Tag: patient access

With COVID-19 leading to postponed and cancelled medical appointments, more consumers are turning to “contactless care”. Recent figures suggest telehealth adoption has shot up from just 11% in 2019 to 46% over the course of the pandemic, and some providers are seeing up to 175 times the number of telehealth patients than pre-COVID. As they grapple with the surge in patient volumes alongside regulatory change, many are playing catch-up. For patients, rushed implementation means the telehealth experience can fall short of expectations. Compared to the easy one-click services available with online retail and finance platforms, telehealth can feel clunky and frustrating. Technical issues, not knowing how to prepare for appointments, and a lack of awareness of available services can all taint the consumer experience. Providers looking to launch (or re-launch) a patient-friendly telehealth service ahead of a possible second wave should aim to check off these four considerations before rolling it out. 1. Prioritize easy online scheduling for virtual care Allowing patients to book telehealth appointments when it suits them will help to reduce no-shows and minimize delays. A telehealth platform that integrates with physician calendars and other patient management and record management systems will keep things running smoothly at the operational level, while creating a convenient and secure way for patients to schedule care. For example, when Benefis Health System implemented Patient Schedule, more than 50% of patients chose to book their appointments out of normal working hours. Sam Martin, digital developer and web specialist at Benefis, says: “If you’re not allowing your patients to schedule online, you’re behind the times. You can only benefit from it. We’re seeing the number of online bookings continue to grow every month, confirming that this solution is working for patients.” 2. Include quick and reliable coverage checks With the pandemic and resulting unemployment putting both provider and patient cashflow under strain, any available commercial or government coverage must be identified quickly. Providers should run automated coverage checks to find any missing coverage and select the right financial pathway for each patient as soon as possible. Not only will this create a more compassionate patient financial experience, it’ll allow the collections team to focus their attention on the right accounts and minimize the risk of write-offs. Automated Coverage Discovery screens for eligibility through Medicare, Medicaid or commercial plans, without any collections agency getting involved. With this tool, Essentia Health were able to find coverage for 16,990 accounts that were assumed to be self-pay or uninsured. Kathryn Wrazidlo, Patient Access Director, says: “This has helped patients because we’re actually billing their insurance versus billing them for self-pay. It’s helping staff because they’re billing the insurance company much quicker. There’s less rework.” 3. Get telehealth claims right first time Given that the pandemic may cost hospitals an estimated $200 billion between March and June 2020, there’s no room for the added financial burden of claim denials. But as telemedicine expands, so does its regulatory framework. Providers must keep track of changing payer updates and coding rules so that claims are submitted right first time. An automated, data-driven claims management tool can help providers analyze claims with greater confidence and spot any errors well in advance of submission. Telehealth alerts can be included as customized edits, to confirm whether the patient’s current plan includes virtual care. To help providers manage this process, Experian Health is offering free access to telehealth payer policy alerts through our COVID-19 resource center. 4. Protect patient data As with any part of the digital patient experience, a multi-layered approach to protecting sensitive information is a must. Ideally, this will include two-factor patient identity authentication, device recognition and out-of-wallet checks whenever a log-in attempt looks suspicious. Automating this process with a tool such as Precise ID allows providers to integrate multiple data points to check that a patient is who they say they are, in a way that’s HIPAA-compliant. This makes it harder for thieves to access patient data, without burdening the patient with extra checks as they manage their information. Retaining patient volume and rebuilding revenue through “contactless” care won’t be possible unless the entire telehealth journey is as seamless as possible. From scheduling to payment, Experian Health can help you create a virtual patient experience that’s convenient, secure and reliable. To learn more about how to build a better digital patient journey, download our free eBook.

