Personalizing customer service encounters with intelligence and technology is common in industries like financial services and automotive.
The healthcare sector is now taking a closer look at ways to improve the patient experience, including payments.
During a June Becker's Hospital Review webinar sponsored by RevSpring, three healthcare payment experts discussed how payment solutions are streamlining the patient financial experience, while enhancing the financial well-being of healthcare organizations:
- Casey Williams, senior vice president of patient engagement, RevSpring
- Marlen Prato, senior payments product manager, RevSpring
- Billie Watson, director, West Virginia University Medicine in Morgantown
Four key takeaways were:
1.) Treating all patients the same increases friction and slows payments. Based on their experiences as consumers, people expect interactions with healthcare organizations to be easy and personal. "When individuals experience any kind of friction, they are likely to abandon their session," Mr. Williams said. "Unfortunately, most healthcare systems still treat all patients the same, which increases friction. This can delay healthcare payments for weeks or months."
2.) Using intelligence to personalize payments improves the patient experience. Customer service representatives and online user interfaces should guide patients to different options based on their ability to pay. "We can use intelligence to support empathetic conversations with patients about their financial situation. If we can get to the best outcome in the first two to four minutes, that creates a better experience and a better financial outcome," Mr. Williams said.
RevSpring has found that organizations leveraging intelligence to guide patient engagement and payment experiences see the amount paid over the amount billed increase by between 1.24 and 1.55 percent, leading to additional revenue of $250,000 to $2.33 million. In addition, health systems that use RevSpring's patient-centric online portal typically experience a 35 percent increase in patient self-service rates and a 2.5x increase in e-bill adoption, which reduces the burden on call center staff and reduces costs associated with printed communications.
3.) Payment ecosystems are complex, so it's important to carefully evaluate payment providers. Merchant fees, for example, are complicated, consisting of interchange, assessment and processing fees. "Merchant fees differ based on the interchange effort," Ms. Prato said. "You need a vendor with expertise in the payment business to analyze the best fee structure for your organization." When evaluating merchant service programs, look for single source providers with a robust infrastructure and commitment to timely and personalized customer service. "Be sure to ask for a free rate analysis to determine your true savings. Automated reconciliation tools can also increase employee productivity, while reducing write-offs due to faster and more accurate reconciliations," Ms. Prato said.
4.) WVU Medicine turned to RevSpring to consolidate hospital and physician billing. WVU Medicine's goal was to create one single, combined patient statement with both hospital and physician information. "Cost savings was our number one motivator, as well as providing excellent customer service. We wanted one call resolution for patient billing questions," Ms. Watson said.
However, the team had concerns about consolidating over 400 merchant IDs and reconciliation challenges. "Our IT department was nervous about rebuilding the credit card process in Epic," Ms. Watson said. "Thankfully, RevSpring was able to map in the background and combine all our merchant IDs into one single merchant ID. It was a seamless transition for the team. The only thing we had to do was train our staff so they could reconcile each merchant desk to the cash drawer." By unifying hospital and physician billing with RevSpring, WVU Medicine is saving around $300,000 annually. In addition, the organization has seen a 1.9 percent increase in its patient payment rate.
For healthcare organizations considering a change in payment providers, Ms. Watson offered several lessons learned: "You truly need a partner you trust. Look for a company that will work with you and act quickly on your requests. RevSpring has been very flexible and willing to help us. You also need a partner with a strong technology background, because the landscape continues to change and regulatory compliance is essential."
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