How Utah Cancer Specialists Doubled Online Card Revenue and Automated Reconciliation using HealthPay24
Background
As the largest cancer treatment facility in the Intermountain area, Utah Cancer Specialists is an all-inclusive oncology facility with 45 providers and 12 clinics across the Wasatch Front. With a focus on community, Utah Cancer Specialists goes above and beyond to make cancer as easy as possible for their patients by being locally available for whatever they need.
Objective
Utah Cancer Specialists was looking for an official online payment portal to replace their current solution. “We had a patch fix. Patients would go to our website and would offer minimal information about their balance and account. There were no options for payment plans, no ability for an electronic statement, and no SMS or email notifications. Most of the time the site didn’t work on mobile, so I was losing more than half of my transactions,” recalls Patrick Shields, Director of Business Services.
With out-of-pocket expenses increasing substantially for patients within the past seven years, payment accessibility was a priority for the oncology treatment center. “It just needed to be simple and easy. Our patients wanted options and a system to navigate themselves with less staff interaction. Plus, setting up plans and reconciling payments had become a very manual, rudimentary process on the backend for my employees,” says Shields.
Our Solutions
Shields and the team at Utah Cancer Specialists worked with HealthPay24 to implement a patient payment platform that integrated with Centricity (Utah Cancer Specialists’ practice management solution) to allow them to easily capture online patient payments, set up payment plans and apply discounts, offer financial assistance, and reconcile automatically on the backend.
The Results
Online Patient Payment
Increase in online patient payment revenue of 100% (in less than 1 year) due to better payment engagement, more accessibility options, and the ability to pay securely on mobile devices.
Monthly Workload
Reduced monthly workload by a minimum of 10% as a result of automated reconciliation of payments – especially bulk payments.
Consumer Satisfaction Score
Average consumer satisfaction score
of 4.7/5.0 from users who engage in
the patient portal to pay a bill and are
also asked to rate the facility.
Discounts, Payment Plans
Availability of discounts, payment plans, and financial assistance directly in the patient portal to offer more accessibility and options.
More staff efficiency, increased
More staff efficiency, increased patient access, & better ease-of-use due to enhanced functionality for patients, consumers, & employees.
The Future of Patient Financial Engagement
Utah Cancer Specialists, like most provider organizations, is focusing on managing the shift towards consumerism by providing more payment options and accessibility for their patients. Here’s are some of the ways Pat Shields and his team will continue to pivot their patient payment strategy to enhance patient engagement at all touch points.
Make the payment experience as simple as possible by adopting more payment methods at pre- and point-of-service.
Offer pre-service estimations to ease financial pressure and anxiety so patients can focus on treatment and healing.
Ease the Medicaid application process by providing dedicated assistance onsite.
“We saw an immediate impact in our online engagement. I was able to pay for all the costs to integrate the Healthpay24 platform, and then some, within the first month.”
– Patrick Shields
Director of Business Services at Utah Cancer Specialists
