It's hard to believe that with all the web services and devices that we have at our fingertips, many Americans still receive more than 85 percent of their household bills and documents the old fashion way: the U.S. Postal Service. Despite the fact that much of our personal communications is conducted through email, smart phones and social networks, some businesses are still struggling to find better ways to go paperless with consumers.
As part of its commitment to build healthier communities and a healthy environment, Oak Brook-based Advocate Health Care has focused on finding new paperless ways of engaging its patients.
Currently, Advocate connects with patients through several mediums including email, newsletters, screenings and seminars. Advocate has also built a robust social media platform to engage patients and the communities it serves through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
Another new, exciting way the health system is connecting with patients digitally is through the implementation of a paperless "digital file cabinet." The health system is offering the file cabinet in partnership with Advocate Medical Group; the online file cabinet allows consumers to receive and manage all of their household documents (healthcare and other) via one secure, free online source. The goal is to leverage a mutual opt-in "connect model," similar to Facebook and LinkedIn, to increase online reach and interaction with patients and improve the overall patient experience.
In the long run, Advocate will use this digital file cabinet to communicate with patients in several ways. For example, it can send out appointment reminders, pre-op and post-op instructions, etc. Since the file cabinet is secure, it could even be used to facilitate clinical communications between the patient, physicians and nurses. Initially, though, the focus will be on delivering electronic statements and facilitating electronic bill payment.
Consider this: 55 percent of U.S. households make payments online with an average of 15 percent agreeing to go paperless across all industries. Healthcare averages are far lower. For providers that offer an online bill pay option, only 12 percent of patients make payments online, and less than 2 percent agree to go paperless. Healthcare billing has some catching-up to do. When you consider that Facebook, eBay, LinkedIn and other interactive websites have ushered in a new era of online interaction, you realize that healthcare billing hasn't leveraged any of these changing consumer preferences.
We know that the patient is carrying a larger share of the payment responsibility (almost 30 percent) due to the growth of high-deductible health plans. And more than 90 percent of patient balances have to be collected after the patient leaves the provider's office. This has put pressure on providers to find innovative ways to collect payments sooner. So the more payment channels a healthcare provider can offer, the better, so long as they meet consumer needs as well.
Advocate considered this knowledge in the context of specific challenges associated with healthcare transactions.
Looking at its current model, Advocate realized it could do a lot more to help patients adopt the idea of going paperless and help reduce operating costs through lower printing and postage fees. This led Advocate to add a "digital file cabinet" option, which didn’t require any new development. Instead, patients are connected to an existing network provided (Doxo) that allows Advocate to expand its channels and incrementally grow patient adoption.
The digital file cabinet "connect: model addresses the consumer needs described above.
This expanded network offers four other features that are attractive to Advocate as a provider. First, it does not incur any credit card processing fees on transactions. Second, there are easy links back to the Advocate website to encourage more patient interaction. Third, as an outsourced solution, this provides innovation without disrupting other IT priorities or budget. Finally, since other businesses will also be promoting the service to consumers with whom Advocate has a relationship, this will lead to a network effect for additional patient connections to Advocate.
Over time, Advocate believes this will accelerate patient adoption of paperless communication and online payment, which will result in the following benefits:
Adoption will not happen overnight. But what is certain is that consumers look to Advocate to provide access to advanced technology and to provide the best quality care. This means leveraging technology that will make patients' lives easier.
Terry McCarthy is director of patient accounting at Advocate Health Care, and can be contacted at terry.mccarthy@advocatehealth.com. John Talaga is vice president at Doxo, and can be contacted at john.talaga@doxo.com.
As part of its commitment to build healthier communities and a healthy environment, Oak Brook-based Advocate Health Care has focused on finding new paperless ways of engaging its patients.
Currently, Advocate connects with patients through several mediums including email, newsletters, screenings and seminars. Advocate has also built a robust social media platform to engage patients and the communities it serves through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
Another new, exciting way the health system is connecting with patients digitally is through the implementation of a paperless "digital file cabinet." The health system is offering the file cabinet in partnership with Advocate Medical Group; the online file cabinet allows consumers to receive and manage all of their household documents (healthcare and other) via one secure, free online source. The goal is to leverage a mutual opt-in "connect model," similar to Facebook and LinkedIn, to increase online reach and interaction with patients and improve the overall patient experience.
In the long run, Advocate will use this digital file cabinet to communicate with patients in several ways. For example, it can send out appointment reminders, pre-op and post-op instructions, etc. Since the file cabinet is secure, it could even be used to facilitate clinical communications between the patient, physicians and nurses. Initially, though, the focus will be on delivering electronic statements and facilitating electronic bill payment.
