Revenue Cycle Management Journal Source: The Academy of Healthcare Revenue
Attracting Patients In a Consumer-Driven Environment
As nationwide enrollment in consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs) grows, consumers will likely become more knowledgeable about their healthcare choices, and will increasingly wish to make educated decisions about where they spend their healthcare dollars and receive healthcare services. To ensure providers’ ability to retain market share, healthcare organizations will need to use effective marketing and communications to attract this new breed of empowered, well-informed, and cost-conscious patients.
As we examined in May’s Collecting in Healthcare, the number of individuals covered by CDHPs in the United States has grown significantly in recent years, from over one million individuals covered in 2005 to over 4.5 million covered in 2007—a 43 percent increase in just two years.1
The growth in these plans may seem counter-intuitive. There has been a great deal of consumer dissatisfaction with the plans; according to a recent study, only 37 percent of CDHP enrollees were extremely or very satisfied with their health plan, while 67 percent of enrollees in comprehensive, more traditional health plans were extremely or very satisfied.2
Despite many patients’ reported dissatisfaction with CDHPs, adoption rates are growing exponentially. One reason for this is the steady rate of increase in healthcare costs, which is projected to continue for the foreseeable future, as is shown in the graph below. Employers will be searching for ways to minimize their costs in covering their employees’ healthcare insurance; indeed, many employers are already switching to exclusively offering their employees CDHPs and discontinuing other, more comprehensive healthcare insurance offerings.
With all of this data in mind, it is clear that hospitals must be ready to attract, serve, and retain patients who are covered by CDHPs. But how can this be done?
One way to attract these patients is to give them the information they need in order to make informed healthcare decisions. Patients who are concerned about the out-of-pocket costs of their care or the HSA amounts they have available will want clear, understandable, and accurate estimates of their care costs. Furthermore, these patients will want to be able to access this information easily, and with a minimum amount of searching and stress. Therefore, it is of great importance for providers in areas with high numbers of CDHP-covered patients to create an approach for accurately communicating pricing information while still taking marketing, finance, and legal constraints into consideration.
One tactic utilized by many best-performing organizations implement is determining which procedures are most likely to be of interest to patients, and compiling a list of pricing information for these procedures that can be distributed to patients who request it. The first step in developing this kind of list is to identify the 25 – 50 most commonly requested procedures for the organization, then calculating the charged and projected benefits by payer, including the facility and professional estimate if possible. Common services often include MRI, PET, and CT scans, and other diagnostic activities.3
Next, it is important for healthcare organizations to educate and train their staff about CDHPs and how to communicate with patients who are covered by these plans. Identify staff members who will be responsible for informing patients about pricing information, and educate all staff members—including clinicians, registrars, receptionists, and call center staff—about where to direct patients who have pricing inquiries. It is absolutely critical that all staff members who have contact with patients are aware of the availability of pricing information and where this information can be obtained by patients. When staff members who will handle pricing inquiries are identified, it is important that they are trained to emphasize to patients that pricing estimates are just that—estimates—and final pricing may change based on several factors, such as supplemental medications or services that may be needed during treatment. Because estimates of pricing are by necessity inexact, it may be useful to provide a range of costs to patients who inquire.
In addition to giving patients pricing information, it is very important for staff members to emphasize the hospital’s high quality of care and the qualifications of the hospital’s professional staff. Hospitals should develop talking points that explain why their hospital provides the best value for patients, and why patients should seek care at their facilities. Staff must be trained in these talking points and should be able to clearly and consistently communicate them to patients.
Although front-line hospital staff members may never have considered themselves as salespeople, the new paradigm of consumer-driven healthcare makes it necessary for front-line staff members outside of the marketing and sales departments to “sell” the organization to potential patients. Providing these staff members with the information, training, and tools they will need to communicate effectively with potential patients will help these staff members to sell the organization’s services—and thus attract the new breed of cost-conscious, decision-making patients.
1.“January 2007 Census Shows 4.5 Million People Covered by HSA/High-Deductible Health Plans,” AHIP Center for Policy and Research, April 2007.
2. P. Fronstin and S. R. Collins, “The 2nd Annual EBRI/Commonwealth Fund Consumerism in Health Care Survey, 2006: Early Experience With High-Deductible and Consumer-Driven Health Plans,” The Commonwealth Fund, December 2006. 3. Bradley Daniel and Linda Darden, “Attracting New Patients,” Healthcare Executive, May/June 2007.
The Academy of Healthcare Revenue
The Academy of Healthcare Revenue is a membership-based community that provides healthcare leaders with objective research focused specifically on the healthcare revenue cycle. Members receive an unlimited supply of all research--including benchmarking and best practice reports, implementation tools, monthly journals, attendance to virtual conferences, and more--designed to enable them to improve their revenue cycle processes and financial health from within. Furthermore, The Academy's membership offering is tailored to team members throughout the revenue cycle, from executive leadership to patient access, coding, billing and collections, and clinical staff, helping to drive process improvement efforts revenue cycle-wide. Revenue Cycle Management is one of four journals written by The Academy of Healthcare Revenue monthly.
To learn more about the benefits of membership with The Academy of Healthcare Revenue, contact us today.
Media Contact Ross Monaghan
Manager, Strategic Marketing
262-782-7935
Email:
