A recent study by a company that addresses healthcare office cash flow trends came up with some interesting findings on the consumer impact of hospital services, particularly billing. It suggests the vital role the "back office" operations as they are called, play in keeping patients satisfied. In addition to billing and collection, these activities include accounting, customer service, medical billing and coding and troubleshooting patient issues.
- The number of consumers who gave top scores (5 on a 1 to 5 Likert scale) to hospital billing processes was just 21%.
- Good health made a difference in perceptions. Those who enjoy good health are more likely to be satisfied with business office processes with 52% of them giving high marks on their experiences. Those self-assessing fair or poor health were 39% more likely to rate the processes a 2 or less, with only 15% saying a 5.
- Time away from discharge also made a difference. Satisfaction with the overall hospital experience was 32% at the time of discharge and 22% post-discharge and after business office processes.
- Another consumer trend is that complaints about collection agency activity have reached an all time high. In fact, according to the Federal Trade Commission 2011 Annual Report, there were 140,036 complaints about debt collector practices compared to 119,609 in 2009. Medical debt is a primary driver of this.
These results suggest that there is a lot of room for improvement regarding office procedures and how they relate to the healthcare consumer, especially in the medical bill and claim resolution process.
One of the reasons for the growing awareness of business office practices by healthcare consumers is deductible creep. According to recent data deductibles have increased dramatically over the last two years.
For example, high deductible health plans and savings accounts (as of January 2011) cover 11.4 million lives. A year earlier, that number was 10 million and in 2009, it was 8 million.
Plus, the deductible amounts for workers enrolled in PPOs with single coverages increased 21% over three years from $560 to $675.
These and the other numbers suggest a trend. It points to commercial revenue that was considered high-recovery now being assumed with patient self pay bills. Historically, this is tougher to collect. And as indicated above, this aspect also influences potentially negative customer feelings about the whole medical experience, particularly the medical center business offices that bear the administrative responsibilities of the medical practices. This includes medical records, billing and collections.
Sunni (Sue) Patterson is an accomplished marketing professional and entrepreneur. She is an expert at developing on and offline marketing strategies.