How a few simple patient pay improvements transform the treatment experience

Patient treatment begins the second a new patient makes an appointment. It continues as they interact with admissions staff, billers, care providers and specialists. No matter who they’re communicating with, patients need to know your team has their best interest in mind.

As a result, it’s your responsibility to enhance the standard treatment experience. You must find ways to make treatment not just effective, but also as personal and enjoyable as possible. Advanced patient pay practices can help. They turn an experience that is sometimes stressful, confusing and outright intimidating for patients into a much more manageable, satisfactory aspect of treatment.

Here are three patient pay improvements that can significantly enhance your patients’ treatment experience.

1.    Offer a convenient way to pay

When was the last time you used cash to pay for groceries, gas or your home electric bill? If you’re like most consumers, you probably prefer to use your credit or debit card, or maybe a mobile payment app, when making everyday purchases.

Your patients are also accustomed to using modern forms of payment, and many of them see these methods as a more convenient, easy-to-use alternative than cash or check. This presents a key opportunity to enhance the treatment experience by implementing an advanced payment system like Inovalon’s Patient Payment Management (formerly ABILITY SECUREPAY).

Give patients the option to pay for their medical services the same way they pay for other goods. Show them that you’re focused on meeting their needs in every possible way. Then, watch as patient satisfaction increases and, potentially, as A/R days for patient payments decrease. When patients are able to use a credit card to pay online or over the phone at their convenience, they’re more likely to pay on time as opposed to when they’re limited to using other methods.

2.    Let patients pay for services over time rather than all at once

A recent study found 64% of patients delay or skip care because of costs leading to even more costly care situations. These may include:

• Emergency room visits
• Increased hospital readmissions
• Unfavorable treatment outcomes (causing the need for repeat/additional treatment)

While money isn’t the only reason patients hesitate to seek treatment, it is a significant concern for many. This is why payment plans are so valuable. They make treatment more accessible and ease the fear or anxiety often associated with payments. And with an increasing rate of patient payment responsibility, the more you can do to help patients manage their payments, the better off their health (and your bottom line) will be.

3.    Give patients the option to set up recurring payments

If patients do decide to sign up for a payment plan, make it even more manageable for them by offering automated recurring payments. Just like paying for home utilities or a phone bill, recurring payments for medical services can simplify and enhance the patient experience. They give patients one less thing to worry about, allowing them to focus on the at-home care plan you’ve provided for them, the medication they need to take, or the lifestyle changes they’re working on.

Just as your team manages claims and payments to increase organizational financial performance, your patients make personal finance decisions every day some more difficult than others. Make the decision for them to seek treatment and pay for services an easy one. Support their payment process by implementing advanced patient pay practices to enhance their entire treatment experience.

Discover our patient payment software today.

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