The best establishments in the healthcare, hotel, restaurant, and even the airline industry, all have one thing in common: an unwavering commitment to understanding the client. They often put a premium on anticipating customer needs—and offering patrons information, products, and experiences that address these. If healthcare organizations want a high-touch pay program, they must be customer-centric.
Healthcare organizations generally understand the importance of patient pay tools. However, some facilities merely adopt these technologies without building workflows for them. Succeeding in revenue cycle management involves orchestrating service touches for patients. By adding these touches, patient responsibility accounts can easily transition from non-paying to paying status.
How Diversity in Patient Pools Impact Pay Programs
Health systems and physicians have patients of all age groups and backgrounds. As such, healthcare providers encounter different behaviors and dispositions toward payments. When working with diversity, a healthcare provider must make care information available through a range of mediums. From mobile text apps, to Inbound IVR systems, to online portals or platforms, patients must have a variety of ways to access information available to them at all times.
Knowing which patients to reach first, however, is the first thing a healthcare provider must know. A facility should know the best way to reach particular clients—they should be aware of when clients might appreciate reminders and updates on their bills. They must integrate an outbound contact or notification strategy with their accounts receivable management.
With segmentation technology, facilities can implement revenue cycle management based on consumer data. These tools aggregate information on patients and categorize them based on their balance due and likelihood to pay. With a data-driven patient responsibility program, you will better understand patient responses.
However, there is more to the process than looking at numbers and statistics. Facilities must also understand patient personas, just like how hotels and restaurants understand their customers. Below are personas that healthcare facilities frequently encounter.
The Patient Who Prefers Self-Service
This persona responds best to automatic payment systems. It is easier to get them to pay through patient portals, payment IVR hotlines, and mobile applications. Patients oriented towards self-service will appreciate online statement access, but you do not need to contact them with outbound reminders—they’ll pay on time whether or not you contact them.
If you call this type of persona, you might even frustrate them since they already know when and how they want to pay. It could work counter-intuitively and create dissatisfaction with the overall experience.
The Patient Who Waits for Reminders
A proactive approach to revenue cycle management often benefits this second type of patient. These are ones who wait for reminders and will not pay until they receive a reminder for a bill. A mobile alert, mailed statement, or a call could work in this case. Direct your follow-up resources to this type of patient, and you will see better cash flow.
The Patient Who Refuses to Pay Bills
The other end of the spectrum is the unreceptive patient. This type of client will not pay their bill and are either unwilling or unable because of certain life circumstances. You could identify unreceptive patients through frequently changing or absent home addresses or numbers. It will not be productive to engage with these patients, no matter how large the balance.
This type of patient often qualifies for financial assistance or write-offs. Use a presumptive charity scoring system and apply it to the account if it shows that this patient is potentially unreceptive. As such, you can streamline your efforts at revenue cycle management and divert more resources to patients who wait for reminders.
Following the Hospitality High-Touch Model
Using patient responsibility payment tools and technologies is not enough to guarantee a healthy cash flow for a healthcare facility. The medical industry would benefit from considering an adapted high-touch model prevalent in the hospitality industry. When medical groups differentiate their collection and revenue process for each type of consumer, they will find it easier to nudge people toward making payments.
Partner with Healthcare Revenue Cycle Experts Today
At Credence Global Solutions, we offer technology solutions to help healthcare organizations stay on track with patient payments. Our iConnect for Healthcare is a patient engagement platform that cost-effectively helps organizations improve their collection rates.
iConnect for Healthcare assists with questions related to services and orders by delivering estimates and statements to patients. It also works across multiple channels based on patients’ profile preferences, which enables your organization to tailor its approach. Furthermore, our system identifies patients that require an outbound call from an agent. The result? A powerful revenue cycle management solution that helps you create configurable workflows customized to your facilities’ patient demographics and needs!
Empower transformation in your organization by partnering with Credence Global Solutions. Schedule your demo today, or get in touch with us today!