Consumers today expect fast and convenient access to almost everything, healthcare included. While still only offered by a fraction of healthcare providers out there, online scheduling is catching on throughout the market – especially as more providers turn to telehealth solutions during COVID-19. Still, despite the uptick in online self-scheduling, there are patients who prefer to call to schedule an appointment and call centers may be overwhelmed as a large number of patients rush to reschedule appointments that were cancelled or postponed due to COVID-19. To best prepare, providers will want to ensure the best possible patient experience for those calling to schedule an appointment. This can be done by enabling online scheduling throughout the call center. Here are five ways to make patient scheduling easy through your call center: Save timeWith a manual scheduling process, patients often have to sit on the phone – sometimes for upwards of twenty minutes – while also being put on hold or having to wait to be called back to confirm an appointment. It’s not only an awful patient experience but imagine what all that time adds up with the number of scheduling calls providers receive every single day? By reducing call times you’re making the process more efficient for more routine scheduling calls while also opening up call center agents to focus on those patients who need more attention. Automate the rulesThe key to reducing time spent scheduling an appointment is automating the scheduling protocols and business rules of the providers in the scheduling platform. Call center agents traditionally have to manually navigate expansive spreadsheets or three-ring binders of business rules with the scheduling criteria for each provider. Experian automates all those rules in our system and translates them to easy Q&A prompts for the scheduler while on the phone with a patient. In short, rules automation equals quicker scheduling (while maintaining accuracy). Improve trainingBecause the rules are automated, the training process for call center agents is made much more efficient. Where agents would have had to learn the various nuances of scheduling complex specialty care for a variety of providers, they now just need to learn how to use the scheduling platform. The scheduling protocols are automated and help dialogues will pop-up to explain and guide agents through the scheduling process for every provider and care type. Where it may have taken 60 to 90 days to master scheduling for a new specialty, schedulers can now be experts for that specialty in as little as one hour. IntegrationIn order to get the most out of any scheduling solution it needs to integrate into the provider’s practice management system. Leveraging APIs or HL7 bi-directional connectivity, all bookings occur in real-time. This prevents any double-bookings and also removes any calendar maintenance by staff to block and recheck time for providers. With the integration, bookings from the call center transact the same as if a staff member was logged in at the providers office and scheduling on the spot. Automated outreachProviders can use automated outreach to augment their call center capabilities. With it they can send text message and IVR campaigns to patients with the ability for patients to schedule an appointment in real-time on the phone. Check out Patient Schedule to learn more or download our free guide about how scheduling can be made easier for your patients through all of your access channels.

Patients today expect digital capabilities from their provider and will increasingly choose those who offer digital capabilities. Knowing this, many providers have been working to shift more of the patient journey online, through telehealth and virtual care. Not all care needs to be delivered face to face, and technological advances allow patients to access more services from the comfort of their own homes, at a time that suits them. This trend has been visible for a few years now, as consumers sought out more smartphone-friendly digital healthcare experiences. But change in the healthcare industry often comes at a lumbering pace, so when the coronavirus pandemic hit and accelerated the transition to remote care, many organizations found themselves on the back foot. Now, it’s a case of catch-up, keep up or get left behind. As demand for telehealth services grows, so too does the regulatory framework around it. A big part of staying competitive will be the ability to keep track of new telehealth regulations and changing payer rules. Those that don’t will find their collections straining under the added pressure of missed reimbursement opportunities. How can providers stay on top of the changes and maximize reimbursement? Keeping track of telehealth reimbursement regulations Since early March 2020, the federal government has moved to make telehealth more accessible to patients with Medicare coverage. Limitations on the types of clinicians that can provide telehealth services under Medicare have been waived, while Medicare beneficiaries in rural areas and those with audio-only phones can now access care remotely. New telehealth services will be added to the reimbursable list under a quicker process, which is a huge benefit to both patients and providers, but will mean the rules around reimbursement could change more frequently. Speaking in March, CMS Administrator Seema Verma said: “These changes allow seniors to communicate with their doctors without having to travel to a healthcare facility