Consider this: 55 percent of U.S. households make payments online with an average of 15 percent agreeing to go paperless across all industries. Healthcare averages are far lower. For providers that offer an online bill pay option, only 12 percent of patients make payments online, and less than 2 percent agree to go paperless. Healthcare billing has some catching-up to do. When you consider that Facebook, eBay, LinkedIn and other interactive websites have ushered in a new era of online interaction, you realize that healthcare billing hasn't leveraged any of these changing consumer preferences.
We know that the patient is carrying a larger share of the payment responsibility (almost 30 percent) due to the growth of high-deductible health plans. And more than 90 percent of patient balances have to be collected after the patient leaves the provider's office. This has put pressure on providers to find innovative ways to collect payments sooner. So the more payment channels a healthcare provider can offer, the better, so long as they meet consumer needs as well.
Understanding what patients/consumers want
Advocate has launched a financial advocacy program to attempt to collect more revenue sooner in the revenue cycle. Advocate realized there is a large segment of patients who are willing online bill payors if they can do it in a way that will not require a separate login for hospital bill payments. Based on research from Doxo, a company focused on driving paperless adoption, here is what consumers want in regards to online bill pay:- Convenience: This means viewing all documents and paying all bills from one website (with all business entities) utilizing one universal login. Right now, the average U.S. household has as many as 25 separate logins with business providers. This is a major disincentive to receiving statements and paying bills online.
- Forever access/control: People want to have access to their documents for as long as they feel necessary, even if/when they change service providers.
- Bill reminders: Due date reminders is a top reason why people want to keep getting paper in the mail.
- Mobile access: More than six million people and growing already pay bills via mobile devices, according to Fiserv.
- Back up: People want to back up their paperless documents for reassurance they won't lose them.
Advocate considered this knowledge in the context of specific challenges associated with healthcare transactions.
- Healthcare transactions are episodic, so seeing and paying healthcare bills is not routine or predictable.
- All healthcare related information is not in one place: hospital bills, physician bills and insurance EOBs come from different sources.
- Reconciling how much one truly has to pay is complicated.
Looking at its current model, Advocate realized it could do a lot more to help patients adopt the idea of going paperless and help reduce operating costs through lower printing and postage fees. This led Advocate to add a "digital file cabinet" option, which didn’t require any new development. Instead, patients are connected to an existing network provided (Doxo) that allows Advocate to expand its channels and incrementally grow patient adoption.
Connecting to improve the patient billing experience
The "connect" model and all-in-one "digital file cabinet" service will allow Advocate (hospitals and physicians) to be accessible to patients who want to connect to their healthcare providers in the same place they can connect with all their other service providers, such as their health insurer(s), cable companies, utilities, etc. Consider the concept as a "customer network" for organizations to securely connect and interact with customers and patients.The digital file cabinet "connect: model addresses the consumer needs described above.
- Time saving convenience. With a single login, people can view all their documents for all their business relationships, including all their healthcare related documents, in one location (e.g., healthcare related documents include all hospital bills and statements, all physician bills and statements, appointment reminders, and insurance company EOBs)
- Online bill payment for all bills, including healthcare bills
- Free notifications of when payments are due
- Bank-grade and HIPAA compliant security
- Unlimited cloud storage with no expiration
- No advertising. Providers control their own profile page and can communicate their own messaging; drives users to provider web tools (i.e., patient portal)
- Accessible through browsers and mobile applications
This expanded network offers four other features that are attractive to Advocate as a provider. First, it does not incur any credit card processing fees on transactions. Second, there are easy links back to the Advocate website to encourage more patient interaction. Third, as an outsourced solution, this provides innovation without disrupting other IT priorities or budget. Finally, since other businesses will also be promoting the service to consumers with whom Advocate has a relationship, this will lead to a network effect for additional patient connections to Advocate.
Over time, Advocate believes this will accelerate patient adoption of paperless communication and online payment, which will result in the following benefits:
- Lower cost to collect (no printing, postage or credit card fees)
- Faster payments by bringing together the provider and insurance documents to one place to simplify the medical billing process
- Increased website traffic, by engaging patients who would otherwise not come to the hospital site. The promotion of other services, such as physician appointments, viewing lab results, registering for a class or screening, etc.
- Improvement in patient loyalty
Adoption will not happen overnight. But what is certain is that consumers look to Advocate to provide access to advanced technology and to provide the best quality care. This means leveraging technology that will make patients' lives easier.
Terry McCarthy is director of patient accounting at Advocate Health Care, and can be contacted at terry.mccarthy@advocatehealth.com. John Talaga is vice president at Doxo, and can be contacted at john.talaga@doxo.com.
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