Becker's Hospital Review

29 Executive Briefing Sponsored by: H ealthcare leaders convened during the Becker's Hospital Review Advisory Board Call on June 2, 2021 to discuss healthcare's evolution to transform the patient financial experience and how it impacts healthcare institutions' financial performance. As hospitals and health systems increasingly explore ways to improve their revenue cycle management practices and look for ways to create a sustainable financial infrastructure, they are also prioritizing the patient experience. As we emerge from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, there is an increasing demand for expanded payment options to support virtual care encounters. Hospitals, physician practices and health systems are actively working to improve the patient financial experience with innovative payment solutions that make healthcare more accessible at all stages of the patient journey. During the Advisory Board Call, an elite group of executives from across the healthcare ecosystem gathered to discuss key learnings from the past year and innovative financial approaches they are taking to better support patients, providers and their organizations. Following are key takeaways from the Advisory Board conversation. Integrating initiatives to deliver a positive financial experience for patients Putting patient financial needs at the forefront of the conversation, participants discussed how they are addressing unique needs for their patient populations. This includes healthcare organizations providing organizational training for staff members to answer questions about a patient's financial responsibility and the significance of provider organizations and health systems proactively offering patient financing solutions before, during and after care delivery. Shannon Burke, senior vice president and general manager of health systems, Synchrony Health and Wellness, shared that, "It is definitely something that CareCredit thinks about, how we provide training both to the providers themselves to help facilitate those difficult conversations. Revenue cycle management teams and the finance teams are the unsung heroes in health systems. The doctors and the clinical teams will always be in the spotlight. At the same time, we must recognize the important work that RCM financial teams are doing, often behind the scenes." In fact, "The CareCredit, CWH Advisors Patient Pay Survey found that patients want more transparency around cost, payment products and plan options from their healthcare providers before receiving care 1 ," explained Burke. Healthcare organization staff should engage patients in upfront financial conversations ahead of treatments, such as family planning or elective surgery. Staff can also speak with families about how unplanned expenses like emergency department visits can arise and how patients can secure payment options in advance to ensure they have a way to pay. "At Spectrum Health, we have a dedicated training team within our revenue cycle. This team develops the scripting, education materials, and online webinars. We push this training out to ambulatory, inpatient and all frontline staff to ensure we deliver a consistent experience to patients. This training is essential in preparing staff to anticipate some of those difficult, crucial conversations you may have with the patient," shared Amy N. Assenmacher, senior vice president revenue assurance, Spectrum Health. In this rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, a knowledgeable administrative staff will be better equipped to adapt to regulation changes around healthcare billing and address them before they become issues that can negatively impact an organization's ability to manage the process. Organizations and patients can work through these changes together and find solutions that work for both parties. For example, they can use an online patient portal that integrates the healthcare billing system into a patient's electronic medical records. Laura Handy Dineen, executive director, operations and infrastructure, AdventHealth, explained, "We built out our estimation tools so they [staff] can really see what the patient will owe. This empowers our staff to better support patients in financial planning. We also have a revenue cycle training team that focuses on these kinds of conversations. In addition, we implemented financial counseling at the beginning and on the back end as well. Typically, it has been thought that customer service reps handle these financial counseling conversations. Instead, we made that the highest position in the revenue cycle, because it's important that people providing this financial counseling understand the entire revenue cycle. In addition to understanding the various financing options, they need to understand patient segmentation." Healthcare decision-makers understand that they have an opportunity to integrate new financing solutions to take on both sides of care access and workflow—working with health systems to improve the entire patient experience by helping them pay for the care they need in ways that help the individual. Preparing for Financial Wellness and Other Key Learning Discussed During the Latest Becker's Advisory Board Call

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