Increasing Patient Engagement to Reduce AR

Can you imagine watching a jenga tower collapse in slow motion? You’d likely try to frantically move blocks around and do everything you could to try and keep it from falling. But as the collapse progressed, you’d realize that you couldn’t stop it on your own.
 
In some ways, this analogy represents how many healthcare organizations feel today. Except the falling structure isn’t just some toy blocks, it’s the whole medical industry. Whether we like it or not, we’ve all needed or will need healthcare to be there for us or our loved ones at some point, and right now the healthcare organizations in your community are struggling to keep up with all the policy changes and pandemics and staffing challenges, and many are buckling under the weight and complexity of it all.
 
In a time when the average amount in accounts receivable for healthcare providers increased 49% (1), and when 73% of healthcare providers list staffing as their top concern (2), and when $10 billion in additional admin costs are attributed across the healthcare industry to low health literacy and the rising complexity of receiving care (3), Beaver Valley Hospital was looking for help.
 
It all started with wanting to find a way to make online appointment registration easy for patients. But after exploring their options and technological solutions, they realized that they wanted something more than just a stop-gap solution for registration. In their words, they wanted something that helped their patients feel confidence and trust in understanding their care and the communications around their care.
 
BVH knew that patient trust and confidence were vital factors in strengthening patient loyalty, helping them want to keep coming back for care, and also helping patients want to pay their bills in a timely manner.
 
This understanding led BVH to partner with Wixcorp, a patient financial engagement company that empowered them to not only solve their online registration concerns, but also help them be compliant with the federal price transparency requirements, online insurance verification, digital clinical screening questionnaires, and much more.
 
Now when a patient walks into a clinic, they can have their insurance eligibility checked right there, while the patient is standing at the desk. This alone has revolutionized their billing office, and dramatically decreased the number of claim denials they’ve received from insurers. They were also able to unify all patient payments, including labs, hospital facility charges, physician charges, and more into one bill that the patient could see online.
 
These changes to their hospital have been met with overwhelmingly positive feedback. They’ve even received multiple calls from patients telling them how much they love this new technological support. Because of the features like text-to-pay, texting communications, responsive mobile-first design, and many others, their patients have even said to them “you’re finally up with the times!”
 
One reason for this can be found in how Wixcorp distinctly integrates their technology with each healthcare organization. Wixcorp’s goal is to be that connective tissue between patient and provider across all the different touch points. The patient experience is so much more than just the care they receive, the bill in the mail, or the providers and staff the patient interacts with. It covers right from the very first awareness of their seeking care, all the way through final payment.
 
The patient experience is also extremely unique to each institution and Wixcorp works to understand how their technology can help improve certain areas and where does it make sense to engage the patient in that process, while making it seamless for not only the patients, but the office staff as well.
 
To bring it all together, Beaver Valley Hospital has vastly decreased their AR, and significantly increased patient loyalty and satisfaction as a result of their partnership with Wixcorp. In other words, they have more than steadied their Jenga tower, and are ready and excited for whatever the future brings.
 
While it seems the only guarantee in healthcare is that things will change, there are tools and resources available to help healthcare organizations adapt to better connect with and engage their patients. And with Wixcorp, that’s never been easier to do.