Becker's Hospital Review

21 Executive Briefing 3. How will the payment be made? Retail clinics and virtual care visits offer patients the convenience they want while also delivering more seamless, automated ways to pay using a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Clarity is critical to how payments get made, and patients need clear instruction on their payment options which should include the ability to pay in full or set up a payment plan. Contactless forms of payments have become more commonplace amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Providers can offer options like Apple Pay, Venmo, PayPal, and even e-check to make patient payment simpler and more convenient, offering a more retail-like experience. 4. What is the timeframe to receive the payment? Healthcare organizations can take many approaches to project and decrease the timeframe to receive payments. "Multi-staged patient interactions with omnichannel outreach methods can help clinicians receive patient payments faster," Mr. McMurray said. "But employing RCM technology on the front end can also ensure clinicians are paid efficiently and appropriately." Processes for automated claims management and denial effectiveness can double the speed of collections. For instance, automated claims management can file directly with insurance carriers without the use of a clearinghouse. While highly efficient, doing this requires the organizations to have an in-depth knowledge of carriers in all 50 states. Another way organizations can use RCM technology to minimize collections efforts is to perform a real-time insurance eligibility check for the patient during the time of service to capture any potentially missing information that may not have been received from the facility. Newer innovations in RCM are solely designed to collect payment from self-pay patients. One such innovation is coverage detection that intelligently identifies and updates denied and true self-pay claims. Another innovation holds the claim long enough for the patient portion to be collected first before the rest of the claim is submitted to the carrier. Both yield faster payments, increase a patient's propensity to pay and improve the patient experience. 5. How satisfied was the patient with the experience? As bad debt write-offs and delayed patient payments continue to emerge as the top concern for hospital CFOs, it becomes increasingly important to improve visibility into the patient's propensity to pay and minimize any frustration they have around their medical bills. "Patients' financial experiences with the healthcare provider are as critical as their clinical care experiences in terms of building greater patient satisfaction," Mr. McMurray said. "Patient care doesn't end after they've left the medical appointment, instead, it should end with patients thinking that was the easiest medical bill they've ever paid." As healthcare organizations continue to seek payment from scores of healthcare insurance carriers — and increasingly from thousands of individual patients who now populate the payer landscape — there is a need for an enhanced level of business sophistication in revenue cycle processes. Asking these questions and utilizing business intelligence tools and human expertise can help RCM leaders thrive in the new business-to- consumer healthcare world. n Zotec Partners (Zotec) is the country's largest, privately held provider of patient engagement, revenue cycle and practice management solutions for healthcare practices and their patients. Supporting more than 120 million medical encounters annually, Zotec's progressive technology solutions, data-driven tools and industry-leading client support transforms the financial capabilities for more than 21,000 healthcare providers nationwide. Our powerful revenue cycle resources enable patients with a more seamless and fulfilling bill care experience, leading to peak revenue optimization for healthcare providers. Learn more about Zotec and stay up-to-date on Twitter or LinkedIn.

• Cover