24 Vital Trends in Patient Experience Impacting Healthcare Revenue in 2021

More than ever, healthcare exists in a consumer-driven environment where choices are made based on access and convenience, and organizational loyalty is a thing of the past.

In today’s healthcare landscape, organizations and providers will have to compete on outcomes and value, as well as customer service. With an abundance of choices, patients can easily move between providers when their needs aren’t being met.

As we move through 2021, we find ourselves still combating the COVID-19 pandemic that has changed our healthcare delivery system and significantly altered our lives. With that as our foundation, we look at several categories of essential trends that will impact the patient experience in 2021 and beyond.

In the process, we also look at how to capitalize on new and expanding technologies that bring profound improvements in the complicated patient-centric marketplace?

  1. The Changing Patient Dynamic
  2. The Evolving Healthcare Environment
  3. The Benefits of Strong Customer Service on Patient Perceptions
  4. The Increases in Automation and Self-Service Opportunities
  5. The Bottom-Line Benefits

The Changing Patient Dynamic

1

Consumers have different expectations for customer service across all industries. In general, 59% of consumers say they have higher customer service expectations than they did just one year ago

Microsoft

2

Millennials are placing higher demands on healthcare organizations in terms of automation, accessibility, and technology. Without advanced automation, hospitals and practices will watch their competitive advantage significantly decline.

American Hospital Association

3

90% of consumers actively seek out reviews and 88% report being influenced by positive evaluations.

Dimensional Research

4

COVID-19 has accelerated patients’ expectations of contact-less care and technology-driven patient access and RCM processes. Patients want convenience and access at their fingertips.

Fierce Healthcare

5

In healthcare overall, social media interactions, reviews, and site comments are more prevalent and carry more weight in patients’ decision making.

American Association for Physician Leadership

The Evolving Healthcare Environment

6

With COVID-19 came telehealth and the rapid acceptance and explosive growth of virtual encounters, long considered a non-starter. Telehealth’s success is grounded in virtual technology for scheduling, verifying insurance benefits and amounts due, confirming appointments, and the patient’s actual encounter with providers.

Pharmaphorum

7

Value-based care initiatives are paying based on proven value metrics. One of those metrics is how patients perceive their care and the outcomes they experience. Since patients typically have little to no medical training or reference point, they give outsized credit to the operational systems they encounter.

New England Journal of Medicine

8

High Deductible Health Plans are continuing to grow in popularity with over 30% of employees with traditional insurance switching to HDHP plans over the last ten years. With patients assuming up to 35% of the healthcare dollar responsibility, there is an increasing demand for patient-centric operations in everything from onboarding to the prior authorization process.

Centers for Disease Control

9

Increases in advanced automation for patient access and revenue cycle management will continue to grow and harness artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities in new and powerful ways.

CLP Magazine

The Benefits of Strong Customer Service on Patient Perceptions

10

Consumers reported that providing superior customer service was the #1 way they differentiated between healthcare choices. Patients assume they are being given quality care; it’s the customer service that defines their perception about an organization or practice.

Bain

11

Across all industries, 89% of consumers have switched to a competitor following a single negative customer service encounter. There’s virtually only one chance in the customer service game.

RightNow

12

One in two Millennials will use social media to complain about an organization.

Microsoft

13

77% of consumers view organizations more favorably if they ask for, accept, and then act upon customer opinions.

Microsoft

14

91% of people who have a negative encounter with an organization will leave without complaining or providing direct feedback, but will typically tell 15+ people of a bad experience, either face-to-face or on social media.

thinkJar, as reported in the Huffington Post

The Increases in Automation and Self-Service Opportunities

15

Millennials want top quality care provided with convenience, value, and access, and they want it in a tech-savvy format easily accessible through their smart devices. Anything less, and they move on to the next option.

Forbes

16

By using an electronic insurance verification system, patients have their insurance details and benefits eligibility verified immediately to alleviate the risk of financial surprises for the patient later.

Becker’s Hospital Review

17

Behind the scenes, providers that utilize electronic prior authorizations increase patient satisfaction by providing timely and accurate prior authorizations that support care instead of delaying it. Automation and AI-driven prior authorization solutions further reduce the denied claims that hold up final bills and create headaches for patients.

Healthcare IT News

18

Using an automated insurance discovery platform allows revenue to be redirected to undisclosed insurance payers saving the patient and providers valuable time and money while educating them about their extended coverage.

RevCycle Intelligence

19

Patients want and will seek out organizations and practices that deliver omnichannel support and digital portals providing automated scheduling, notifications, health records access, prescription management, payments, and communications.

Medical Economics

20

There is further opportunity to create good will by providing patients with accurate payment portions due before the care is provided. Patients have the ability to budget and pay with no surprises.

InstaMed

The Bottom-Line Benefits

21

Increasing patient retention by 5% can produce a 25% increase in healthcare revenue. Acquiring new patients is up to 25% more expensive with increased marketing costs and additional staff and clinical time for onboarding and assimilation.

Harvard Business Review

22

The cost of poor customer service to U.S. companies in all industries is estimated to be more than $62 billion per year. On the flip side, 72% of customers will spend more when they perceive high-quality customer services.

Fortunly

23

With advanced automation opportunities in everything from patient access, prior authorizations, and denials management, organizations have multiple ways to simultaneously create patient goodwill and increase bottom-line healthcare revenue.

HealthTech Magazine

24

The best way to weather changes projected over the next several years in the healthcare field is to ensure best practices in operations that boost patient retention and grow your existing base.

Patient Pop

Today’s patient wants convenient, accessible care delivered cost-effectively. While Gen Zer’s and Millennials are early adopters on all things technological, Gen Xer’s and Baby Boomers have quickly gotten on board. What resistance remained was virtually swept away with COVID-19 and the telehealth revolution.

The marriage of excellent customer service and advanced automation should be the operational guidepost for healthcare organizations now and in 2021 and into the future. One can’t effectively exist without the other in this accelerated age.

Health-Report-Infinx

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