Cedar Patient Billing Survey

Transcription

1 + Cedar Patient Billing Survey

2 On a 1 to 5 scale, how would you assess your organizations approach to increasing patient financial responsibility? 2.5% 10% 48.8% 30% 8.8% N=2 N=8 N=39 N=24 N= Scale Very Poor Poor Moderate Good Very Good Emphasis on Patient Responsibility Most respondents noted a moderate or high focus on increasing patient responsibility. Notably, only 12.5% of respondents indicated a very low or low priority approach, leaving 87.5% of respondents indicating a moderate priority or higher. Among unstructured responses to provide detail on these scores, 49% of respondents felt there was room to improve their patient billing practices, while 22% expressed satisfaction with the status quo. The most prominent billing practice was ensuring patients pay before or at time of service (16% of respondents).

3 What is your organizations' single biggest challenge regarding patient billing? (Free-form responses) Collecting Patient Payments Better Tools or Technological Infrastructure Difficulties with Payers/Insurers Streamlined, Unified Billing Approach Dealing with Denials Inexperienced or Untrained Staff Vendor Billing Issues Internal Politics/Challenges Providers Difficulties Patient Education Accuracy of Information Out of Pocket Payments Payment Rules/Regulations 3% 4% 6% 9% 13% 13% 12% N=78 responses 35% Tackling Major Billing Challenges Patient payment collections outweighed other issues by a significant margin among biggest challenges regarding patient billing (35%). Better tools, payer/insurer challenges and streamlining processes were roughly equal in volume. Respondents also occasionally noted frustrations with inexperienced or untrained staff (6%), as well as internal politics and challenges (3%). Percent

4 Among respondents, billing software was most utilized (72%), followed by collections agencies (63%), internal billing teams (59%) and paper billing (44%). Yes No What systems and/or processes does your organization currently use for patient billing? (Please select all that apply) Systems / Processes Total (%) Billing Software 57 (72%) Collections Agency 50 (63%) Internal Billing Team 47 (59%) Paper 35 (44%) Automated Dialer That Contacts Patients 1 () Epic EMR 1 () External Billing Systems 1 () Meditech 1 () Offsite Billing Vendor 1 () Outsource Self Pay Collector 1 () Outsourced Billing Vendor 1 () Partial Outsourcing to Athena 1 () Revenue Cycle Management System 1 () 1 79 Respondents

5 On average, how long does it typically take for your organization to collect patient payments?* Patient Billing Timeframe 23.8% 27.5% 28.7% Responses were diffuse across time periods; while a slim majority of payments are typically collected within 90 days (51.3%), 40% are collected after 90 days or more. 11.3% Days *Note: 8.8% indicated Don t Know.

6 On a 1 to 5 scale, how would you assess current patient satisfaction with the billing and payment process at your hospital or health system? 5% 16.3% 56.3% 21.3% 1.3% N=4 N=13 N=45 N=17 N=1 Patient Satisfaction with Billing Most respondents rated patient satisfaction at moderate or higher (78.9%). While a single theme did not stand out among open responses, a focal point of praise and frustration was patient billing. Clear, timely and precise statements were lauded as key to a smooth billing process, while others complained that patients were often confused and frustrated with opaque or inaccurate statements Scale Very Poor Poor Moderate Good Very Good

7 On a 1 to 5 scale, how high of a priority is the patient billing and payment process at your hospital or health system? 0% 6.3% 20% 22.5% 51.2% N=0 N=5 N=16 N=18 N= Scale Very Poor Poor Moderate Good Very Good

8 Methodology To gather the insights, Cedar, in partnership with Becker s Hospital Review surveyed 79 senior financial leaders. The survey was conducted online within the United States from July 17 to Aug. 1, The respondents included 28 C-level executives, 16 vice presidents, 24 directors and eight managers with health systems, academic medical centers, community hospitals, medical groups and children's hospitals across the U.S.