Digital Tools­­ and Strategies Can Help Improve the Patient Payment Experience

Patients may experience challenges dealing with the financial aspects of healthcare. As ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are looking to improve patients’ financial experiences, digital tools can help. With the assistance of digital payment tools, ASCs can help make financial interactions more convenient for patients, as well as potentially improve ASCs’ own revenue cycle management (RCM).

During a featured session at Becker’s 30th Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs, Cathy McDowell, president and CEO of KZA, and Claude Royster, vice president and general manager for health and wellness at CareCredit, discussed healthcare providers’ digitization efforts to date, the need for greater uptake of digitized patient financing options and the financial pain points new technology helps to address.

Key themes from the session are summarized below.

Patients Are Struggling to Navigate the Financial Landscape of Healthcare

Many patients struggle to make sense of the terms and conditions of their health insurance policies, including benefits, costs and coverage; the difference between in- and out-of-network providers; and the purpose of good-faith estimates.

According to Synchrony’s Lifetime of Healthcare Costs, 68% of Gen Z consumers said they do not have a good understanding of their healthcare expenses.¹ “If you think about it, that’s pretty startling,” said Royster. “Most of the people surveyed have insurance but they need to understand the different options they have in ways to pay for healthcare.”

A 2023 KFF survey found that 1 in 2 U.S. adults have difficulty affording healthcare.² Often, this may cause financial anxiety that leads people to postponing or foregoing needed care. “Those are certainly not the answers that are going to help healthcare providers optimize the patient experience,” said Royster, noting that CareCredit exists to help patients manage cost. “We educate our partners and providers when to introduce CareCredit as an option so that patients are not delaying or not having the care that they want or need.”

Provider Organizations Need to Be Equipped to Lead Financial Conversations

Although clinicians are not always trained to address financial questions and concerns, being able to discuss the costs of care does play an important role in providing care and positive patient experiences. When patients are informed about their financial responsibilities regarding treatments and procedures, they can be more engaged in care decisions concerning their health and may develop loyalty to providers that best fulfill their financial needs.

“Today, because so much of the financial responsibility has shifted to the patient, it is extremely important that we shift the financial conversation into the pathway of care, ideally before the patient ever gets to an exam room,” said McDowell.

While it’s important for healthcare staff to be able to engage with patients on financial matters, a clinician’s time is best spent providing direct care for patients rather than serving as financial counselors.

Instead of placing that burden on physicians, who have limited time to spend with patients, it’s more practical for organizations to educate their front-end staff to address patients’ financial concerns. Doing so is essential not only to relieve physicians of that responsibility, but also because care quality metrics ultimately produce a “judgment” of physician competencies and the care they provide — even when those metrics factor in nonclinical inputs from other departments.

“That front-office person isn’t the one being measured and they’re not getting reimbursement based on whether they don’t document appropriately,” McDowell said. “It also doesn’t affect the back-end staff, and it certainly doesn’t affect revenue cycle staff. It’s important to physicians because they are the only ones being measured on it.”

Digital Tools Are Being Used But There Is More Work to Be Done

In today’s healthcare landscape, patients and providers have access to a multitude of digital tools and applications that render care more convenient, more efficient and less expensive.

Organizations are making use of this existing digital toolset, which encompasses everything from telehealth to AI and practice management software. ASCs, in particular, are adopting digital tools such as these to facilitate growth in their unique care setting for outpatient procedures.

This digital trend is aligned with patients’ and consumers’ expanding use of financial and healthcare applications on their phones. According to CWH Advisors' PatientPay^TM 2022 survey, 75% of GenZ patients and 51% of all respondents said they are currently using such digital options.³

For providers, offering digital billing and payment options also may have numerous benefits, which can include a higher first-pass payment rate, reduced claim denials, more accurate price estimates for patients, improved financial accuracy and efficiency for internal fiscal health.

However, while adoption of digital tools is widespread in the industry and among patients, digital payment options and patient financing solutions are still uncommon.

Digitization of Patient Financing Is Still a Pending Task for Many ASCs

Managing the administrative burden related to the revenue cycle can lead to employee stress for ASC operations. Operational bottlenecks related to dealing with delayed receipt of patient payments and cancelled appointments can add to that burden. The stress resulting from these pain points may contribute to employee turnover and staff shortages.

Digitization of payment options can help ASCs to streamline their revenue cycle while also offering patients a convenient way to pay for their care. “The digitization of patient financing can help alleviate some of that stress,” said Royster.

Payment solutions that can leverage technology to easily integrate into existing medical record interfaces can help make payment easier across the patient journey — for example, by prompting staff to ask up front, during appointment setting, how patients intend to pay.

This is where the ability for ASCs to offer patient financing comes in.

“CareCredit is a health and wellness credit card that offers patients flexible financing options to pay for their out-of-pocket healthcare costs,” explained Royster. “CareCredit can help alleviate some worry for patients about how they are going to pay for care. It also helps take burden off of the facility, which otherwise may have to either hire a third party or add the responsibility to revenue cycle management staff.”

According to a recent Synchrony study, an increasing number of patients are viewing their healthcare provider’s billing process and payment options as an important part of their overall experience.⁴ This is because the portion of care that is the patient’s financial responsibility has steadily increased over time and is redefining patients’ expectations of support from their provider.

Transforming the Patient Financial Experience Helps Improve the Overall Experience

CareCredit is a patient financing solution that can offer value to ASCs by streamlining front-end, back-end and payment-related operations, which may be a source of revenue cycle inefficiencies and employee stress. CareCredit can also provide value to patients by equipping providers with the tools and capabilities to offer financing options before patients receive care.* Further, it educates consumers on a way to pay for out-of-pocket costs.

To help organizations realize the full potential of its patient financing solution, CareCredit provides educational resources and training for healthcare staff, along with practical guides on how to apply and accept payments. The payment tools themselves are designed in a way that helps providers present payment option information without taking time away from care-focused activities.

“We want to make sure that we’re explaining what’s in it for the practice and patients, ways that we can help improve revenue cycle management and, most importantly, create a good patient outcome,” said Royster.

A Patient Financing Solution for Health and Wellness Providers

If you are looking for a way to connect your patients with flexible financing that empowers them to pay for the care they want and need, consider offering CareCredit as a financing solution. CareCredit allows cardholders to pay for out-of-pocket health and wellness expenses over time while helping enhance the payments process for your practice or business.

When you accept CareCredit, patients can see if they prequalify with no impact to their score, and those who apply, if approved, can take advantage of special financing on qualifying purchases.* Additionally, your practice or business will be paid directly within two business days.

Learn more about the CareCredit credit card as a patient financing solution or start the provider enrollment process by filling out this form.

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