by Imagine going to your favorite restaurant, and they have a brand new menu with unique features. Their most popular dishes have prices listed next to them, but the meal you love to order has no price listed next to it anymore. When you ask the waiter about a price, they tell you that you’ll just have to find out after you eat it.
Odds are, you leave right then.
As crazy as it sounds though, this is how healthcare operates. Today’s average consumer has absolutely no idea what their care will cost in advance. Trying to figure it out has become so complicated, that most just wait for the bill to see what they owe and try to figure out how to pay it at that point.
No wonder everyone hates medical bills!
To try and help fix this issue, the government passed new regulations that require hospitals to list the prices for 300 procedures. While helpful, that barely scratches the surface of the thousands of procedures available. Patients whose care includes procedures not listed, they still struggle to know the true costs before they receive care.
Not only is this complexity a challenge for patients, but it’s also a challenge for healthcare employees tasked with helping patients understand their financial liability. Traditionally, the process of estimating a bill involves a nebulous and tiresome process that often includes homegrown reference tools and dated excel files that would seldom result in an accurate estimate. Adding insurance verification and coverage calculations to that estimate becomes so time-consuming and laborious as to be nearly impossible.
However, it doesn’t have to be that way. The new legislation also allows for a cost estimator. When done correctly, a robust cost estimator that is in sync with your business processes can completely re-write your engagement strategy. From empowering patients during the scheduling process to detailed procedure pricing with real-time insurance eligibility included – a good cost estimator can dramatically improve patient and employee transparency.
A client partner of ours recently incorporated the Redde Cost Estimator into their patient scheduling and patient access workflows. The hospital team feels empowered by having the right tools in hand at the right time, and their patients appreciate the transparency and are now able to work out payment terms prior to receiving care.
Across the country at our various clients’ hospitals, we see the same similar results. Even though the government does not require a Cost Estimator for every procedure, utilizing one for all procedures is vastly beneficial for your employees and patients.
If you’d like to learn more about how you could easily and affordably incorporate a cost estimation tool into your existing systems and software, contact Wixcorp for a free consultation today.
To your success,
Your friends at Wixcorp
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