Let’s be honest – navigating healthcare is a difficult and stressful experience. At a time when almost everything in our lives has gone digital – booking flights, making dinner reservations, getting a ride, ordering groceries, and more. Unfortunately, even now, seeing a doctor hasn’t experienced the same digital transformation.
Although there are digital tools available, such as telehealth, online scheduling, online payments and patient portals, many of these solutions rarely work together. A typical healthcare visit still may involve multiple phone calls, redundant paperwork and a slow registration process. In fact, 83% of healthcare organizations still check patients in at the front desk.
The dramatic gap between healthcare and other industries has become even more pronounced in the last few years:
- 80% of consumers prefer to communicate with their provider on their smartphone
- 80% of satisfied consumers would switch providers for better convenience alone
- 90% of consumers will leave over an unsatisfactory digital experience
In an environment where patients want streamlined and personalized care, many hospitals struggle to keep the front desk staffed.
The financial side of the equation for patients isn’t much better. Patients are increasingly responsible for their medical bills but face a few obstacles in understanding their financial responsibility and making their payments.
These challenges directly impact providers’ revenue cycles, patient satisfaction and patient loyalty. When consumers can’t understand their bills, they don’t pay them, leading to significant delays in revenue collection. Furthermore, dissatisfied patients aren’t afraid to go elsewhere.
Provide a seamless virtual experience with digital patient access tools
To offer the quality of experience that today’s patients expect, providers can no longer afford to be complacent. They must invest in digital solutions that empower their staff, delight their patients and differentiate their service.
The best place to start? Virtual intake.
Virtual intake gives patients the digital experience they expect by allowing them to navigate the registration process, from scheduling to payment to check-in, all from their own personal device. In addition to increased engagement, virtual intake creates a more streamlined, patient-centered experience that only requires a few taps on their device and no apps to download or passwords to remember.
With a sophisticated digital check-in solution, patients can:
- Locate providers and schedule their own appointments
- Complete and upload forms before their appointments
- Calculate the expected out-of-pocket costs of their care
- Communicate with their organization via interactive text messaging
- Attend appointments with minimal wait times
- Navigate their facilities with only their smartphones
- Minimize physical contact with their patient access staff
- Pay their bills online or via text message
- Keep family members informed and engaged with their care
Some of these capabilities are particularly powerful. Digital scheduling, for instance, is one of patients’ most requested features; a full 81% of consumers prefer providers with digital scheduling. The ability to follow up after appointments are scheduled is critical too. With the right tools, providers can automatically send appointment reminders and visit instructions and initiate document completion and payments. Patients who engage with these reminders are more likely to fulfill their appointments, which decreases no-show rates.
Speaking of payments, digital check-in technology can play a vital role in providers’ revenue streams. Text-to-pay is remarkably successful. Eighty percent of people who are given the option to pay via text use it, with 65% paying their bill on the first text notification. This dramatically increases up-front collections, positively impacting the entire revenue cycle. Virtual intake can also help financially clear more patients earlier in the process for fewer denials and faster payments. And with the ability to easily create estimates on their mobile devices, patients can see and understand their financial responsibility, which makes them much more likely to pay.
Providers must embrace new technology to deliver the digital experiences that patients expect. Digital check-in solutions enable providers to bring in more revenue earlier in the patient lifecycle and give consumers the patient-centric tools they need to take control of their care. The result is greater satisfaction, increased loyalty, and returning patients.
Discover how patient access solutions from FinThrive can help your organization offer an exceptional digital experience.
