Among all the disjointed, untidy processes exposed by the pandemic, ironically, healthcare itself is a prime example in the bad process parade — especially when it comes to paying medical bills.
As patients shoulder more financial responsibility, they’re more likely to dread the uncertainty of cost — and delay getting the care they need, or even forego it entirely.
“Healthcare is one of the only industries where we go get a service and don’t know what our cost is going to be until sometimes months after that service has been delivered,” Jason Considine, senior vice president of Experian Health, told PYMNTS.
Pointing to digital financial tools and payment apps that consumers are embracing enthusiastically in other parts of their lives, he said, “Oftentimes in healthcare, providers don’t look into those things. They prescribe the same financial solution to all patients, regardless of unique financial disposition, and that can have an impact on a patient’s willingness and ability to receive care.”
Considine doesn’t blame the pandemic solely, though he said it accelerated the changes.
“I don’t think the pandemic increased the need for the refinement of the patient payment experience,” he said. “That needed to happen before the pandemic. What we’ve seen with the pandemic is it forced the adoption of telehealth and a variety of digital solutions because we didn’t want patients in waiting rooms and were worried about the spread of the disease.”
What it did do was force healthcare providers to modernize — or stop seeing patients.
“People lost their jobs. People moved from one part of the country to another. You don’t have to work in the office anymore,” he said. “All these changes … really forced [healthcare] providers to start looking at data and adopting other tools to help them make better financial decisions on how to engage patients.”
See also: Experian Health: 2021 was the Year of Defiance
The Consumerization Checkup
Bringing large datasets to bear on healthcare payments is one way players, including Experian Health, are freeing the sector from its reputation as a payments laggard.
Considine cited company research showing how patient experience and provider financials are improved by upgrading systems and partnering with data experts to uncover vital patterns.
Noting that Experian Health studied the market right before COVID-19 hit, then again during the pandemic, he said, “80% of patients surveyed said the ability to pay online was an important healthcare experience to them, 90% of providers said they believe patients are more likely to pay their bills online than if they send them in the mail or through other means, and 93% of providers [said] improving the patient experience is a top priority for them.”
Those figures align with PYMNTS’ research into patient payments. The consumerization of healthcare is driving demand for the same digital ease, whether paying doctors or DoorDash.
“These tools exist and they’re available in other industries,” Considine said. “We are creatures of convenience, we have those conveniences in other aspects of our lives, and we want them in healthcare.”
To do that well and at scale requires access to huge amounts of data.
“Healthcare’s been, like other things, slower to adopt data to help inform and make these financial decisions,” he continued. “We’re starting to see progress in this area, but there’s still a lot of room to go. The adoption of data will help the healthcare industry move forward in this area.”
See also: Healthcare Providers Use ‘Deep Data’ to Deliver Better Patient Outcomes
Rolling With 2022 Changes
As Experian Health and others bring larger and more diverse datasets to bear, healthcare costs become less opaque — and providers and payments partners get better insight into where to offer financing.
“It’s pretty common to look at how a patient has historically paid and use that to try to predict how they’re going to pay in the future,” Considine said, adding that more data needs to be utilized to get a broader financial picture to determine if a payment plant would be appropriate.
That’s a function of data modeling, and it’s poised to transform healthcare payments.
“The data’s out there, the models are out there,” he continued. “We just need to see adoption and leveraging.”
Change — ranging from the No Surprises Act to pharmacy chains offering walk-in healthcare — is forcing medical practices to improve payment options.
“We’re going to see the continued adoption of mobile payment solutions in this modern kind of buy now, pay later model,” he said. “That’s going to continue to accelerate. Providers are going to have to adopt those solutions to be competitive in their markets.”
See also: Healthcare Installment Options Proving a Curative for Common Payments Problems
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