so that they can limit risk of exposure and spread of this virus. Clinicians on the frontlines will now have greater flexibility to safely treat our beneficiaries.” Flexibility is always welcome – but what do looser rules mean for reimbursement workflows? Three challenges stand out: Payer variation. Telehealth and telemedicine data can be presented differently by different payers, causing a headache for providers during eligibility verification.Coding variation. Each type of telehealth visit is coded and billed differently. Regardless of where appointments are carried out, clinicians must still follow the same billing workflow, so keeping track of the differences is essential.Geographical variation. Providers now have to track billing and coding changes for telehealth services from different payers across multiple states. What can providers do to bill telehealth services as accurately as possible? Billing for telehealth services more frequently calls for a solution that’s flexible enough to keep pace with changing payer rules, and sufficiently scalable to provide real-time reimbursement information when it’s needed. Automation can help achieve both of these goals. Two use cases for automation: Quicker Medicare checks: Run quick and accurate checks to confirm patients are eligible for Medicare coverage for the services in question. A tool such as Coverage Discovery can comb for available coverage, even as patients are switching plans or payer rules are changing. In addition, eligibility verification automations can sweep for coverage information on telehealth services, using reliable and secure third-party data and analytics to check for updates. Cleaner claims submissions: Tighten up billing workflows so that claims can be submitted as soon as possible. Claims management software can run automatic checks so that every claim is submitted clean and error-free. Any missing or incorrect codes can be flagged up, eliminating costly and time-consuming rework. Telehealth alerts can be included as customized edits to confirm whether virtual care is a benefit included in the patient’s current plan. While these actions can help protect your bottom line during the immediate crisis, they’ll also help you build a solid foundation as your telehealth offering inevitably continues to grow. Whether you’re looking to verify coverage, check eligibility or protect patient identities as they log in and use telehealth services, reliable data is key. Schedule a free consultation to discover how Experian Health can help you leverage accurate and real-time data insights to optimize your billing workflow and maximize telehealth reimbursements.

From airlines to cafés to car manufacturers, businesses across America are scrambling to respond to the challenge of COVID-19. In healthcare, services are being put on pause to protect staff and patients on the pandemic’s front line, leaving health systems to contend with gaps in reimbursements and exhausted cash flows. The problem lies in the sheer number of human touchpoints involved in the typical patient experience: scheduling, paperwork, waiting rooms, treatment, payment…all that in-person interaction just isn’t realistic in the current climate. Digital and mobile technology could be the answer. While digital communication platforms have been growing steadily over the last decade, they’re now a life raft for many providers as COVID-19 forces much of the patient journey online. Megan Zweig, director of research and marketing at Rock Health, says investments in virtual care have already exceeded $3 billion this year: "Without COVID, the story would have continued from last year as this was a healthy, growing space with a lot of momentum behind it. That momentum has turned into incredible urgency and demand for communication, testing, monitoring, care – all of those things done at a distance." This trajectory will likely continue beyond the immediate crisis, as providers prepare for a possible second wave later in the year and patients become accustomed to remote and mobile options. Providers that take advantage of these digital solutions now will be better positioned to optimize the patient journey in a post-COVID world. What could the digital patient journey look like beyond COVID-19? A digital healthcare experience can offer patients more convenience and flexibility while protecting revenue for providers, in the following ways: Scheduling appointments when it suits The first bump in the road for many patients is scheduling their appointment. With many in lockdown juggling home-schooling and home-working, it’s not always convenient to call during office hours. A patient scheduling platform lets the patient book their appointment whenever suits, using the channel they prefer. Before the pandemic, Benefis Health System found 50% of patients chose to book after hours, including for urgent care. We can expect this to increase as even more patients are nudged online. As the threat of COVID subsides, a massive influx of patients will also want to reschedule postponed visits. Automated patient scheduling will reduce the pressure on call centers and offer a more efficient consumer experience. Reducing registration gridlock with automation Patient access is often rife with avoidable stress – queues, unnecessary forms and manual data entry, resulting in costly errors and repeated work. Instead, providers can streamline the process by allowing pre-registration tasks to be completed online, and automating patient access with a mobile