U.S. health care has a revenue problem, and it’s only getting worse during the prolonged pandemic. Hospitals are projected to lose at least $53 billion this year, according to the American Hospital Association.
A real hot spot is patient billing and payments. Even before the health crisis hit, providers were collecting only a fraction of what patients owed after medical insurance.
Since the pandemic onset, 31% of healthcare consumers don’t think their providers have done enough to improve the billing and payments experience, according to the Cedar 2020 Healthcare Consumer Experience Study. In particular, 68% want a more customized experience for communications, bill pay and other revenue cycle operations.
They also really want digital. InstaMed Trends in Healthcare Payments, March 2021 found:
- 75% of consumers want to enroll in electronic statements from providers.
- 85% of consumers would prefer an electronic payment method for medical bills.
Yet 93% of providers rely on manual and paper-based transactions to collect patient payments after insurance, according to InstaMed.
Digitally transform with CCM
The exceptions to the rule are RCM leaders that have invested in customer communications management (CCM) technology to bridge the digital divide, digitally transforming the patient experience and biller operations, according to our new white paper.
In Accelerating RCM’s Digital Transformation with Customer Communications Management Technology, our clients including Meduit, Convergent, TeamHealth, Sutherland and HBCS describe the significant financial, operational and patient experience advantages of utilizing ExpressoHealth®, our CCM platform. Three key benefits include expediting revenues, improving operating performance and enhancing patient engagement to lower barriers to payment.
“We need the best ways to engage patients and collect payments,” said Meduit CEO Jeff Nieman. “Nordis’ communications technology and services give us a new level of control and flexibility to reach and respond to patients on their terms, from mobile devices to mail, and increase revenues for our provider clients. With multiple systems and vendors, it used to take us two to four weeks to make a single change to a letter. Now, we do it in minutes.”
Self-service omnichannel CCM technology, used extensively in industries such as vacation ownership, financial services and utilities, meets healthcare consumers’ growing expectations for choice and convenience. It’s HIPAA-compliant and secure.
Cloud CCM software also drives major improvements in operating efficiency and productivity for revenue cycle operations. It automates manual procedures and tasks while streamlining the process from developing patient financial communications to distributing them through print and/or digital channels.
Multiply gains by integrating print/mail and payments
With ExpressoHealth, RCM firms and providers no longer need to hand off production and distribution to different vendors. The self-service features make it easy for RCM companies to execute and coordinate print and mail, email, and text communications while improving security by sending patient data to just one vendor.
More broadly, consolidating communications and payments on a single cloud platform delivers a more unified and patient-friendly financial experience. Like CCM technology, electronic bill presentment and payments (EBPP) systems such as ExpressoPay® digitally transform payment processing.
“The convenience of having it all on one platform, the robustness of the capabilities compared to other options and the speed in getting bills out are key benefits,” said Paul Balcerzak, Sutherland Healthcare’s vice president and global lead of provider services.
For more information about how our Expresso and ExpressoPay solutions can revitalize your patient billing and payments, please contact us.