The healthcare industry can do a much better job at providing price estimates, according to Ryan O'Hara, chief revenue officer at Northern Arizona Healthcare. Northern Arizona Healthcare has primary locations in Flagstaff, Cottonwood, Camp Verde and Sedona.
Mr. O'Hara shared the following tip with Becker's Hospital Review:
"We're getting better at the idea of having model plans provide an estimate, but what I think we haven't done is get some sort of critical mass where we're allowing patients to pay for their things on their own terms. That's an important part of patient information, because anybody can put [an] estimator in place, but does that drive patient satisfaction? That's the end game. I believe an educated patient who we can clearly articulate to what they owe is a satisfied patient, for the most part. Most people want to pay. We just haven't educated them on where they can do it and how they can do it on their terms and not ours."
Read more revenue cycle tips here.
If you would like to share your RCM best practices, please email Kelly Gooch at kgooch@beckershealthcare.com to be featured in the "RCM tip of the day" series.