The patient experience is essential to the success of healthcare organizations. It affects reputation, patient loyalty, and even propensity to pay. Maintaining a healthy revenue cycle means providing quality services to patients. In today’s post, we are going to identify 10 key elements in a service strategy that create a superior patient financial experience and why.
- Top-level Training
Medical debt often follows a traumatic event and is rarely anticipated. This means conversations with patients are delicate and require compassionate care. Agents trusted to engage with patients on this level need good training. That’s why, with the help of ACA International, we have developed a comprehensive training strategy that teaches agents to approach patient accounts with the patients’ best interest in mind. Aside from extensive education about compliance and best practices, our agents benefit from real-life examples supplied by our speech analytics technology and monitoring systems. This gives rookie agents more hands-on training experience which assists in developing the tools they need prior to having contact with patients.
- Omni-channel Communication
No two patients are alike and so an effective communication strategy needs to accommodate diverse engagement preferences. Reaching patients on their terms ensures more effective communication and eliminates any negative feelings that could be derived from unwanted contact; getting them the information they need in the form they prefer. We show patients that we care about their preferences by employing a variety of digital engagement tools from traditional phone contact to email, text messaging, and more.
- Self-Service Tools
The modern patient is demanding modern tools. They want the ability to check their account status, make a payment or set up a payment plan, and contact an agent through secured messaging or live chat with any questions – all in one place. Providing self-service tools empowers patients to make the best decisions for their financial health. We worked hard to develop our online patient portal and mobile optimized website, PCS DirectPay, so we could offer patients 24-7 access to view and take actions on their accounts. We’ve even included a payment estimator tool which allows patients to see how different payments impact interest and the overall life of their account.
- Multi-lingual Agents
It’s difficult to express to patients that you’re here to help if you don’t speak their language. Language barriers are unfortunately an often overlooked key component of successful engagement and patient relations. We tackle this challenge by having a department dedicated to Spanish speakers; patients benefit from bilingual agents, Spanish language voicemail and automated messages, as well as instructional videos to walk them through the features of our online portal. In addition to Spanish, we can communicate with consumers in over 200 different languages with our Certified Languages International translation service.
- Transparency
Providing patients with transparency in the billing process creates a sense of trust and can strengthen their relationships with their providers. Establishing this level of trust with patients is essential to patient loyalty and the reputation of your organization. That’s why inside PCS DirectPay we give patients full account transparency. Their account information is presented in a straightforward format so that billing is easy to understand and there are never any surprises concerning payment expectations or interest accrual.
- Patient-centric Approach
Seeking medical attention, under any circumstance, is difficult. Considering increasing out-of-pocket costs, premiums, and financial responsibility, it’s not surprising that many patients’ accounts end up in collections. In order to provide a superior patient experience, you must approach financial care with the same compassion and consideration that patients are given during treatment. With this in mind, we developed our “New Deal” philosophy; approaching patient accounts with empathy and the understanding that they want to pay their bills, just sometimes they might need a little help.
- Flexible Payment Plans
Part of having an understanding of patients’ financial situations is working with them to find a mutually beneficial solution. Often this takes the form of a payment plan. Small consolations like this take some of the pressure off and show patients you are here for them in the long term. By offering flexible payment plans we give patients the opportunity to work towards account resolution in a way that fits their budget, showing them that we care about their financial health.
- Automation
A key component of superior patient experience is the ability to offer a personalized experience. You want to connect with your patients as individuals to ensure they are provided with the best solution for their unique circumstances. This means agents must give patients their undivided attention. How we accomplish that is through using modern automation processes in our back-office operations. This not only ensures that standard procedures are carried out in a timely manner but relieves our agents of tedious manual processes so they can focus on the human side of their job.
- Speech Analytics
Most patients aren’t going to tell you exactly what they think is lacking in your service, how agents make them feel, or what would make their experience better – that’s where speech analytics technology comes in. With speech analytics you can analyze 100% of patient interactions, collecting trend data for language or keywords, and monitor for emotional cues. This is one of our primary strategies for quality control. We use this data to assist us in ongoing agent coaching and to help identify specific patient concerns as they arise so they can be addressed quickly.
- Continuous Process Improvement
And finally, you must keep a keen eye on internal processes and opportunities to create a more efficient and positive experience for patients. From utilizing the most modern technology available to closely monitoring patient interactions, organizations that create a superior patient financial experience make continuous process improvement part of their methodology. We strive to create a culture of self-analysis and positive process evolution – this is how we offer better financial care each time we speak with a patient, so they have the best possible billing experience.