Most industries in the world are shifting to a more consumer-friendly approach to improve their services and cater to the audience’s specific needs. Healthcare is not far behind. With the federal health authorities introducing laws and regulations like the No Surprises Act and the Price Transparency Rule, the main aim is to close the health equity gap. The new rules and regulations want to make healthcare services a shoppable experience for the patient, increasing transparency on price rates and RCM medical billing outcomes.
A transparent conversation regarding finance can positively impact the relationship between the provider and the patient. The patients of current times need to know what they are signing up for before deciding to have a medical procedure done. The Price Transparency Rule requires hospitals to publicly put up service charges in machine-readable files on their website. But true transparency goes beyond that and can begin with a thorough conversation with your patients. Make sure you are taking steps to improve the patient experience. Know the role of transparent RCM medical billing in this process.
Building Patient Loyalty:
With hospitals and healthcare organizations suffering from high revenue losses for the last couple of years, the management must make confident decisions to help reverse the issues. One of the primary ways of doing that is to build a loyal patient base. However, only offering the best medical services will not help you develop a good relationship with your patients.
Patients look forward to a transparent RCM medical billing process and a smooth payment experience for growing affinity towards a particular healthcare organization. Close to 90% of patients would want to know the cost of a healthcare service before it is performed, according to a study by CareCredit called “The Payment Cure: How Improving Billing Experiences Impacts Patient Loyalty.” This factor also strongly influences their decision to switch to providers if necessary. A trends report from Instamed highlights that 56% of patients are highly likely to switch their providers over to get an improved billing and payment experience. Therefore you must focus both on the patient’s financial and clinical outcome.
Implementing Communication Best Practices:
According to several statements by CEOs of leading healthcare organizations, the RCM medical billing staff is not yet ready to communicate with the patients about the financial issues and services. Since the tables have turned in the current times, the team must get trained in transparent communication with the patients.
Lack of confidence due to the absence of training is an issue holding back these conversations from happening. Experts also believe that with proper communication training, the staff will realize increased revenue during upfront collections from the patients. Incorporate an integrated workflow management process to help the team determine the patient’s coverage plan quickly. This will help them make better decisions and serve the patients with greater confidence.
Consolidated Bills for Single Service:
Surveys on patient clarity on medical bills show they are often confused about multiple invoices for a healthcare organization’s same treatment or procedure. The reason is that the RCM medical billing team primarily prepares separate bills for the hospital and the professional services. Most patients need a bill that consolidates every aspect of their service to better view the charges.
Experts feel that it is high time healthcare organizations start preparing and sending out one bill instead of multiple others to ensure patient clarity and for their better understanding. The West Coast university medical center has implemented this method and found that there has been significant improvement in patient experience. Providing multiple payments and financing options for these bills will ensure increased revenue flow and an improved patient experience.
Rising Out-of-Pocket Costs:
Recent surveys by the PYMNTS published in September 2021 shows that 64% of the patients need to pay out-of-pocket costs for their medical services. In the particular study, though over 90% of patients had insurance, the out-of-pocket expenditure was high. The out-of-pocket expenses range was a crucial factor for deciding whether the patients wanted to go for their treatment.
In these situations, knowing any financing plan or third-party financing option from the healthcare provider’s office could turn around the situation for the patients. However, 50% of the patients were unaware of any such plans from their medical offices. Open and transparent conversations with the RCM medical billing partner could highly benefit the hospitals in improving their credibility and patient loyalty.
No Surprise Billing:
Surprise billing need not necessarily be in the case of emergency treatment options. You need to follow the No Surprises Act in that case. However, the Act has not meant surprise billing in a lot of other cases that need attention. The traditional workflow management for RCM medical billing in the healthcare industry does not provide much scope for the inclusion of patients during the entire path of their journey. This means that the patient remains oblivious of the financing and billing until the medical service has been rendered.
In recent times, patients have demanded that they be included in the RCM medical billing process right from the onboarding process till the discharge. The billing professionals are not comfortable having direct conversations with the patients about their billing and financing methods. This is the reason the patients might receive surprise bills at the end of their treatment. Ensure that you incorporate transparency in the daily workflow and train your staff for these conversations.
Implementing a change in the traditional medical billing method can be challenging for in-house teams. You can leave your worries to experienced professionals from the leading RCM companies who will take a more proactive approach to alter the system.
We hope this blog helped you understand why transparent RCM medical billing is crucial for improved patient experience. For any queries, write them below in the comment section and we will revert. For more updates on healthcare management, billing, and technology, please subscribe to our blog. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to get regular updates on the American medical industry.