It's time to reshape the traditional post-care accounts receivable process.
That's what Dave Fasoli, executive vice president and CEO of CareCredit at Synchrony Financial, said in an interview with Becker's Hospital Review, describing the traditional process as lacking consumer centricity.
During the interview, Mr. Fasoli discussed the importance of engaging with patients early in the revenue cycle. It's something his company CareCredit has 30-plus years of experience with. CareCredit acts as a dependable payment option for patients facing more out-of-pocket costs and balances due. Today, across 210,000 providers and retail locations, patients are using CareCredit health, wellness and personal care credit cards to pay off their accounts upfront or balances due in two business days.
Here, Mr. Fasoli answers five questions about how CareCredit can help improve patients' propensity to pay:
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for length and style.
Question: Dave, when it comes to refining the patient billing experience, what is a key question every provider should ask?
Dave Fasoli: Understanding patient experience is important. Patients today are seeking positive clinical outcomes, and a transparent provider payment process. The billing and payment process is an important part of the overall experience. Patients are demanding cost transparency and payment options. You wouldn't go into a car dealership and buy a car and have the salesman tell you what the price or payments are as you're driving away. But that's what is happening in healthcare.
The logical thing providers are doing is to engage third parties to manage their collections better than they could internally. That creates modest efficiency, but it's not a comprehensive solution.
By moving the financial conversation to the point of service or before arrival, providers help patients understand what resources are available to them. If providers save payment conversations for the billing statement and a patient is ultimately surprised by their obligation or don’t understand their bill, patient satisfaction is going to be negatively impacted.
Q: When should providers roll out a new strategy for patient payment collection?
DF: The healthcare industry has become very adept at having the insurance discussion. When a patient walks into a provider’s office, one of the first conversations they're going to have will likely be about insurance.
Now that providers are seeing anywhere from 15 percent to 20 percent of their revenue come from out-of-pocket payments, they should deal with the upfront payment discussion as proactively as they've treated the payer discussion.
Providers must revisit the out of pocket responsibility from onboarding all the way through care delivery and billing. They need to ask themselves: 'How can I integrate new payment options and technology into an overall financial policy?'
Once they figure that out, it's about training their patient facing staff to implement the policy. It's one thing to employ a third-party solution. It's another thing having a comprehensive solution integrated into the overall patient experience, and training staff to have the right conversation with the patients from the get-go. This includes during patient appointments and after care billing team members.
Q: How does CareCredit help health systems bring patient billing to the forefront?
DF: It takes some time for point-of-service payments to become a normal process for staff and patients. Point-of-service takes the advantages of retail and puts them in the context of healthcare. It's important for providers to help consumers feel like they're in a position to gain payment flexibility—either through the provider or on their own.
Ultimately, consumers are going to want to know what their procedure will cost after insurance payments are made. Everyone understands during the course of care, things can change. Making patients aware that you are providing an estimate, and things could change is important. This estimate should include the patients remaining, unpaid deductible. When a patient has an out of pocket responsibility, CareCredit can provide flexible payment solutions. We have been doing this in healthcare the industry for over 30 years. Ultimately, the option to pay over time provides patients the ability to seek care when they need it – improving outcomes.
Q: What effects do you think out-of-pocket billing has on care management?
DF: Health systems don't seem to uniquely understand what percentage of patients aren't moving forward with care as a consequence of financial barriers. Between 35 percent and 45 percent of patients who are deferring a portion of care are doing so because of finances.
If patients don't follow through with care, we need to go back and understand why. Because as soon as we understand why, we can put solutions in place.
This is especially pertinent as the industry shifts toward value-based care. The reality is if a patient doesn't fill her prescription, or doesn't complete post procedure care, there's going to be a negative impact to outcomes and overall patient satisfaction.
Q: What should providers consider when using third-party payment solutions?
DF: Patient satisfaction and experience in healthcare is critical. CareCredit has been working with providers and patients to solve for out of pocket costs for over 30 years. And, our patient satisfaction and NPS scores prove our patient centricity. One question a healthcare executive asked me is: 'We're concerned you provide credit to people who don't have the capacity to pay it back. In those cases, are you really helping them?'
The answer is no. If you have a patient come in and take care of their health but wind up putting them in bankruptcy, that's not helping them. CareCredit seeks to help patients and providers and we don’t approve everyone.
We avoid putting patients in financial distress. CareCredit is a great solution for folks because it can be made available instantly to somebody at the time they need it. But, it's also the beginning of a long-term relationship with CareCredit. Reuse of the CareCredit Card within the network represents well over 50% of program use.
In addition, from a patient loyalty perspective, a patient is more likely to return to a healthcare system where they opened a CareCredit account. Whether it’s a broken arm, and three months later, an urgent care visit. that same CareCredit line can be used over and over again. It's swipe and go, as opposed to a scenario where another loan needs to be established.