The following is a guest article by Mark Spinner, President and CEO at AccessOne.
It takes about three paper statements, on average, for consumers to pay their medical bills. Why? Because it’s easy to set these mailings aside and wait to act on them another day.
Just three years ago, 90% of healthcare organizations relied on paper-based billing statements. Now, as 78% of consumers adjust the way they pay for items amid the pandemic, digital and contactless options stand out as safe and convenient modes of payment. Leading healthcare organizations find that giving patients digital pathways to self-service their accounts—from accessing their statements to paying their bill or enrolling in a payment plan—drives higher collections and speeds collection times.
However, applying the right digital solutions at the right time is key. Here are three considerations for building a digital payment process that resonates with patients.
1. Does your digital approach eliminate unnecessary steps for healthcare payment? Too often, when patients receive a text notification that medical payment is due, a link directs them to the patient portal. There, patients must sign in, navigate the portal to find their bill and manually enter their payment information. This process requires patients to know their sign-on information, or an account number. It also puts the onus on the individual to find their bill and dig deeper to determine what portion of the bill the consumer truly owes after insurance. Even during COVID-19, when consumers leaned into digital payment options, just 23% pay their bill via a patient portal, a recent survey found.
As consumer expectations for the digital payment experience continue to evolve, a tightly integrated process could soon become a competitive differentiator for healthcare organizations. The best experiences empower consumers to easily access statements from their mobile phone, verify that insurance has paid its portion, click to pay the balance due or enroll in a payment plan—without the extra step of signing on to a portal.
2. Is live support available digitally? Even before the pandemic, chatbots were the fastest-growing brand communication channel. But designing the right chat experience can be tricky. That’s especially true when chatbots aren’t customized to the user journey, channel or platform, making it difficult to answer basic questions—in this instance, questions about the patient’s account.
To deliver the right chatbot experience—one that reduces customer call center volumes by providing the right information on first pass—a revenue cycle chatbot should be able to answer questions such as:
- “How much will I owe after insurance?”
- “Has insurance already paid its portion of the bill?”
- “What do these charges include? And, what do they not include (for example, physician services)?”
- “Could I combine this balance with an existing balance and make one payment per month? And: Could I do so online?”
Taking the time to craft a revenue cycle-specific chatbot approach will prompt higher rates of engagement and, ultimately, self-pay collections.
3. Can consumers self-enroll in payment plans to tackle their out-of-pocket balance? Sixty percent of consumers say affordable monthly payment options are essential to a positive patient financial experience, according to a fall 2021 consumer survey. At a time when 82% of consumers want to make healthcare payments in one place, leaning into self-service options for payment plan enrollment meets consumers where they are. It enables consumers to select the right payment plan option from their digital device anywhere, anytime, including from the comfort of home. It also puts consumers in control of their healthcare payment experience, easing their financial fears early in the encounter.
At Atrium Health, based in Charlotte, N.C., more than one-third of patient volume moved to self-service when the health system integrated payment plan enrollment within MyChart. In just one year, more than 15,000 unique users applied for a payment plan for the first time. It’s a move that elevated the patient financial experience while also reducing the strain on revenue cycle resources, saving 186 FTE hours for every 3,700 charges.
Adopting a Digital-First Design Mindset
A 2021 U.S. Bank survey found 85% of consumers prefer to make their healthcare payments digitally. Yet most providers continue to send out paper statements. When they do invest in digital payment and customer service offerings, too often, the experiences they provide fail to meet consumers’ expectations. By reimagining the digital revenue cycle experience, healthcare leaders can more effectively engage patients in their financial responsibility of care, strengthening self-pay collections and improving their organization’s financial health.
About Mark Spinner
Mark Spinner is president and CEO for AccessOne, a leading provider of flexible, co-branded patient financing solutions that help patients afford medical expenses for health systems nationwide.
