Professional Credit president and president of ACA International, Scott Purcell offered insights into self-pay collections in a recent Oregon HFMA podcast. In his discussion, he addressed the new challenges for collecting from attitudes about healthcare costs to operational challenges that have arisen due to Covid-19. Ahead of a presentation on the same topic at Oregon HFMA’s virtual conference this Thursday, we wanted to offer a sneak-peak into the 5 strategies he outlines as key to optimizing self-pay in today’s economic climate.
- Gather complete and accurate data
In a recent study, Professional Credit identified the impact of additional consumer information on the life of an account. The results illustrate how valuable each piece of information is when provided at the time of placement. For example, simply giving your collection partner a valid address, phone number, and date of birth can improve recovery by as much as 20%. Therefore to ensure the best recovery rates, health systems should put an emphasis on collecting complete and accurate data throughout the patient journey.
- Train staff to collaborate
Behavioral science research tells us that financial decisions aren’t always logical. Ensuring patients are making the best decisions for their financial health, and for the fastest account resolution, agents must be trained to have productive discussions – and know how to collaborate with patients to reach a mutually beneficial outcome. Professional Credit employs a two-pronged strategy for training agents. First, engage with the known behavioral psychology, test talk-offs, and adjust language accordingly. Next, utilize technology for monitoring and coaching. Our speech analytics platform analyzes not only the language used on calls but also the emotional content, giving us a three-dimensional perspective on patient interactions.
- Tailor communications
As an extension of the strategy described above, communications are tailored for the best results. Scott identifies the winning formula as: Context + Content + Tone + Persona + Consistency. Context acknowledges the challenges that the patient is experiencing which inhibit paying their bill. Presently, job loss or illness due to COVID are common contexts. Content represents the message delivered in written communication or the talk-offs that let the agent take control of the conversation. Content typically is an explanation of how we can help the patient reach their goal of account resolution, whether we can offer a settlement discount or assist in developing a payment plan based on their needs. The tone is always empathetic. This is especially important when dealing with patients, even outside of the unusual circumstances created by the pandemic. The persona represents the image of the patient team is aligned around delivering service – the collaborative financial partner we strive to be in all communications. And finally, consistency is distributing the same message throughout all channels.
- Use technology to engage
Now, especially considering social distancing recommendations, using technology for engagement is more important than ever. Professional Credit has been engaging with an omnichannel communication strategy for some time, which positioned us nicely for a smooth transition at the onset of the pandemic. Aside from the benefits of these communications in the time of COVID-19, we have found engagement is improved when you let patients engage through the channel of their preference, offering a variety of options is just a way to further promote a personalized experience. In addition to omnichannel communications, a comprehensive online portal and mobile app experience are essential. From inside the portal, patients can manage and monitor their accounts, make payments, adjust payment plans, and get assistance – all when it’s most convenient for them. Professional Credit conducted a study recently in which we determined the measurable impact of digital payments and proving that encouraging patients to interact with their accounts digitally, improves recovery rates.
- Stay in touch
The final key is the importance of staying in touch with patients that cannot make any movement on their accounts at this time. If we look at the lessons we learned from the Great Recession, we know that eventually, patients will recover financially and be able to remedy their financial obligations. We encourage health systems to not lose hope and not rush to write off these accounts. New rules have been proposed that may remove any limitations for collecting on non-Medicare accounts. We hope to see a resolution on this in the coming year. While hounding patients can damage long-term relationships, we prefer to utilize a robust monitoring system and re-engage only when we know their financial circumstances have improved.
This post just scratches the surface of the insights Scott has to offer. Tune in to his full presentation at Oregon HFMA’s Virtual One-day conference this Thursday. For registration and more information visit: https://oregonhfma.org/event/january-virtual-conference-save-the-date/