With millions of Americans now out of work with limited to no income, prioritizing bills becomes even more challenging. According to the Federal Reserve, approximately 40% of all Americans don’t have enough savings to cover a $400 dollar emergency. Compared to rent/mortgage, utility or credit card bills, medical bills have traditionally been designated as a low priority. Unfortunately, under current conditions, we’re likely to see these numbers rise even higher. So what can be done in order to strike the balance between assisting consumers-in-need while increasing the priority to pay medical bills?
A singular approach won’t work. Instead, Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) groups should implement multiple tactics simultaneously including contactless engagement and flexible payment plans. Especially with laptop and cell phone use at an all-time high for work-related actions, electronic engagement not only eliminates the need to handle paper, but almost assures that messaging for new bills and payment reminders will be seen. Certainly, this increases the likelihood of action taken on those bills. Recent data from our system shows rates as high as 90% for guarantors/patients who clicked a text-based bill (or reminder) link, following through to the payment system. Often, the action taken in that system will be to set up a payment plan.
Payment plans are proving to be valuable for both providers and patients during these times...as long as you are doing them the right way. If you rely on a patient to open a paper statement, understand their balance, pick up a phone and call an office (or remote call center resource) to talk about payment plan arrangements, then you are set up for disappointing results. As an effective alternative, make the delivery of the bill contactless, make login simple, then prompt the patient to accept established payment plan guidelines via a secure cloud solution.
We’ve been tracking the numbers on payment plans managed through our system and the results are pretty telling. Since March 15th, a date many consider the realization of drastic changes to normalcy due to the pandemic, there has been a 122% increase in patients utilizing this option. One RCM organization in particular during this timeframe has had more than 7 times the normal daily number of payment plans established, a feat they only achieved once from February 1st thru mid-March. These plan parameters are established by the financial or RCM team. This allows the patient to simply accept terms or alter them, as long as those alterations meet the criteria. Typically, this includes a minimum acceptable dollar amount or maximum number of installments. It’s the proper balance of simplicity and empathy without losing control.
In fact, these plans are so beneficial for both patient and provider, we’ve seen higher overall collection rates in April than we’d seen for the same period of February, before the pandemic officially “started”. These plans are obviously allowing patients to amortize costs of healthcare over several months while cash-flow is down. Some patients are so appreciative, they’re proactively thanking provider organizations for the flexibility and simplicity. One patient wrote, “I literally would have ignored this if you sent me a bill in the mail. I got your text, clicked the link, entered my date-of-birth and accepted your terms. Umm...thank you!” For the patient, it’s the break they’d expect from any consumer relationship right now. For the provider, payment plans are money in the bank should the Covid-19 pandemic continue for an extended period of time.