Shannon Burke serves as Senior Vice President & General Manager of Health Systems at Synchrony Health and Wellness Platform.
Shannon will serve on the pannel "Trends in Capital Spend and Technology Budgets" and moderate the session "Keynote - Remarks by Earvin "Magic" Johnson" at Becker's Hospital Review 12th Annual Meeting. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place in Chicago from April 25-28, 2022.
To learn more about the conference and Shannon's session, click here.
Q: How do you plan to pivot strategies this year to better serve patients?
Shannon Burke: The way patients access and pay for care has shifted dramatically in recent years, and in some ways, they have become the new payers. That may be hard to imagine, but the reality is that insurance cost-shifting to the individual, combined with more digitized shopping and payment models, has ushered in a new era where patients are truly consumers of healthcare. Providers are well aware of this shift, of course, but are also juggling the impacts of the Great Resignation and pandemic, among other factors.
Third-party financing solutions like CareCredit have an extremely important role to play in our “new normal” – and it’s supporting providers and organizations, so they can deliver the highest quality patient care experience possible. We know cost transparency is especially important to patients when selecting healthcare services. In fact, a recent InstaMed survey showed that even pre-pandemic, 89% of consumers said they want to know their payment responsibility up-front.[i] Providers need innovative tools, training resources and a simple process to help empower their patients with financing information, in addition to offering cost transparency. When patients know their financial responsibility and have access to a payment option that meets their needs, it can provide peace of mind to move forward with care, even in a time of continuing uncertainty.
Q: What technologies and innovations are you most excited about in healthcare right now?
SB: It seems that new technologies and innovations are introduced to the healthcare space every day, especially with the surge in digital health companies entering the market. Many organizations are looking at ways to make existing and adopted technologies like electronic health records more efficient, and this is no different for healthcare finance processes. We’ve come a long way, even during the pandemic, thanks to advances in contactless payments and third-party financial solutions.
The pandemic has also sparked more focused conversations on the benefits of efficient revenue cycle management (RCM) processes, which is exciting. Billing pressure on hospitals remains a top concern for everyone. Cost is top of mind for patients as they select providers, and satisfaction can impact their loyalty. A recent survey by Cedar found 93% of consumers say that the quality of their billing experience is an important factor in whether they’ll return to a provider.[ii] In simple terms, payment preferences and needs are evolving quickly, making RCM more complex and vital than ever. Many providers have introduced a third-party financing option for patients to alleviate debt concerns while also offering the payment flexibility and transparency patients are craving.
Q: What will the lasting impact of COVID-19 be on the healthcare system?
SB: It’s difficult to imagine a part of the healthcare system that COVID-19 hasn’t impacted. On the provider side, many hospitals and health systems are still walking a thin line when it comes to balancing their finances, even with recent government funding. While the experience of front-line clinical staff has been spotlighted – and rightfully so – the impact on non-clinical administrative staff has been quite pronounced as well. Many of these employees are more stretched than ever, balancing administrative pressures that ultimately impact a hospital’s financial solvency. Payment and care authorization processes are vital to a hospital’s financial well-being and its ability to serve patients and return to more consistent operations.
Patients, on the other hand, are more inclined to “shop around” for their care due to that combination of factors I mentioned earlier. We also know that medical debt is mounting – in fact, it’s America’s leading cause of bankruptcy, according to the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC)[iii]. As a result, payment transparency is top of mind for patients – and the more providers can do to offer transparent pricing and payment solutions that enable flexible financing, the better. Providers can help increase patient satisfaction by offering the fast and seamless payment experience patients expect.
Q: What advice do you have for emerging healthcare leaders today?
SB: If you’re a hospital or health system and aren’t working with a third-party financing solution to optimize payments for patients, I’d recommend investing time and resources there. Payments should absolutely be top of mind as health administrators, financial managers and providers consider ways to innovate the end-to-end experience for patients. Offering payment options that are convenient and seamless is a key way to differentiate in a complex landscape. It’s also a way to increase revenue and cash liquidity. After all, research shows nearly three out of four providers report that it takes more than one month to collect payment following care procedures.[iv]
When patients have access to flexible financing, they can pay for the care they want or need, when they need it, and make budget-friendly monthly payments over time. A third-party financing partner that offers integrated payment technology can improve administrative staff efficiencies while reducing errors with automated reconciliation – it’s a win-win for everyone.
i InstaMed, Trends in Healthcare Payments Tenth Annual Report: 2019, published April 2020
ii “The 2021 Healthcare Consumer Experience Study.” COVID-19: Hospital and Financial Preparedness, Cedar, 2021, https://pages.cedar.com/2021healthcarestudy-sign-up?utm_campaign=2021+HCES&utm_source=PR&utm_medium=PR&utm_term=HealthcareStudy&utm_content=HCES.
iii Medical Debt Collection. National Consumer Law Center, https://www.nclc.org/images/Medical-Debt-Collection.pdf.
iv InstaMed, Trends in Healthcare Payments Tenth Annual Report: 2019, published April 2020