A recent survey showed that 57% of bad debt in hospitals was from three areas:

• High deductible health plans.
• High patient copays.
• Underinsured patients.

You can’t change the numbers, but you can change the outcome. The recent laws surrounding healthcare led many to believe that this new found insurance will give them access to services they never had before. This is true, but it comes at a cost that many are unaware of.

There is a lot of misinformation regarding the healthcare exchange and Revenue Cycle Management, and managers need to adjust the way their staff engages with patients. Staff processes continue to be the same as they were 5-10 years ago, but the landscape has extensively changed in an alarming way and our organizations need to keep up.

Like any business, there is now consumer competition in the healthcare space. It is imperative to develop customer loyalty as you would in any other business. You do this by engaging your patients from intake and through the completion of the revenue cycle. Doing this will reduce your time to cash, improve your response rate and minimize the cost to collect. By communicating in a way that is transparent, you can create or modify the behaviors of your patients into one that is efficient to both parties.

“Remember, no behavior happens without a trigger or touchpoint.” Casey Williams, RevSpring

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement refers to patient engagement as the “triple aim” of health care:

• Improving the experience of care.
• Improving the health of populations
• Reducing per capita costs of health care.

Litmos Healthcare’s newly developed Patient Engagement courses will set you on the right course towards patient engagement. Every task your staff performs affects the patient—whether they are in a patient-facing role or not. This education series guides staff in how to provide extraordinary sensitivity, care and compassion to customers and patients—whether it’s on the phone, via email or face-to-face; every connection counts.