Integration goes hand-in-hand with patient engagement and patient financial experience. If integration isn’t smooth, the patient experience will ultimately suffer. No matter the size of your healthcare organization, making an informed decision when choosing a patient payment platform is crucial for the bottom line and overall organization success.
The Patient Experience and Why it Matters
Patients have higher expectations for their healthcare experience today than ever before. The standards other industries have faced for decades—exceptional customer service, transparency, curated experiences, and other factors—have made their way into the healthcare space. If patients are unhappy with their experience with one provider, chances are the market allows them to choose from a host of other providers.
Quality of care no longer solely refers to clinical treatment. Quality of care now encapsulates the entire patient experience, from the moment the patient makes their appointment to months later when they try to pay their bill. Online presence, clinical experience, and the payment experience are part of the overall patient experience. End-to-end engagement is crucial for positive patient ratings and retention. After all, happy patients tend to remain loyal to their providers—meaning increased revenue and an improved bottom line for revenue cycle leaders.
Optimizing the patient financial experience your organization offers can bring value to patients. Patients tend to make decisions regarding their healthcare providers based on first encounters and final impressions. Research shows that administrative staff has as much impact on patient opinion as clinicians. Improving the billing and collection process is not only a necessity, it is also the last chance to make a good impression on patients. If the experience is lacking or leaves the patient in doubt, it may discourage a return visit—resulting in less revenue for the organization.
Seamless Integration and Automation
A lack of automation can lead to increased human error and staff burnout. Healthcare leaders can reduce the burden on administrative staff and lessen system complexity by automating payment posting, reconciliation, and reporting—allowing staff to make the most of their time and increase overall efficiency. Implementing a health payment system that prioritizes accessibility is key. When choosing an automated payment system, consider factors such as availability, automated billing, and reconciliation. Automating an organization’s payment process allows providers to meet patients exactly where they are; no matter the day or time, patients should be able to pay their bills when it suits them best.
Another factor to consider when choosing a patient payment system is how the organization’s existing EMR, billing, PM, and estimation systems will operate together. Choosing a vendor that prioritizes seamless integration and automation is imperative to reap the benefits of a new payment system. Seamless integration can reduce system complexity and streamline back-end workflows and processes.
Penn State Health Testimony
Penn State Health system is a multi-hospital health system spanning six hospitals. Penn State leaders looked for a way to collect payments from the hospital and physician network, which were two separate billing systems. This led to bottlenecks and inefficient workflows. When Penn State leaders sought a way to reduce manual processes, longer A/R days, and the likelihood of a negative patient financial experience, they decided it was time to improve the patient payment process.
One year after partnering with HealthPay24 to bring a more streamlined, efficient consolidated payment system, Penn State Health was averaging $600k-700k in online payments per month. HealthPay24 was able to seamlessly integrate the two legacy billing systems which reduced manual staff entry and allowed for the collection of new and previous patient balances in one single transaction.
“We did not have enough confidence in the billing services provided by the bolt-on vendors from our legacy systems. HealthPay24 had the expertise we were looking for and was the clear partner for us,” says Virginia Robbins, Director of Provider & Patient Access Services, Revenue Cycle.
“The HealthPay24 platform is very intuitive and user-friendly. It was so easy for our staff to come on-board to the platform. Since then, we have increased our quality of service to patients and significantly reduced our collection times,” said a Penn State Medical Office Assistant.
Case Study: Bingham Memorial Health
Bingham Memorial Hospital is a non-profit hospital in Blackfoot, Idaho. Bingham focuses on providing exquisite patient care in a compassionate manner and offers 100 types of patient services, including in-patient, out-patient, critical care, emergency, rehabilitation, same-day surgery, and transitional care services.
Bingham had been struggling with efficiently collecting payment because their existing patient payment system was not interoperable with their EHR. They needed a solution that would seamlessly integrate with the EHR, but also reduce the time it took to collect payment.
Bingham worked with HealthPay24 to implement a patient payment platform that integrated with their EHR to allow them to easily accept payment and automatically reconcile accounts. HealthPay24 set the hospital up with a solution that allowed them to accept all non-patient accounts receivable items and post them to the correct general ledger account. The solution helped improve patient engagement, patient financial experience, and the hospital’s bottom line.
“HealthPay24 has been a tremendous asset to our patients and organization. We’ve gone from a very manual, error-prone process to one that seamlessly integrates with our EMR, allowing us to cut down on the time it takes staff to process and balance payments. Patients also have appreciated the intuitive online payment portal to check their balances, apply discounts, and make payments on their accounts. I would recommend HealthPay24 to any healthcare facility that is looking to streamline their patient payment process with ease and satisfaction,” said Garrett Moulton, Director of Finance at Bingham Memorial Hospital.
HealthPay24 Offers Unparalleled Seamless Integration
HealthPay24’s healthcare payment solution integrates with your existing health EHR/EMR so you don’t waste precious time and resources switching between technologies. Providers can view and accept payments all from one screen—no more frustrating back-and-forth between windows. HealthPay24 offers many features to improve patient engagement and financial experience:
- Seamless integration with existing technology
- Simplified patient portal
- PCI and P2PE compliant
- Decreased manual entry and human error
- Increased flexibility for patients
Patient engagement and patient financial experience are crucial factors in improving revenue, as well as the well-being of the healthcare organization as a whole. HealthPay24 offers the opportunity to increase patient engagement by offering many benefits other platforms won’t provide. The goal is to partner with organizations built on trust and mutual respect that promote improved patient engagement, better patient care, and lower healthcare costs.
Choose HealthPay24’s payment solution and enjoy the peace of mind that your patients are receiving the quality of care they need to feel included in their healthcare experience. Don’t let your patients be part of the 41% who lack confidence that their bills are correct.
Choose Seamless Integration. Choose HealthPay24.
HealthPay24 offers an all-in-one consumer payment platform designed to empower healthcare leaders and providers to foster trust with their patients while operating more efficiently internally.
Our patient payment solution integrates with existing back-end billing and EMR systems to streamline administrative tasks and simplify payment collection.
HealthPay24 has been a leader in the healthcare sector for over twenty years. Our business is built on a foundation of trust, dedication, and teamwork. If you are interested in maximizing your organization’s patient self-pay revenue by providing innovative and comprehensive payment solutions, visit us at https://www.healthpay24.com/.