Competing business challenges, such as high labor and supply costs, and patient concerns, such as rising out-of-pocket costs, are increasing pressure on providers to accelerate digital transformation.
During a June Becker's Hospital Review webinar sponsored by RevSpring, Casey Williams, senior vice president for patient engagement at RevSpring, discussed how technology can power a remarkable digital patient experience while infusing patients' financial experience with more empathy.
Four key takeaways were:
1.) Patient experience is shaped by quality care, empathetic staff and easy healthcare processes. To measure patient experience, providers have traditionally focused on the clinical aspects of care and not on the pre- and post-clinical side of things. However, ease of access, self-service appointment scheduling and the payment experience can be decisive factors, too.
"Patients' interactions with staff, workflows and technology are leaving a positive or a negative impression," Mr. Williams said. He added that negative experiences may damage patient loyalty, which in turn can dampen patient volumes and revenues.
2.) Today, unaligned technologies from multiple vendors frustrate the patient journey. The technologies patients use to organize their care often differ across touchpoints, from price shopping to messaging, registration, access, intake, consent, follow-up reminders and payment options. "If the technologies are unable to connect with one another to create an extended experience, that experience is going to be fragmented," Mr. Williams said.
3.) Consolidating the technology experience is imperative for improving the total patient experience — and provider revenues. Technology that aligns across all touchpoints not only creates a connected experience for patients, but also brings more relevant information in front of patient-facing billing staff, empowering them to have intelligent financial conversations that further improve the patient experience. According to a recent RevSpring survey, less than 15 percent of patients stay with a provider after a poor pre-care or billing experience.
4.) RevSpring's technology surfaces demographic and behavioral data for enhanced patient insights. On the demographic side, that includes public record data about patients' occupation, net worth, income, investments, asset ownership and household characteristics. On the behavioral side, it pulls up data on patients' payment behavior (amount and channel), insurance, outstanding balance, bad debt and non-payment interactions.
"We want to understand patients' consumer behaviors and their ability to pay," Mr. Williams said. He explained that this information, combined with the provider's own data on patients, helps drive predictive analytics and optimize payment arrangements that are individually tailored to each patient's ability to pay. "Can this patient afford the balance in total or do we need to offer them an individual payment plan that is geared to their capacity?"
By leveraging technology that enables patients to have a connected, positive digital experience and patient intelligence that puts unique insights in staff's hands, healthcare organizations can engineer outcomes that are not only in the best interest of patients, but also in the best interest of the health system itself.
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