If your hospital or health system is anything like most, patient payments now comprise 20-30 percent or more of your revenue each month.
This is substantial because even patients who believe they’ve received top quality care may hesitate to pay promptly, if at all. Financially speaking, in the eyes of patients, a hospital doesn’t look much different than the mortgage company, the electric company or even the cable company. In other words, it’s just another bill to pay.
In fact, patients often tell us in our consumer studies that healthcare bills are among the last to be paid because they have already received the care they need. Unlike cable TV service that can be shut off or a house that can go into foreclosure, a hip replacement can’t be taken back.
So how can healthcare executives make sure patients want to put hospital payments at the top of the list of bills to pay each month? The answer may lie as close as the iPad on your lap, the books you ordered from Amazon.com, the shoes your spouse buys from Zappos or even the bills your son-in-law manages with Mint.com. It all boils down to a consumer-centric approach.
Create a great user experience
From the days of its Macintosh desktop computer to today’s iPad and iPhone, Apple has become synonymous with superior user experience—just ask any member of its loyal Apple corps. Each device or application is built on the concept of progressive disclosure, giving users just enough information to take the next step—no more, no less – guiding users effortlessly through often complex processes.
Similarly, healthcare organizations need to look at themselves through their patients’ eyes. Many already do this on the clinical side by appointing patient navigators to help patients traverse various care pathways. Some are also doing it on the business side, by setting up patients with a clearly defined map of the financial experience they can expect, complete with payment plans and clear, understandable statements.
Make payment easy
Remember how tedious it used to be to log into separate websites—each with separate usernames and passwords—for every purchase made online? Consumers couldn’t purchase auto parts, razor refills and pet supplies on one site with one payment until Amazon built an online superstore and patented one-click payment capabilities.
In the same way that Amazon and other retailers have smoothed online checkout for consumers, hospitals and health systems can win patients’ financial and clinical loyalty by making it easier to pay medical expenses by offering a wide range of options—online, mobile, point-of-service, telephone, mail. Make no mistake: Patients are consumers, and expect payment convenience every time they go to pay. Therefore it is critical to remove all possible payment friction to encourage prompt payments.
Focus on customer service
Back in the day, customers who were shopping for shoes for their family at the mall had two options: Either settling for a limited selection and buying everyone’s shoes in the same department store, or going to multiple different stores to make individual purchases for each person needing shoes.
Enter Zappos, who looked at the shoe-buying experience from the consumer’s perspective. Long story short, Zappos built a $1 billion business on its reputation for extreme customer service and almost endless options; everything the company does revolves around consumer convenience. Likewise, hospitals and health systems in the value-based era of healthcare will need to build a culture in which it is unacceptable to leave a patient dissatisfied with any aspect of care or service.
Simplify expense management
It’s no secret that most people hate balancing their checkbook, much less doing their taxes. The intricacies of financial management can be daunting. That’s why services such as Mint.com—which uses a cloud-based platform to help people put managing their personal finances on virtual auto-pilot—have become so popular.
In the same way, cloud-based patient payment platforms can take the friction out of typically poor financial experiences by employing user-centric design and automation. Such technology gives hospitals and patients the functionality they need to better manage care costs, while freeing hospitals to devote more resources to patient care.
When patients win, your hospital wins
None of these companies—Apple, Amazon, Zappos or Mint.com—had any inherent advantages over incumbent companies when they started out. Yet today, each and every one is a household name because they made the consumer the center of their business focus and payment structures.
The same thing is happening in healthcare. One hospital system, for example, experienced a 32 percent increase in patient payment revenue between 2014 and 2016 as a result of creating a great user experience, simplifying the patient payment process and offering terrific customer service. Just as in the retail space, those healthcare organizations that put their patients first are the ones who ultimately will enjoy the most success.
How will your organization compare?
About the author
Bird Blitch is the cofounder & CEO of Patientco. Follow him on Twitter at @BirdBlitch.
The views, opinions and positions expressed within these guest posts are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Becker’s Hospital Review/Becker’s Healthcare. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them.
