Nov 15
2021
Putting A Price on Transparency: The Patient Payment Challenge for Payers and Providers
By Mel Gunawardena, managing partner, SYNERGEN Health.
The healthcare revenue cycle is an unnecessarily complex tangle of patients, providers, employers, and insurance companies. Patients and other parties are often frustrated with medical claim submission and reimbursement procedures, which can take months to resolve. This has forced a closer look at ways to increase the transparency of payment structures – offering the potential to address long-standing patient concerns while ensuring a more stable revenue source.
One of consumers’ chief concerns is the final cost of care. Over the last two years, many patients have lost their jobs and health insurance, leaving them highly cost-conscious. Patients require more cost predictability as they continue to navigate the financial impact of the pandemic. Insurance eligibility and payment estimation tools enable providers to generate reliable out-of-pocket costs at the time of scheduling. For cost-conscious consumers, this helps drive better-informed care decisions, provides options of payment plans or financing, and is an opportunity for providers to improve a critical patient experience.
Price transparency has been a long-standing concern for consumers, and recently the federal government and states have taken steps to address the problem. The Price Transparency Rule, established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, took effect on January 1, 2019. Still, hospitals reluctant to comply with the rule now face the possibility of a hefty $2 million fine, and with the No Surprises Act set to take effect next year, it’s clear providers must embrace billing transparency, or the government will force them to accept a less-than-ideal option.