Providers may increase revenue, employee productivity, and patient happiness with a well-executed patient financial engagement plan. Here are four ways that healthcare organizations may use personalization, automation, and digital technology to increase patient financial involvement.
It is necessary to design tactics to engage patients early on since financial engagement is a crucial aspect of the entire patient experience. Recent research found that providers may expect to get paid 70% of the time in advance or at the time of service but just 30% of the time for any outstanding balances.
Secure text-to-collect, patient portal adoption, and phone assistance are three of the most successful digital-first initiatives healthcare organizations may use to attain these aims. You may boost financial engagement and streamline revenue cycle management by creating a digital, patient-specific financial experience.
Strategies for Making Payments Digitally for Patient Financial Engagement
The most efficient method of collecting on a debt is to ask for payment before the service is rendered or to have the customer pay at the time of service. These speed up the arrival of much-needed funds and facilitates timely consultation between the patient and the physician before any services are rendered. This article will examine many patient-friendly, digitally-first patient financial engagement possibilities.
Adoption of Patient Portals
To increase monetary participation, healthcare organizations might promote patient portal use. Giving patients access to a gateway for self-service allows them to:
- See all your bills in one place.
- Patient or guarantor payments may be made as early as pre-service using a secure payment system.
- You may use any of your favorite ways of payment.
- Amend your address and phone number.
- Log in at any time of day or night.
Safe Text for Collection
With this contactless payment method, you may interact with patients at each stage of their treatment plan. The pre-service phase is the most effective time for providers to do this. Patients may see their estimates and make payments via the patient portal when integrated with any estimating tool.
In any case, providers may wait to publish until the planned event has occurred, making reconciliation straightforward.
Simpler Methods for Patient Financial Engagement
It is essential to inform patients of their expected financial contribution before their appointment. This benefits the provider since it raises the possibility of timely payments.
Patients may plan financially and come to their appointments with the necessary funds. Using this in tandem with simple healthcare payment technology may always result in more reliable access to funds. Timely payments may also lead to savings in the form of lower administrative expenses due to the decreased effort required to collect from customers.
Provide your patients with a self-service experience that includes everything they need to make a payment, set up a payment plan, or commence financing, and you’ll provide them with financial peace of mind and boost your business’ productivity.
Customize Your Payment Process
Personalized, consumer-centric payment experiences make it easier for patients to pay what they can afford using their chosen payment method through their preferred payment channel may improve payments and help providers get reimbursed quicker.
How Much Customization Is Possible?
- Plans for covering the ever-increasing expenses of healthcare. Patient Financial Engagement might benefit from payment plans since they provide additional options for paying significant bills. Each Patient Financial Engagement experience may be enhanced by setting their payment amounts and term lengths individually.
- Although a credit check is one technique to tailor payment arrangements to an individual patient’s likelihood of paying, it may be intrusive to the patient and expensive for the provider. Use cutting-edge AI tools that analyze each patient’s demographic information and other data to provide a suitable payment strategy.
- Reports from patients: Adjust the message’s wording depending on the patient’s demographic and preference data. Patients who have indicated a preference for online payments should prominently show this option on their billing bills. If your patient does not speak English, you should send them a statement written in their language.
Methods of Transmission: Patients may choose how they want to hear about payments and invoices. Customers’ preferred contact method is shifting to texting, so ensure you provide this feature.