured and uninsured patients get clear, real-time, easy-to-understand cost estimates for St. Clair’s services so patients can make informed decisions about their care. Below are some of the press mentions of St. Clair Hospital's implementation of Patient Estimates: Pittsburgh TRIBLIVE https://bit.ly/1oxlKna Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: https://bit.ly/219dqfd Pittsburgh Business Times: https://bit.ly/1QWfqNa

There’s a unique dichotomy in healthcare that’s not found in other service industries. For example, when you go out to eat at a restaurant, you don’t expect the server to ask you to pay before the meal is served. Conversely, you also don’t expect to walk out of the restaurant after the meal without paying. However, if you have ever ordered the special of the day and been shocked when the check arrives and the item costs twice as much as other menu items, you can certainly understand the patient’s viewpoint. How can a patient make informed choices about his or her healthcare without knowing the cost? Price transparency – one of today’s hottest healthcare topics – offers significant benefits to both providers and patients, including: Empowering the patient to make well-informed decisions on healthcare treatments Improving patient satisfaction and involvement with their care management Allowing appropriate upfront collections based on realistic estimates Serving as a foundation for establishing payment plans or seeking charity The difficulty of providing a reliable estimate has hindered efforts to collect from patients at the point of service, when they are most likely to pay. In order for the estimate to be relevant and timely, it must bring together financial data from the chargemaster, claims history and payer contract terms, and integrate that with the patient’s insurance benefits. Thankfully, this is a task that is ideally suited to technology. Not only can you use a payment estimator to quickly and easily create a targeted estimate, healthcare organizations can also eliminate the need to manually update price lists, as well as remove guesswork and tedious searches through potentially outdated patient information. An estimator is the base of an effective upfront collections strategy, and is complemented by the ability to determine if a patient is eligible for charity care in addition to their propensity to pay. An additional complement is to streamline the payment process by facilitating the collection of patient open balances through eChecking, signature debit, credit, recurring billing, cash, check or money orders. The ability to create price transparency that is applicable to each patient’s individual situation is critical to a healthcare organization’s financial performance.