To create a successful digital-first healthcare payment experience, revenue cycle leaders must carefully evaluate their current payment and billing needs and address various integration challenges that arise when incorporating multiple payment options within their system. Any payment system integration, particularly with legacy platforms, can be a challenging task. Thorough preparation and close monitoring of the process are crucial to achieve a successful and timely implementation. Here are five key issues that healthcare providers should consider when planning to invest in a new technology partner offering advanced solutions.
Before implementing a new payment system, it's crucial for revenue cycle leaders to ensure that their existing hardware is compatible with the latest programs, payment types, and industry security standards. Healthcare providers must test and validate the new payment system to confirm its seamless operation and eliminate any errors or issues that could negatively impact patient care. This can be time-consuming, prone to security issues, and may delay the implementation of the new payment system.
A 2022 IBM study revealed that the healthcare industry had the highest average cost of a data breach at $10.1 million, a 41.6% increase since 2020. With an increase in digital payment transactions, providers must prioritize keeping patient health and financial data secure. Evaluating the security aspects of the new payment system should be a top priority, ensuring compliance with the latest security standards and support for near-field communication (NFC) payment types.
According to Salucro’s 2022 Patient Payment Technology Report, 44% of surveyed patients stated that a positive clinical and financial experience was very important when evaluating a new medical provider. By offering payment methods beyond cash and credit, healthcare providers can make it easier for patients and their families to make payments.
Studies show that offering more payment options to patients increases payment volume and satisfaction levels. But one of the key issues that hospitals may face when implementing multiple payment options is technical compatibility. Different payment methods may have different technical requirements that may not be compatible with the hospital's existing systems. Revenue cycle leaders must consider the availability of several payment options within the new payment system.
Patient loyalty is driven by the quality of their financial experience. It is the job of an integrated payments partner to ensure a frictionless payment acceptance experience for the patients. Healthcare providers should look for patient financial engagement solutions capable of integrating new payment methods to help accelerate the payment process and reduce operating costs.
This integration can also help to streamline the billing process and reduce the likelihood of errors. However, integration can also be challenging and time-consuming, as different payment methods may have different data format requirements and may not be able to communicate easily with each other.
Hospitals must provide training and support to staff to ensure they can effectively use the new payment options. This can include training on using the new payment options and offering ongoing support to address any issues that may arise. Staff may also require additional training on data security and compliance to protect patient information. This level of training and support can be an added burden on a hospital's resources.
Choosing the right technology partner can help to ensure that, regardless of the complexity, payments are auto-posted correctly, split appropriately, and deposited into the correct account. This reduces the burden on providers and their revenue cycle teams.
Hospitals need to manage multiple data streams from different payment systems to ensure accuracy, consistency, and completeness. Providers must guarantee that data is stored, processed, and reported correctly. And that data must be accessible, understandable, and actionable for authorized personnel.
Breach or theft of cardholder data impacts the entire ecosystem, including payment partners. Patients may lose trust in their healthcare organizations, and their credit can be negatively affected. Healthcare organizations risk losing credibility (and in turn, patient loyalty) and could also be subject to numerous financial liabilities. Is your technology partner meeting and exceeding the right security standards?
Whether you already have native integrations that connect your team and patients throughout the revenue cycle, or you are looking to implement your first online bill pay offering, following these simple recommendations and choosing the right partner will help you drive patient engagement, self-service payments, and revenue in 2023 and beyond.
With Salucro's payment platform in India, healthcare providers gain access to modern payment methods. significantly reducing the time, cost, and effort required for integrations. Salucro’s platform in India enables quick onboarding of new payment options and ensures compatibility with existing systems and processes. Salucro in India is committed to creating purposeful patient financial engagement solutions to meet and exceed the needs of healthcare providers and their partners.
*This blog is published by VOH team.*
