This bears repeating: good patient financial experiences should be standard practice. Currently, they are anything but standard. 

Sadly, for many people, patient experience is a matter of life and death. Every decision made in the healthcare sector (whether it’s how frequently a patient should be seen, or when to administer treatment) has an impact far beyond that decision point. And every provider, naturally, wants the best outcomes for their patients. Achieving these outcomes requires consideration of every aspect of the patient experience — from the bank to the bedside.

Since December of 2019, when the Chinese government reported the first cases of a novel coronavirus in the Hubei Province of China, COVID-19 has escalated into a global pandemic. While most people who contract this virus do not experience severe symptoms, and more than half of the infected population has already recovered, the virus still represents a serious public health concern. Moreover, as the world determines how best to prevent, contain, and manage the pandemic, there are separate political and socioeconomic consequences that must be considered.

Given our active interest in the intersections of health and socioeconomics, we’d like to examine the financial impact of the coronavirus on patients in the United States. We’ll walk through the latest updates, including those from President Trump’s March 12th address to the nation, and discuss the hurdles that US citizens may encounter as they work to prevent, test for, and treat COVID-19.

Ultimately, we argue that this unfortunate pandemic illuminates the importance of transparent pre-care patient engagement. When patients are aware of their treatment options they can avoid surprise medical billing for lifesaving care.

Take it from the politicians: healthcare is an economic issue. In fact, it’s one of the most important ones.

Every healthcare executive is familiar with the term revenue cycle management (RCM), but surprisingly few know what patient financial management (PFM) is. That is truly unfortunate because patient financial management is a system of revenue planning grounded in transparency and preparation that has been proven to convert nearly all unrecoverable patient financial responsibility. PFM companies like FinPay have demonstrated time and time again that their innovative pre-care patient engagement strategies work. 

It is almost 2020, which means a new cycle of patient delinquency for most health care organizations. As the calendar resets, so too do the health plans of most U.S. households, leaving them with an enormous financial responsibility—their annual health plan deductible. For many families, this deductible makes medical care financially unviable and forces them to delay or completely forego making payments to providers or seeking care at all.

It is hardly a secret that the most successful businesses have strong, enduring customer relationships built on trust. This trust can be strengthened with each patient engagement opportunity. This is especially true in health care where patient trust and organizational reputation are the foundations for success.

If you would like to learn how your organization can build patient loyalty, satisfaction, and higher recovery of patient financial responsibility, contact us today.

Summary of the study results:

According to a study in the Annals of Family Medicine, the average amount of time that a doctor spent on an individual patient visit was 17.5 minutes. That leaves a lot of time to form an impression of a practice.