Today’s digital healthcare tools are focused on improving the patient journey. From the introduction of health insurance to today’s digital tools focused on an optimized patient journey, we’ve come a long way. However, as more patients pay out of pocket, providers are increasingly challenged by patient financial responsibility.

Understanding changes in the healthcare patient experience can allow your operation to keep on the cutting edge. You’ll deliver better solutions that improve productivity, satisfaction and patient collections. Learn about common patient engagement technology trends here.

Patient Engagement Technology Trends

Each year marks a shift into expanding healthcare technology. As advances in artificial intelligence (AI) continue, we see a push to incorporate personalized technology into the patient experience. Capitalizing on these trends can make your facility more streamlined, convenient and profitable. Take a look at emerging patient engagement tech trends to see how you can shift your healthcare operation into the future.

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI has opened new doors in the healthcare industry, from patient care to administration and operations, such as patient revenue cycle tools. Looking into this year and beyond, healthcare providers can expect to increasingly rely on AI-enabled platforms for support, scheduling, payment and more. The introduction of AI-driven chatbots to handle patient inquiries empowers healthcare providers to deliver 24/7 support.

Generative AI takes personalized patient engagement to the next level. Innovations like Speech AI analyze your communications with patients, generating report cards that guide your team through patient interactions and boosting quality assurance. Additionally, tools use machine learning to track payment trends and behaviors. For example, it can send reminders, getting patients to complete their payments more quickly while conserving staff resources.

2. Insurance Updater Tools

Insurance-related tasks can be a pain point for healthcare providers and patients. Between verifying eligibility, navigating covered treatment options and ensuring proper coding and documentation, there are many opportunities for error.

Unfortunately, these errors can be costly or create severe delays that impact your bottom line. Insurance updater tools can reduce the time and effort necessary to complete insurance-related tasks. Updater tools can help you fix errors from the provider side, ensure you have the most updated information and reflect insurance changes from year to year.

3. Payment Support

Technology has opened new doors with asynchronous communication and digital payment options. Patients can easily discuss payment questions or options with live chat features. These chats give patients payment support when they need it, making navigating healthcare payments easy and convenient. They can pay using a secure portal, text-to-pay, mobile pay or even QR codes. Providing more ways to pay means you’re more likely to receive timely payments.

4. Patient Payment Portals for Engagement

A game-changer in the healthcare industry is the patient payment portal. These tools offer secure ways for patients to access their statements, secure payment options and personalized communication.

Many customers enjoy using these portals because they simplify their financial journey, which also positively impacts your practice. Patient payment portals also make it easier for patients to understand their care plans by accessing educational resources. You can also improve your patient payment portal by offering several payment methods to further enhance patient convenience.

5. Personalized Strategies

Both patients and providers benefit from personalization. For patients, personalization provides unique experiences and ensures care based on lifestyle, medical history and socioeconomic needs. For providers, personalization informs decision-making and engages patients for a stronger provider-patient relationship.

Practices can integrate personalization by customizing patient payment portal experiences, allowing patients to set notification preferences, enabling various payment methods and leveraging data analytics to gather information about patient needs and behaviors.

6. Enhanced Cybersecurity

As reliance on technology grows, so do concerns regarding cybersecurity and patient privacy. Implementing robust security practices and highlighting your commitment to patient privacy is a growing trend.

Access controls and regular security audits are examples of security measures that can pack a big punch. These actions can make patients more comfortable using your portals and requesting your services, strengthening their relationships with your practice.

How Patient-Centric Payments Can Help Address Pain Points for Healthcare Providers

Healthcare providers face many challenges when working to maximize revenue and care. While these challenges can reduce productivity, the right tools can elevate your organization. Break down your organization’s current pain points — understanding these challenges will help you identify areas where you need additional support. Let’s look at some healthcare pain points and how patient-centric payment technology and services can help you improve patient engagement to overcome them.

1. Revenue Cycle Management

Healthcare chief financial officers (CFOs) have been faced with an evolving revenue cycle management (RCM) environment. With patients taking on more responsibility for the bill, keeping RCM efficient and balanced can be challenging. When patient revenue goes uncollected, or if patients struggle to pay or forget their payments, it can lead to delayed or reduced revenue, impacting your organization’s financial health.

Whether you have internal teams and resources or choose to outsource your RCM operations, maximizing patient revenue requires seamless billing and payment processes, multiple payment options right at patients’ fingertips, and communications that meet patient preferences (such as live chat and toll-free support, as well as text notifications and e-statements). The right healthcare revenue tools can help successfully engage with patients so you can cut costs, reduce administrative burden, maximize revenue and focus on delivering patient satisfaction.

2. Increasing Costs

Healthcare costs continue to rise, so providers need to find a way to manage these costs while maintaining care quality and financial health. Outsourcing administrative tasks can lower your costs, reduce staffing challenges and improve patient engagement. 

Outsourcing to expert vendors can reduce RCM operating expenses associated with staffing and technology development and support. Instead of supporting everything in-house, you let experts with the resources already in place. Trusted vendors can handle patient payment tasks through technology and services that decrease manual labor, missed payments and denials, reducing overall costs. You’ll keep your operation efficient and cost-effective, boosting patient and staff satisfaction.

3. Technology Integration

Healthcare providers often struggle with integrating and optimizing electronic health record (EHR) systems, telehealth platforms and other tools. Poorly integrated systems can create inefficiencies, impacting workflow, productivity and morale.

While EHRs are offering more patient payment functionality, these platforms still come up short — patients don’t have as many payment options, portals require logins and credentials, and the EHR doesn’t provide services to support patients who have billing questions. Luckily, there are solutions that work with your EHR to create a more patient-centric billing solution. As a healthcare provider, you benefit from customizable control and an intuitive interface, while patients enjoy an easy, interactive experience.

4. Patient Experience

Improving the patient experience is an essential part of healthcare. Retaining patients means providing high-quality clinical care as well as making their pre- and post-visit experience as easy as possible. When it comes to patient revenue, supplying accurate estimates, offering multiple payment options, providing easy access to their billing data and history and offering live support when they have questions will allow you to deliver an unmatched patient experience. Patient experience is directly tied to financial results. Patients who receive top-notch care without any administrative hassles will come back to your practice and recommend you to their friends and family. 

5. Self-Service Payment Plan

Self-service payments in healthcare empower patients to take control of their finances. These plans provide detailed views of existing payment information, offer visibility for scheduled payments and allow patients to create payment plans. With the power to choose the plan, payment start date and payment method that works best for them, your patients can make more timely payments.

Reduce Your Patient Engagement Challenges and Boost Revenue With Millennia

Streamline your revenue cycle, boost your bottom line and enhance patient satisfaction with healthcare solutions from Millennia. From improving patient engagement to maximizing payment resolution, Millennia offers innovative, patient-centric tools tailored to your organization’s unique needs. 

Our comprehensive solutions can change how your healthcare organization handles challenges, patients and administration. With Millennia, our hospital clients have seen a 40% patient revenue collection rate vs. a 20% hospital benchmark, a 100% increase in revenue, and 96% patient satisfaction.

Contact us now to request a consultation — explore how we can give you the tools to increase revenue and patient satisfaction together!

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