Services

Patient Revenue Cycle - The Rise of the Healthcare Consumer

The ChallengeThe Rise of the Healthcare ConsumerWhat We DoWhy We're DifferentWhat Are the Benefits With 40% of provider revenue coming from patients and seemingly unlimited access to health information and choices, it's clearly the healthcare consumer who will motivate the transformation in healthcare. The 2009 Deloitte Survey of Healthcare Consumers concluded that "healthcare is a consumer market - consumers will invariably find ways to navigate the complexities of the U.S. system by comparing service, quality and costs."

The reality for today's hospital or physician organizations is that they must begin to function as retail service providers if they wish to thrive. This will require not only world-class business-to-consumer tools, but also a firm understanding of the diverse beliefs and values of each patient they serve. With literally thousands of individual patient payers, providers must make appropriate remedial changes in revenue cycle and customer service processes. The challenge is that patients often have vastly different expectations, educational backgrounds or financial resources; they don't always speak the same language or have access to technology and they are rarely available during convenient office hours. The point is, today's consumers are demanding and will be judging healthcare services as they would other retail transactions. Over time, providers will have to be competitive in price and quality just to survive. And with those variables becoming easier to discern, personalized customer service will become the key differentiator in healthcare choice. This means healthcare providers, regardless of specialty or zip code, must increase service levels along the entire customer continuum, from acquisition to service delivery to retention.

Next >