Written by Andrew Neal on Oct 23, 2023

Five Strategies to Identify and Take Action on Patient Billing and Statement Preferences

Billing statements are a fundamental touchpoint in your revenue cycle and the patient financial journey. According to our 2023 Patient Payment Technology report, released today, 67% of patients believe that the type of billing statement they receive has a direct impact on how quickly they pay their medical bills. Here are five strategies to quickly identify billing statement preferences from your patients, and how to take action on them.

1. Integrate Preference Questions at Registration

The patient intake and registration process is a great opportunity to set the stage for a positive relationship between patient and provider. During registration, whether online or in-person, consider incorporating questions about billing statement and communications preferences. This serves several purposes:

Capturing Preference Data: You’re capturing actionable patient data right at the onset of an interaction, which can be integrated into your payment systems for more personalized payment and billing experiences.
Setting Expectations: By discussing billing preferences upfront, you’re eliminating surprises down the line and making it clear how a patient can expect to receive their bill, helping to drive down the time it takes to collect and decreasing days in accounts receivable.

Gathering the right information during patient registration allows revenue cycle teams to use their existing technology workflow to the fullest capability, and ultimately drives patient loyalty by adapting to each set of unique patient preferences.

2. Analyze Payment Behaviors

Payment behaviors are the clearest indicator of patient preferences beyond direct questionnaire responses. Harnessing these analytics can help identify important patient payment habits, and drive system-wide efficiencies. Consider the following:

Securely Analyze Trends: If a set of patients consistently pay more quickly after receiving their statement via email reminders, but lag when sent paper statements, there are significant revenue cycle advantages in adjusting the way you communicate with that group of patients by default. When considering a digital-first approach to patient payments and billing, however, it’s still critical to take into account how a diverse patient audience will react to updates in your processes, and to offer meaningful fallbacks for those who may prefer more traditional methods of billing and communication.
Use Predictive Modeling: By analyzing patient behaviors, you can create predictive models that help identify the most effective billing methods for individual patients, or groups of patient audiences, even before the first invoice is sent. This intelligence can help drive a more efficient revenue cycle, and have a profound impact on your bottom line.
Allocate Resources: Patient population analytics let you focus your resources where they’re most effective. Why allocate additional budget resources to paper statement distribution when 51% of patients prefer email notifications, according to the latest Salucro report?

By paying close attention to payment analytics, revenue cycle leaders gain insights that can impact their collection rates. It’s time to move from conjecture to data-backed decisions.

3. Plan a Segmented Email Campaign

Precision beats power when it comes to any kind of patient engagement, and that is even more true for email campaigns. A series of segmented emails can do wonders to gauge patient billing statement preferences. Each email could spotlight a different billing method—e-checks, credit cards, payment plans, etc.—and monitor these key metrics to gauge patient engagement and preferences:

Open Rates: High open rates could indicate an interest in the highlighted billing method.
Click Rates: The number of clicks to your patient payment portal can serve as a more definitive nod toward a particular billing method.
Direct Feedback: Encourage direct responses to the email for qualitative data.

According to report data, 52% of patients desire the ability to set up a flexible payment plan online, so a segmented email focusing on your facility’s flexible payment options could show the level of interest among your patients.

4. Collect Feedback After Payment

We often think of a patient payment as the end of the patient experience, rather than the beginning of the final step: feedback. After each payment, consider offering a short, convenient feedback form asking patients about their billing experience. The Patient Payment Technology report found patients ranked support high in importance, and directly asking for feedback post-payment serves dual objectives:

Quality Control: Collecting patient opinions provides insights into what you’re doing right and what needs reevaluation.
Personalization: Knowing what a patient liked or disliked about their payment experience can inform future billing, thereby continuing the cycle of improvement.

By incorporating post-payment feedback into your billing process, you’re transforming a static action into a useful engagement tool. Feedback has the ability to significantly contribute to operational efficiency and revenue growth.

5. Engage Front Desk Staff

In a world increasingly moving toward automation, human interaction cannot be overlooked. Front desk staff are the face of an organization and a priceless resource of qualitative data, they should feel heard by their leadership and empowered to suggest opportunities for efficiency improvement.

First-Hand Observations: As the frontline of your operation, these professionals are primed to pick up on subtle cues, experience, and patient feedback about billing.
Casual Conversations: Often, the most honest feedback comes from informal conversations. A well-placed question from a friendly staff member can glean insights no survey can capture.
Immediate Reporting: Front desk staff can input these insights directly into your system for immediate action.

Data-Driven Takeaways on Billing Statement Preferences

Salucro’s 2023 Patient Payment Technology report is a blueprint for healthcare revenue cycle leaders to make informed, strategic choices. Here are some of the key takeaways from the report on billing and payment preferences.

The ability to set up a flexible payment plan online was a priority for 52% of patients.
47% of respondents want to easily view payment history, including prior statements and receipts. This can help increase engagement and, potentially, accelerate payments.
A majority, 51% of patients, prefer to receive billing notifications via email. If you’re still investing heavily in snail mail, it might be time to recalibrate.

Download the 2023 Patient Payment Technology report for more insights and data to guide your revenue cycle management decisions.