intake experience. Completing as many tasks as possible outside of the provider’s office will help minimize face-to-face contact, keeping everyone safe. Opening up access to telehealth There’s no getting around the fact that most care needs to be delivered in person. Telemedicine offers an effective way for patients to seek care from the safety of their own home. Video calls can be used for general consultations, remote monitoring of patients with respiratory conditions, and even supporting patients with chronic conditions to adhere to care plans. As the government allocates $20 million to support access to telemedicine in response to COVID-19, up to 54% of patient encounters are expected to take place remotely in the near future. Many of these patients will choose to stick with telemedicine, even when in-person options return. [Remember to check out our free COVID-19 Resource Center, where you can get free access to telehealth payer policy alerts to help avoid payment denials and delays.] Making contactless payment the easy option Contactless payment through apps such as Apple Pay and Venmo are gaining popularity as consumers try to avoid exchanging cash and cards. But can it be used in hospitals? In short, yes. Not only does Experian Health’s Patient Financial Advisor offer patients a way to make secure – and socially distanced – payments, it allows providers to give a breakdown of estimated costs using real-time information. Patients get updates on their mobile or through their patient portal. These digital alternatives not only offer a more convenient patient experience, they can also allow providers to collect payments faster and in full. Contact us to find out how digital health solutions can help your organization adapt to the new normal, and provide a better patient experience now and beyond COVID-19.

The term “digital front door” is one of the biggest buzz words in healthcare, and thanks to COVID-19, we can expect to see it even more. Already, according to an Accenture survey, 77 percent of patients believe the ability to book, cancel, or change an appointment online is important. Now, with social distancing and stay at home orders in place, offering digital tools for engagement is more important than ever. But what exactly makes a strong “digital front door” and what does it take to create one? What precisely does a digital strategy need in order to better engage and retain patients? There are a lot of thoughts about what the digital front door looks like, from pricing transparency to ratings and reviews, reputation management, patient registration, and more. We know patients today are seeking greater transparency from their entire healthcare experience. Yet each of the qualities above reflect more of a digital billboard than an actual front door. After all, the front door needs to be a pathway to see a physician or access care; it must actually “open.” A true digital front door will do the following: Enable omni-channel access. Improving access begins with offering more channels for patients to find the care they need – a necessity today in the midst of COVID-19. Digital scheduling drives patient access, plain and simple, whether it be through call centers, automated outreach, or online self-scheduling. Omni-channel access not only opens the door for patients experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, giving them a fast and easy way to connect with a provider, but will be key for the post-COVID world when patients begin to reschedule those appointments that have been cancelled or deferred. Engage patients. Patients want convenience when it comes to accessing care. Now, more than ever, patients look online for information and expect to find what they need easily and quickly. Making service information available online, such as COVID testing, is an obvious first step. Allowing consumers to simply and efficiently book the care they need online will lead to increased engagement, as well. Improve productivity. More than half of all patients prefer to schedule outside of business hours. Digital scheduling can enable that, increasing appointments while improving provider workflow, freeing up staff to focus on other activities. This will prove critical as providers brace for an influx of patients seeking to reschedule appointments that have since been cancelled or deferred due to COVID-19. Additionally, automated reminders help improve patient show rates while data-driven practices help refine scheduling logistics.  Increase revenue. Providing better, more efficient access, increases the number of patients coming into a practice – which means more revenue. And today, as a result of heroic efforts to serve communities impacted by COVID-19, providers are more strapped for revenue than ever before. With access to digital and mobile solutions, providers can attack revenue loss from two sides –attracting new patients and retaining current ones. Drive higher patient satisfaction. Faster, easier access to healthcare equals better satisfaction with the process of accessing healthcare, with the provider organization, and with the provider. And, if you really want a crowd pleaser that can also generate revenue, automated business rules and scheduling protocols are a must have.It’s the combination of convenience and effectiveness that keeps them coming back for future care needs – coming back, of course, through the digital front door. Learn more about how Patient Scheduling can help to unlock your organization’s digital front door.

