Written by Natalie Moore on Feb 2, 2015
5 Powerful Strategies That Increase Patient Satisfaction and Payments
We are pleased to introduce Laurie Shoaf as part of our new Leadership Series, Forward: The Consumer Experience. Ms. Shoaf is a thought leader with more than two decades in executive healthcare finance positions on both the provider and vendor sides. She is a past president of the national American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management (AAHAM). At CCI, Ms. Shoaf oversees the company’s events, creative and digital strategies.
A recent report by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions shows that patient out-of-pocket healthcare expenses reached $672 billion in 2012. The amount a typical patient owes for their medical services will continue to rise as a result of the popularity of high-deductible plans and larger co-insurance amounts.
With rising out-of-pocket expenses, many people are not prepared for the large expenses they will incur as a result of a hospital visit. With this increased stress on their patients, hospitals must keep the patients’ perspective and needs at the center of every interaction. It can be easy to lose sight of these needs during the frenzy of gathering information and sorting through the insurance and related financial details that surround a patient visit.
Here are five key practices to help ensure patient satisfaction and excellent customer service remains in focus at all times:
1. Show compassion
Understand that patients are generally very concerned about their financial responsibility to hospital providers and are often confused about what their insurance plan covers for various services. They look to the healthcare provider as “the expert” and look forward to receiving guidance on their financial responsibility for the visit or hospital stay.
2. Educate
Remember that many patients are faced with making complex healthcare decisions and welcome the opportunity to have someone proactively guide them through options to pay their self-pay balances.
3. Give them more payment methods
Provide patients various options for payment through your financial assistance policy (FAP). Understanding that patient’s needs vary, be sure to include payment plans, payment financing and charity care. Assure your FAP addresses a wide range of options to meet the needs of your patient population.
4. Provide convenient ways to pay
Offer patients various mechanisms for paying their balance. Insure patients have a variety of options available to pay account balances including; online, by phone, or through self-guided voice response phone systems (IVR).
5. Engage
Engage patients in a personal conversation to discover if an impediment to payment exists. Look at phone calls as an opportunity, not as an inconvenience. Proactively connect with patients earlier and more frequently to create a positive dialog regarding their account balance.
This can be accomplished using widely available technology such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems that automatically call pre-programed numbers and leave messages or connect callers with a representative.
In these evolving times, be attuned to not only how the transformation of health insurance and out-of-pocket costs impact our healthcare organizations but how the changes impact the individual patients we serve. Keeping these points in mind will help ease the process for all.
This post was originally published on the CCI blog.