Offering Flexible Patient Financing to Remedy Delayed Care and Treatment
The COVID-19 pandemic is a world-changing event. Entire industries and economic sectors are slowly recovering from being shuttered for nearly a year, and significant pain points and challenges are still being resolved. All in all, the on-going global pandemic is causing American households to cut back on significant routine spending, a major one being healthcare.
The pandemic led to a massive drop in healthcare spending in 2020, especially during the second quarter of the year. According to our recent healthcare survey report, healthcare spending dropped by -8.9% in the second quarter of 2020, and finished negative year over year. Overall, as many as one third of healthcare consumers delayed a medical screening or treatment in the last year.
Recouping Lost Patient Revenue
Naturally, such a steep decline in consumer spending caused serious revenue shortages for health systems. This was seen across the sector in a variety of different specialties, from oncology to dentistry. A top priority for many health systems is to recoup lost revenue in 2022 from their missing and inactive patients. One way to pursue greater revenue collection and increase patient engagement and satisfaction is to embrace flexible patient financing.
Patient financing has grown into an essential offering for American health systems. The reality is that for millions of Americans, out-of-pocket healthcare spending costs are simply too high for them to successfully pay off in a single payment. Consumers have come to expect being offered a buy now, pay later option for any purchase or service. Third-party financing gives them that option, and allows patients to receive essential and elective services, while maintaining their financial health.
Health systems need to keep this in mind as they address a patient population that has delayed healthcare services due to fears of COVID-19 as much as financial necessity. In our recent survey, we found that 20% of consumers say that “healthcare bills negatively affected their finances in the past year”. Additionally, about 50% of consumers, and 57% of consumers with children reported that they remain concerned about their ability to pay for medical costs over the next twelve months. The ability to pay for medical bills will be a serious obstacle for health system revenue teams in the coming months.
Bridging the Gap with Patient Financing
With so many financial challenges facing patients today, it’s readily apparent that revenue cycle teams will need to employ flexible and creative strategies to bridge the financing gap with their patients. Using a third-party patient financing company such as AccessOne, can be a valuable tool in addressing patient’s financial concerns as well as ensuring prompt repayment of services and reducing bad debt. AccessOne can offer flexible and generous payment plan terms to patients, such as a choice between low- and zero-interest plans, which gives them the opportunity to lower their monthly payment when necessary.
Patient financing is an excellent way that health systems can directly engage with patients over their medical financial concerns. As seen from our survey, it’s critical that health systems introduce potential solutions to healthcare consumers, as the effects of delayed procedures, treatments or preventative screenings can have harmful consequences across a wide range of health outcomes.
How AccessOne Can Help
Partnering with a patient financing company can allow your health system to cut down on bad debt, foster positive patient experiences, and allow for a greater range of patient payment plan options. AccessOne takes on all patient-provider billing and financing communication, allowing your team members to focus on providing care and treatment to patients.
Our innovations and generous financing options have led us to see collection rates of over 90% from our patients. Not only will this allow you to immediately increase revenue and cash flow, but we’ve also found that patients develop greater trust, engagement, and positive sentiment with their health systems.