  Recently I had the opportunity to present at a regional chapter of the National Association of Healthcare Access Management about the growing need for business intelligence to improve patient access functions, as well as revenue. In speaking with attendees, it became clear that automating the patient access workflow with real-time data can create a more efficient and accurate process. Here’s how. As the responsibility for paying healthcare bills increasingly falls to patients themselves, patient access can make or break the revenue cycle. From registration and verifying insurance details, to scheduling appointments and collecting cash payments—this is the front line for the financial side of the patient experience. When you consider that half of denied claims occur earlier in the revenue cycle at the point of registration, improving those early-stage patient access processes is the obvious place for providers to look when seeking to minimize lost revenue. Revenue loss in patient access is mostly due to errors in patient identification, inadequate data analytics and inefficient workflows. If front and back office teams were better connected and able to work together quickly to communicate and resolve issues, many of these errors could be prevented. Without reliable tools and workflows to support this, those teams often must resort to manual fixes for any errors that arise. Unfortunately, this takes time and effort, blocking opportunities to find new ways to improve decision making and business performance. Healthcare is becoming more competitive. Providers must work to leverage the right data in the right way to safeguard profits and offer a better patient experience. That said, where should you start? Doing more with less requires the right data insights There are two sides to the solution: first, you need to be sure your data is accurate from the start. Around a third of denied claims are caused by inaccurate patient identification, while 12% of patient records are duplicates. Cleaning up your data with high-quality demographic data can help eliminate preventable denials. Secondly, you need to be able to draw insights from your data to help make smarter decisions in the future. Let’s say you notice a spike in late payments from a certain population. Why is that? Looking at historical data on patient and payer behavior can point to emerging trends and help you figure out where to focus your efforts in response. Or perhaps you’ve recently added a new function to your patient portal. Analytics can help you see if and how patients are using it and evaluate its overall performance. Once you have your data and analytics in place, you can start to use it to make improvements. Automating the patient access workflow with real-time data can create a more efficient and accurate process. It will also help link front and back office staff with shared systems that minimize errors and wasted staff time. 3 ways to use data analytics to streamline patient access For providers looking to streamline their early revenue cycle processes using the power of data, three areas to focus on are: Creating a better patient experience Increasing numbers of self-pay patients means patient loyalty is a growing priority for providers. Creating a positive, straightforward patient financial experience is essential for hospitals and health systems looking to reduce the stress and anxiety many patients feel when dealing with healthcare bills. Using data insights to identify the sticky parts in your patient access processes can help you spot opportunities to improve the consumer experience. For example, are patients receiving duplicate communications because the system is failing to update demographic information? Are there bottlenecks or backlogs that are creating stressful delays for patients? A business intelligence tool such as Revenue Cycle Analytics can help you pinpoint the root cause of delays and errors so you can work to fix them—and level-up your patient experience. When Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital (MLKCH) realized patient registration in their busy Emergency Room was a bottleneck and source for claim denials, they implemented an automated platform to streamline their registration process and improve the data being captured at the point of registration. Lori Westman, patient access manager at MLKCH says: “We get fewer denials because we’re getting true verification data, and our patient volumes continue to increase. So the fact that we can take off two to three minutes, at least, on half of our registrations is speeding up the work for the team, and the turnaround time is much better for the patients.” Uncovering potential revenue loss Analytics can show you exactly where your revenue cycle is losing money. Using appropriate benchmarks and custom KPIs, you can analyze accounts across the entire cycle to make sure your existing revenue cycle solutions are performing optimally and identify new opportunities for improvement. By gathering together multiple data streams into a single dashboard, you’ll get an at-a-glance view of your revenue cycle performance, so you can drill down to the root cause of denials. This also helps link up your front and back office staff. Rather than working retrospectively to address issues as they happen, your back office team can use insights from whole system data reporting and analytics to give front office staff immediate feedback on where denials are occurring. Monitoring payer rules and performance With American hospitals footing the bill for more than $620 billion in uncompensated care over the last two decades, it’s vital to verify a patient’s insurance options as soon as they set foot in the hospital. With up to date information on payer rules and a robust process for finding missing coverage, you can avoid protracted negotiations with payers and focus on denials, rejections and exceptions. A payer dashboard can also help you assess how payers are performing against one another, so your discussions around timely payments will be based in fact. By analyzing performance around pre-service, point of service and post-service, you’ll be better placed to work more closely with payers to minimize the risk of both late payments and denied claims. Learn more about how data analytics and an automated patient access workflow can help eliminate costly denied claims, boost revenue cycle performance and improve the patient financial experience. Steven Thiltgen is Director of Analytics Consulting for Experian Health

