Third-party patient financing: a game changer for your entire organization

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For many health systems, delivering a positive patient financial experience is directly tied to a healthy revenue cycle. However, achieving both may be easier said than done. Today's healthcare leaders are balancing demand to adapt to changing patient expectations while also keeping their organizations financially healthy, and staff morale high.The competing demands are often a lot to navigate.

Fortunately though, there’s a solution that can help relieve the pressure on all fronts: a third-party financing partner. By offering a flexible payment option for medical bills, you can simultaneously raise the bar for your patients and your organization.

Deliver quality care while keeping patients’ financial responsibilities in mind.

With out-of-pocket healthcare costs skyrocketing, patients are increasingly stepping into a new role as payer and approaching their healthcare decisions like other major retail purchases. Not only do patients appreciate flexible and convenient payment options, they now expect these solutions from providers—a trend that’s likely to continue as 25% of consumers surveyed said they are highly interested in using payment plans or third-party financing in the future.¹

By providing flexible payment solutions, health systems can help meet these demands and navigate their patients’ increasing responsibility for healthcare bills. In the end, patients can enjoy an easier way to pay, how and when they prefer, while your organization helps move care forward and gets paid faster.

Build loyalty while providing cost transparency and ease.

Patients also want to be engaged throughout their journey and feel in control of their own health at all points of care. Therefore, it’s imperative to provide all cost information upfront to reduce feelings of uncertainty and help patients gain peace of mind knowing they can manage current and future medical treatments. A third-party financing partner can equip your organization with the necessary tools and resources that make it easier for employees to confidently lead conversations about financial responsibility and provide accurate estimates.

In a study by PYMNTS, nearly half of consumers surveyed said they don’t even know if their healthcare provider offers a payment plan.² Having a dedicated staff available to answer questions, provide advice and clearly demonstrate payment options right away is a major payoff for the patient’s financial experience. When patients gain this level of support and have the time to select a suitable payment option, providers can gain more trust and loyalty—helping position your health system as the preferred treatment location now and in the future.

Streamline payment collection while improving staff productivity.

We know it’s important to make the most of your staff’s time rather than spend extra effort on collections. Meeting these staff challenges and creating a positive experience for everyone involved in the payment collection process starts by equipping individuals with a simplified, patient-centric method to make payments. With a third-party payment solution, your health system can deliver the convenience patients want while encouraging higher utilization. In turn, a non-recourse* financing option such as the CareCredit credit card can help shift collection risk—including late payments and uncollected accounts—away from providers while helping them receive payments in just two business days. With both sides benefiting, the process becomes streamlined, allowing your health system to spend less time and effort on billing and accounts receivable.

In today’s healthcare landscape, it’s becoming increasingly important to provide patients solutions that make it possible to pay medical bills when and how they prefer. Therefore, now is the perfect time for organizations—like yours––to develop a patient-centric financing experience. Not only may this help strengthen your revenue cycle, but it may also help boost patient satisfaction and improve outcomes overall.

To learn more about how integrating CareCredit as a third-party financing partner can help empower your organization and your patients, visit carecredit.com/chiefhealthcare.

Disclosures:

1. InstaMed,Trends in Healthcare Payments Tenth Annual Report: 2019, published April 2020
2. PYMNTS.com, Consumers’ Healthcare Financial Experiences and Patient Loyalty, July 2021

^{*Subject to the representations and warranties in your Agreement with CareCredit, including but not limited to only charging for services that have been completed or that will be completed within 30 days of the initial charge, always obtaining the patient’s signature on in-office applications and the cardholder’s signature on the printed receipt.}