Like it or not, payment is part of the patient experience. Revenue collection has always been a significant challenge for health plans and systems. Often the Achilles’ heel of healthcare organization financial processes, revenue collection is crucial to providing consistent quality care. It can also be the friction point where many patients begin to have negative experiences—even unrelated to costs—that can damage reputations, erode trust and prevent timely payment.
Patients Want to Pay
When patients can easily ask questions, when they understand what they owe and why, when paying medical bills is convenient, they are far more likely to pay on time or to arrange payment terms early on.
Conversely, when they can’t do these things, when getting clear answers is difficult, when payment channels are limited, when convenience is only an afterthought, collections fall because the patient is experiencing barriers to payment.
Call centers are typically costly, understaffed and overwhelmed, and they see high staff turnover. Employees receive little training and have little long-term investment in the job, which threatens patient satisfaction, delays or prevents payment, and can even disrupt the patient’s journey toward positive health outcomes.
Additionally, call centers face serious regulatory problems, as sensitive patient health information must be protected and compliance is critical.
Remove the Barriers
Automation is no longer just a desirable option but a totally mission-critical pillar of your business operation. A recent Deloitte report on improving healthcare margins includes a mandate to improve revenue cycle systems in order to sustainably increase revenue collection. This means reducing or even eliminating call center queues with automation, interactive voice response phone system redirection and other advanced functionalities.
How can automation tools help health plans and systems collect more payments?
- Meeting paying patients whenever and wherever they are ready to make or arrange payment: No matter what channel a request comes through, text or voice, your automation solution must be omnichannel.
- Talking and listening like a person would: The technology has to be human-first. Natural language is mandatory for building trust and helping patients connect with the information and resources they need to make timely payments.
- Simplicity: Automation can help consumers make digital payments and utilize their mobile or browser wallets—without calling or going to a payment portal to make payments.
- Doing it right the first time: Internal integrations and public rollouts are times of intense scrutiny, where your hard-earned trust can be broken in just a few negative interactions. Fast and effective implementation with a proven partner is key, especially with urgent timeframes.
- Being there at every step for the patient, across their journey: Your payment automation solution must be part of a bigger picture, with real interoperability that opens doors to payment instead of closing them.
Jump-Start Your Collection Revolution
Automation is how the patient journey becomes truly seamless, not only improving the customer experience and potential patient health outcomes, but also driving margin growth and sustainably improving revenue collections. Remove the barriers to payment and the obstacles that can diminish patient satisfaction. The urgency is high and the stakes are even higher. Choosing the right automation solution partner is essential to success.
It’s not all about collection; automation is also a comprehensive solution for revenue generation, making it easier for patients to discover, navigate and access care.