    In today’s fast-evolving healthcare industry, consumer expectations are changing. Individuals are footing an increasing portion of medical bills, so they’re paying closer attention to their healthcare options. And with digital technology enabling choices for everything from where to bank to what to eat (and even who to date!), patients are now expecting a similar consumer-centric experience when it comes to their health. But what exactly are they looking for? Providers should respond to this rising consumerism with two things: convenience and engagement. Many patient tasks are time-consuming, tedious and repetitive. The use of outdated technology draws unfavorable comparisons with the intuitive apps used in other industries. And all too often there’s a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing. The opportunities to improve the patient experience are huge. As the competition for consumer business heats up, providers should look for ways to step up their patient engagement strategies to attract new consumers and inspire loyalty among existing members. Consider how to make it as easy as possible for patients to access the care they need, whether that’s through frictionless scheduling, simplified registration processes or proactive communication about free transportation options. Data-driven technology and automation can help drive improvements in both convenience and engagement. Here, we look specifically at how automation could help you meet changing consumer expectations in the world of patient access. How can automation make patient access more convenient for consumers? Patients hate administrative and financial tasks that take them away from family, friends and other priorities. When looking for an easy, streamlined patient access experience, they might ask: Can I make appointments online? Can I get an out of pocket estimate for my cost of care? And can I price-shop my services? Can I do my pre-registration work before I show up for my appointment? Can I manage my bills and all my health information online? Can I do all of this from my mobile or tablet device at a time when it’s convenient for me? Automation can help you deliver against these expectations and remove stress and hassle from many patient access tasks. By using consumer data and technology to trigger the next stage in the process, you can help patients navigate the complex healthcare system, making registration, billing and payment more convenient. For example, online self-scheduling lets patients plan appointments when it suits them. You’ll increase appointment and referral rates, improve call center efficiency, reduce no-shows and enhance the overall patient experience. Or how about offering patients a one-stop-shop for managing all their healthcare admin, through a digital patient portal? This makes it much quicker and easier for them to get price estimates, set up payment plans, update insurance information and stay on track with appointments and treatment plans. By automating the registration and billing processes, you’ll improve self-pay collections and decrease bad debt. If you can say “yes” to the above questions, you’ll be making life easier for your patient access staff too. Reliance on manual data entry processes means staff are constantly battling bottlenecks and dealing with avoidable errors and duplicate records. Not only does this waste employee time, it opens the door to major safety issues and lost revenue: patient identification errors can cost up to $2,000 per patient and are associated with a third of denied claims, costing the average hospital $1.5 million each year. How can automation support better patient engagement? This isn’t just about removing obstacles or introducing speedy tools. You can use automation to improve patient engagement at various touchpoints during the patient access process. Consumer data paired with automation can help you nudge patients by text or email to make appointments, so they don’t miss out on important checks. You can deliver personalized updates, reminders and offers, so your patients feel taken care of and know exactly what’s happening throughout their healthcare journey. Using lifestyle, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral data from the highest quality sources, you can also use automation to segment your audience into groups based on all sorts of variables, in order to communicate with them about the right services, at the right time. Now is the time to leverage technology for a better patient access experience. It’s clear that awareness of the potential ROI in automation is growing. Still, many providers have only scratched the surface when it comes to integrating automation within their revenue cycle operations. Given that 66% of patients would switch providers for more convenient access, it makes sense to consider how you can leverage technology to simplify all sorts of patient tasks, from pre-registration to payments. Learn more about how automation could help your organization create a better patient access experience for consumers.

