Digitizing Self-Pay Collection in Healthcare to Accelerate Providers’ Revenues

H ealthcare is one of the key industries most affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Care providers are on the front lines—taking huge responsibilities to ensure the best of care delivery. Simultaneously, providers face major financial challenges due to the overall downward financial trend during the pandemic.

Healthcare consumers are postponing non-emergency care for plenty of reasons including exposure to risks of the COVID-19 virus and the inability to spend. Besides the revenue drop caused by the reduced elective procedures, the surging unemployment rate has led to huge financial challenges for hospitals and practices alike.

Research indicates that over 36 million Americans reported unemployment by March 2020—leaving a major chunk of the U.S population without health insurance. Furthermore, the Federal Reserve estimates that 7.3 million more workers including their families, would be uninsured towards the final phases of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) Provider Relief Fund has allocated a whopping $100 billion to cover providers’ cost of care delivery for COVID-19 affected patients. However, providers will be repaid only at Medicare costs—a considerably lesser amount than private insurance—which the hospitals aren’t allowed to bill the patients later for the difference amount.

These multiple factors stand a threat to the financial stability of care providers—leaving hospital revenue cycles at major risks of becoming underfunded at present and in the future. It is critical that hospitals address the self-pay collection challenges now more than ever—to mitigate the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s a deep dive into how hospitals can optimize self-pay collections to streamline revenue cycle processes.

Questions:

1. How can Providers overcome friction in the self-pay collection?
2. How can providers leverage technology to accelerate revenues?
3. How to choose the right financial partner?

1. How can Providers overcome friction in the self-pay collection?

FRICTION—this can happen anytime during the payment process—impacting Patient Experience (PX), and complicating the hospitals’ collection process. Before the pandemic, friction used to happen when patients weren’t sure of the amount, he or she has to pay the provider after the insurance deductions. However, with the COVID-19 scenario, the financial condition of the consumers has considerably collapsed. This means that patients need to know the upfront payments required for their healthcare services—more than ever

It is also important that patients are well-equipped with digital tools that allow them to participate in the revenue cycle process over time proactively.

2. How can providers leverage technology to accelerate revenues?

Automation in healthcare and digital patient collection tools are some of the next-gen solutions fostering faster payments and better collections. Here’s are three digital strategies that can help providers overcome the self-pay challenges during these uncertain times—with a surging number of uninsured patients.

Price estimation.
Price estimation is a great way to reduce friction even before the patient visits your office. This means you are mentally preparing them for the cost they can expect to spend on their healthcare services.
Giving patients a heads up of what they owe is one of the crucial steps involved in accelerating patient collections. A recent study reveals that price transparency in healthcare enhances Patient Experience (PX), Patient Satisfaction Index (PSI) and ultimately drives the payment rates. Giving an accurate cost estimate clarifies patients’ doubts regarding payments, prepares them for the expense—resulting in a better likelihood of receiving the payments.

Assessing propensity to pay.
What a patient owes may hugely differ from the patient’s affordability, especially with the downward financial trend during these times of global recession. Challenging times need smart digital tools that can use certain algorithms to predict a patient’s affordability. These tools can give accurate forecasts on a patient’s likelihood of paying based on algorithms like their credit history, past payment behavior among many other factors.
This insight-driven healthcare level ensures that the hospital staff can connect patients with appropriate payment plans and guide them through the financial process accordingly.

Flexible communication infrastructure.
Hospitals need to focus on Patient financial engagement solutions, a key catalyst in driving patient experience and satisfaction. For instance, baby boomers may prefer a printed statement and a more traditional communication method, whereas the tech-savvy millennials may be more comfortable using a mobile application to stay updated on the revenue cycle process. Healthcare organizations can also use patient demographics to provide flexible communication strategies and patient-centric solutions.

By engaging with patients through their preferred mode of communication, providers can significantly improve the likelihood of recouping their payments.

3. How to choose the right financial partner?

Going the extra mile to streamline patient financial engagement is not just about improving providers’ bottom line anymore. It’s also about extending the emotional support when the world rises above the challenging times of the COVID-19 global health crisis. It is about delivering healthcare with a human touch at a significant time when all the stakeholders including the doctors, staff, patients and others need empathy in patient engagement solutions.

Choosing the right Revenue cycle services partner is a crucial step in meeting the requirements of both parties involved—and staying true to the core values during the global health crisis and beyond. And digital financial engagement solutions ensure that providers deliver the superior patient financial experience—that positively impact patient-provider relationships and keep us moving forward.

To learn more about digital patient engagement solutions talk to our team.