Handling patient billing inquiries and payments can be challenging for call center representatives.
Conversations are often awkward and unproductive, and reps often aren't equipped with information that points to the best payment option for each individual.
Becker's Hospital Review recently spoke with two payment experts from RevSpring to learn how the right intelligence enables customer service representatives (CSRs) to have empathetic payment conversations that lead to better financial outcomes:
- Michelle Perez, vice president of analytics
- Casey Williams, senior vice president of patient engagement and payment applications
Note: Responses edited for length and clarity.
Question: How can customer service leaders empower their reps to get better financial outcomes?
Casey Williams: RevSpring processes around $7 billion in healthcare payments annually, and many of those payments come through call centers. In most of those interactions, patients call with a billing-related question and ideally, at the end of those conversations, the patient is ready to make a payment.
The challenge on the customer service side is that call center agents don't always understand the best outcome for each patient. They aren't empowered with the right information to know whether they are talking to a person with a six-figure income or a person who falls below federal poverty guidelines. They treat every call the same way and interactions frequently default to the path of least resistance. In healthcare, this means elongated payment plans.
At great organizations, CSRs use scripting to drive to the best outcome for each patient. When call center leaders can see the outcomes of individual interactions, they can provide the appropriate coaching.
Q: How does a call center rep know what the right outcome is? How precise can reps be?
Michelle Perez: Reps know whether patients have the ability to pay in full, or should be directed to a payment plan, patient financing or financial assistance. We can also inform CSRs about how much patients may be able to pay per month. This helps determine the right length for payment plans. If patients can pay $200 for month, for example, they should be directed to a six-month plan, while an individual who can only pay $50 a month may need a 12- to 18-month plan.
Q: Tell us more about the underlying intelligence. What do you use to get this information to call center reps?
MP: Our data science team has built proprietary models based on two primary components: demographic data and behavioral data. We have purchased demographic information for all households in the United States, such as income, the kinds of investments they hold, the number and ages of people in the household and more.
We also gather behavioral data as people interact with the RevSpring platform. We know, for example, how many times patients have paid their bill in full, and whether they paid online or through the mail, abandoned sessions or clicked on a link from a text message. Even if a new patient has no behavioral data, we can offer intelligence based on our demographic information.
RevSpring's models are unique because they use no credit data. Many customers, like faith-based hospitals, don't want to run credit checks — even soft ones — on their patients. Also, a lot of patients live in the financial shadows. They have no bank accounts or credit cards, so they have no credit information. We can create more accurate intelligence through demographic data.
Q: With all of this intelligence, how can call center managers keep employees accountable for outcomes? How does that impact the patient experience and financial outcomes?
MP: In the RevSpring dashboard, call center managers can see whether payments are increasing over time. Unlike our competitors, we track not only whether patients paid, but whether they paid with the right outcome. Not everyone can pay in full, so guiding each person to the optimal outcome is far preferable than having people abandon the payment experience.
CW: Historically, healthcare hasn't focused on the call center environment — less than 5 percent of all call center interactions are scripted. In other sectors, however, scripting and intelligence is the norm for CSRs. Healthcare must borrow from consumer and financial companies that have perfected customer service interactions. CSRs need to be fully equipped with information so they can deliver the best outcomes for each individual patient.
Q: What benefits can call center management expect to see when incorporating the analytics that you've outlined?
MP: When call center teams incorporate analytics, they see increased conversions; that is, patients who set up some sort of payment before leaving the call. By offering ideas that resonate with patients, CSRs create a better patient experience.
CW: We are changing the language, the options and the empathy around financial assistance. When you do that, conversions increase. Dashboards and key metrics enable organizations to celebrate successes and also identify areas for improvement. To enhance the customer experience, either you hire exceptional people or you deploy exceptional processes. It's hard to consistently hire exceptional people. It's much easier to develop processes that produce repeatable outcomes. That's what intelligence and scripting do for our healthcare payment call centers.