Flu season came early to Australia this year, with more influenza hospitalizations compared to last. And 93% of reported cases were the more dangerous Influenza A strain. If you’re wondering what this has to do with your healthcare organization, the answer is that generally speaking, flu season in the U.S. often mirrors what’s just happened in the southern hemisphere. In short, get ready. The number of cases in Australia has U.S. health officials gearing up for a challenging flu season over the next few months. Although flu activity is currently low in the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expect this to increase in the coming weeks, particularly as Australia experienced an unusually severe early flu season this year. For healthcare organizations, this will likely translate into extra demands on staff and services, crowded emergency rooms and higher rates of admission. Your organization most likely already has a robust winter health contingency plan in place. Still, there may be new ways to use data analytics and technology to increase efficiency, so you’re as prepared as possible. Are you ready? Three ways technology can help providers prepare for flu season Create a flu-preparedness patient engagement strategy At this time of year, patients can be exposed to many misconceptions about flu and how to prevent it. A helpful way to make sure your patients are informed about how to protect themselves against illness is to communicate the risks, encourage vaccinations and promote preventative behavior. Consumer data can help you to deliver personalized messages to patients in a time and format that suits them best, segmenting your patient groups according to risk status. Whether you’re contacting them through their patient portal, email or in-person touchpoints, a tailored approach will create a more reassuring patient experience, while allowing you to target your information campaign to the right people at the right time. Promote telehealth services More hospitals and pharmacies are turning to telehealth systems to help manage flu season. Patients can log on to watch information videos and have virtual consultations with physicians without being exposed to germs in the doctor’s office. Reducing the number of patients showing up to access services in-person can help relieve pressure on services, while minimizing the risk of infection spreading. Check in with your telehealth provider to make sure everything is in place to provide your patients with the virtual care and advice they need. Streamline patient registration With more patients likely to be coming through the doors, the last thing you need is a time-consuming registration process hindered by lengthy and often unnecessary eligibility checks. Automating registration, financial clearance and other patient access processes can eliminate many manual tasks, save time and reduce errors so there are fewer denied claims. At such a busy time of year, your patients, staff and bottom line will thank you! How one Los Angeles hospital streamlined patient registration to manage flu season  Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles worked with Experian Health to streamline patient registration and insurance verification. With a high-traffic emergency department and limited front-line staff, manual quality assurance and multiple payer website checks were creating bottlenecks and inaccuracies that took up more time to fix. Using Coverage Discovery, the hospital was able to improve efficiency in insurance verification, while Registration QA saved time in validating patient and payment information. In addition, eCare NEXT® helped automate workflows and generate data insights for further improvements—integrating seamlessly into the hospital’s existing Cerner® system. Speaking about the improvement made ahead of last year’s flu season, Lori Westman, patient access manager at MLKCH, said: “We have a lot of returning patients to our emergency room, so once we check that patient in, their eligibility automatically runs in the background and our staff doesn’t have to go into another website to check their eligibility. This has saved us two to three minutes of our registration time.” “We average about 300 patients every 24 hours. Heading into flu season, they’re expecting to hit a 400-per-day volume, so the fact that we can take off two to three minutes at least on half of our registrations is going to speed up the work for the team that much faster, to have a turnaround time that much better for more patients to come through.” Find out more about how we can help you streamline your Patient Access processes, so your organization is fighting fit for this year’s flu season.

