Health systems that have real-time data on patients' financial situations and engagement preferences can customize interactions with patients around bill payment.
This results in higher patient and employee satisfaction, which ultimately leads to increased revenue.
During a webinar hosted by Becker's Hospital Review and sponsored by Finvi, Priti Shah, chief product officer at Finvi, and John Talaga, executive vice president and general manager of healthcare at Flywire, discussed evolving trends, emerging best practices and how to bolster those practices with technology.
Three insights:
1.) Four trends are shaping the future of revenue cycle:
- Patient affordability. Eighty-five percent of patients are concerned about rising medical costs, with 46 percent unable to pay unexpected medical bills in one lump sum, according to research cited by presenters. "The average balance for a hospital stay is right around $1,200 while the average consumer only has about $400 in savings, so that's a huge gap," Mr. Talaga said. In addition to the affordability problem is the simultaneous demand for payment convenience.
- Payment preferences. According to Ms. Shah, the second trend revolves around preferred engagement options. "Patients want different digital and self-service options to interact with providers," she explained. "Our research shows this is transcending across all generations."
- Evolving patient financial situations. "Providers need to understand that a patient's financial status is not static," Ms. Shah said. "We need to meet patients where they are financially." That requires tools and systems that can provide real-time patient data.
- Revenue cycle management and remote workforce permanency. Remote work is here to stay with 75 percent of health systems considering permanent RCM staff changes and 80 percent of employees expecting to continue to work from home post-COVID, according to research cited by presenters.
2.) Four emerging RCM best practices revolve around segmentation, personalized engagement, purposeful automation and remote workforce support:
- Advanced segmentation. "We need to leverage data sources that go beyond a credit score, including social media usage, demographic information and how patients like to engage," Ms. Shah said.
- Personalized engagement. Mr. Talaga emphasized the need to use data to customize the conversation with each patient. For example, a patient who can pay in full is sent a link via that person's preferred engagement channel while another patient on limited income is offered a payment plan at the exact amount that person can afford. "Such a process lowers the number of phone calls and required interactions," Mr. Talaga said.
- Purposeful automation. It's important to automate processes that will make a difference. "The faster your systems can move an account through the revenue cycle and present a balance back to the patient, the higher the propensity for the patient to pay," Ms. Shah stressed.
- Remote workforce support. Real-time insights and assistance, holistic engagement and aggregate understanding will help the remote workforce feel part of an integrated RCM team. "That will yield a better patient financial experience," Ms. Shah said. "It's going to be a win-win across the board."
3.) Technology that drives these best practices results in organizational success. Ms. Shah shared compelling statistics from companies who have put these best practices into action: call volumes have decreased by 40 percent, patient payments have increased by 15 percent and billing satisfaction scores have averaged 4.4 out of 5.
By embracing the right technology, health systems can accelerate proven RCM best practices designed to meet patients where they are and optimize the health system's financial performance.
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