During the pandemic, the digital front doors of healthcare are wide open, accessible via a smartphone or digital device. But some rooms within a healthcare facility’s “digital home” are only partially accessible—often, payment is one of them.
When properly designed, digital payments and financial communications can have a significant impact on the bottom line of a hospital or health system.A sort of Bank of America investigation It was found that 44% of consumers pay faster when they notify patients of account balances via email, text message or automated phone notifications. Given the choice, a quarter of people would use a mobile wallet to pay their bills, and about a third would like their provider to offer payment options through a money transfer service like Zelle or Venmo.
However, the survey found that 51% of consumers still receive healthcare bills in the mail. Even with digital payment options for medical bills, the range of options is limited – usually credit card payments through a portal.
Digital-first collection and financial communications powered by artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technologies are fast becoming a way to increase patient financial engagement without investing in additional staff. They put consumers in control of their financial experience while simplifying the payment process.They also significantly reduce call volume – critical at a time when the revenue cycle is vacant increasingly difficult to fill.
Here are four ways an AI-enabled patient financial experience can help drive engagement and out-of-pocket collections.
1. AI-powered financial communications can meet patients where they are. Leading healthcare revenue cycle sector uses artificial intelligence to determine how patients want to connect based on characteristics such as age, gender and response to previous communications.
Predictive analytics also help determine when messages should be sent, down to the day of the week and time of day when patients are most likely to respond. This approach allowed patients to respond on first contact 76 percent of the time.
2. AI communication gets smarter over time. Through machine learning, revenue cycle teams can fine-tune their approach to individuals, from engagement mechanisms (e.g., secure text, email) to the types of messages most likely to resonate with consumers.
For example, if a consumer’s previous payment history indicates a fortnightly payment of $100 on a medical account balance, AI-driven communications could direct the individual to the hospital’s payment plan options early in the patient encounter, when financial involvement is less of an issue. Possibility is the highest.This eliminates inefficiencies in customer call centers 94% of unknown calls No one heard.
3. AI tools put the patient financial experience in the hands of consumersFor example, robotic process automation (RPA) or “robots” can help patients answer their top financial questions when starting a visit or generating a bill: “What are my out-of-pocket expenses? The cost? Does insurance cover some of it? I What is the payment method?”
The bot also prevents data gaps and inaccuracies by prompting patients for missing data and automatically checking the data against reference databases or payer information. For one healthcare organization, using RPA to attract out-of-pocket patients resulted in a 70% increase in patients paying their balance after insurance. Meanwhile, the health system’s clearance rate rose by 43%.
4. AI-based financial engagement speeds recoveryThe Bank of America survey found that 60% of consumers say the way they are contacted about medical bills affects how quickly they pay their bills, with digital options driving much of the increase in payment speeds. One study found that even among patients with delinquent bills, 73% of late offenders Pay when contacted digitally.
Among these consumers, email and text are the preferred communication methods.in view of More than half of consumers surveyed Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, medical bills have shifted to digital payments, and digital financial communications informed by artificial intelligence have strong potential to increase engagement while reducing collection costs.
A digital entry into the healthcare revenue cycle
Just as hospitals and health systems need a digital front door to connect consumers when and where they need care, they also need a digital entry point and support for the final stage of healthcare: medical payments.
Bank of America’s survey found that Covid-19 has accelerated digital payments for consumers 50 and younger, but healthcare has made digital payments more difficult than any other industry. By adopting a more modern, highly digital approach based on AI, healthcare revenue cycle teams can more effectively meet patient needs, drive financial engagement and a better payment experience.
Photo: Cat View, Getty Images