  Healthcare consumerism is on the rise. Your patients no longer see themselves as passive participants in their healthcare journey—they’re active consumers, who have come to expect the same frictionless experience they might find in other industries. They have options. If they’re dissatisfied with their experience, they can go back to the menu of providers and choose something different. But when patients feel supported and respected through their healthcare journey, they’ll remain loyal to your organization, even becoming brand ambassadors. Following the Medical Group Management Association’s (MGMA’s) Annual Meeting in New Orleans a few weeks ago, it became clear that nurturing patient loyalty remains at the top of the list for medical groups looking to stay competitive in an increasingly consumer-driven market. For providers wanting to create an outstanding patient experience (and encourage greater patient loyalty), a good place to start is improving access to care. Win patients’ hearts and minds before they’ve even set foot in your facility. The goal should be to leverage advances in digital technology to make it as easy as possible for patients to find physicians, access schedules, book appointments and take control of their health. Improving patient access through digital care coordination Medical groups should look at how they are using data and digital technology to improve the patient experience in three key areas: Scheduling Laying the groundwork for a positive patient experience starts with making sure the appointment process is as painless as possible. Imagine a mother is woken during the night by her sick infant. Using a traditional scheduling model, she’d have to wait until the next day to call and schedule an appointment with the pediatrician. But if she could schedule an appointment there and then through the pediatrician’s website, this would not only be more convenient and reassuring for her, it would reduce operational strain on the medical practice, who would have fewer calls to handle. Online self-scheduling is the most convenient way for patients to both find a physician or specialist and access care, all on their own terms. By implementing online scheduling, medical groups will see higher rates of patient satisfaction and engagement and an increase in patient acquisition and retention. Care referrals The referral process is another common pain point for patients. For such a crucial process, it’s surprisingly consumer-unfriendly. Patients struggle to connect with recommended specialists and when they do, they often can’t get an appointment for weeks. Many organizations don’t realize how much revenue they could be losing when frustrated patients look elsewhere for care. With a more sophisticated referral process, providers can transform the discharge experience and ensure patients get the follow-up appointments they need—within the same network. One health system in the south east has generated tens of millions of dollars simply by booking follow-up appointments before patients even leave the facility, so they’re less likely to be lost to out-of-network referrals. Decision support Most providers have scheduling rules that determine which patients their clinicians should see and when. What they don’t always have is a way to automate the process so that patients can book online or seek a referral, while still following these scheduling criteria. The provider needs to be confident that if a patient with knee pain wants to book an appointment with an orthopedic specialist, they need to be sure they don’t inadvertently choose someone who specializes in shoulder injuries or pediatrics. The problem isn’t solved by booking by phone. Securing referrals through a call center can be a cumbersome process, eroding patient trust and contributing to scheduling bottlenecks and staff dissatisfaction. But when scheduling is digitized, providers no longer have to worry about these challenges. Automating decision-making creates a simpler process for everyone and most importantly, ensures the patient connects with the right specialist in the least amount of time. How analytics can help you create a consumer-centric organization For leaders considering how to create a more consumer-centric health system, re-imagining patient access should be a top priority. A tool such as Patient Schedule gives your patients a convenient and simple way to manage their appointments and follow-up, so they see the right clinician at the right time, without any of the usual hassle that comes with the scheduling process. On the flipside, automating your patient access protocols also gives your team the intel required to increase capacity to see patients and boost revenue through better acquisition and retention. You’ll be able to track how many patient visits turn into booked appointments, identify the points at which patients drop out of the process and spot bottlenecks in your scheduling. These insights could reveal endless opportunities to make simple tweaks that will give both patients and staff a smoother ride through patient access. Data analytics mean you no longer need to be operating blind when it comes to unblocking the bottlenecks in patient access. You’ll know exactly where to focus your efforts to improve the experience for your patients and grow your competitive advantage at the same time.