Case Study: Penn State Health

Envisioning the Complete Patient Experience

As consumerism poured into healthcare, PSH leadership anticipated that patient demands and satisfaction rates would soon expand and encompass the entire patient journey. Patients were also now entering and exiting the revenue cycle at many different points, creating a need for omnichannel payment solutions. With an eye toward the future, PSH realized that incorporating customer service & billing into the patient experience was critical to retention and loyalty. PSH executed a strategy to offer an online method for patient pay, enhance their POS payment acceptance capabilities, and integrate a payment solution that enabled real-time engagement of patients about their financial responsibilities. “From pre-service estimation to post-service payments, the ability to communicate and collect on patient pay obligations at any touch point was a major priority for PSH,” said Virginia Robbins, Director, Provider & Patient Access Services, Revenue Cycle.

Status Quo Creating Internal Inefficiencies

With two separate billing systems among the hospital & physician network, collecting patient payments anywhere from pre-to-post service was proving more difficult, time consuming and inefficient. Limited functionality within legacy systems not optimized for patient pay transactions required more manual processes resulting in:

• Inaccuracies of financial data,
• Longer days in A/R,
• Limited visibility into patient pay revenue among finance teams

The compounding impact of the status quo was an increasing of costs to collect and a diminishing patient quality of service.

Simplifying Complexity

PSH selected HealthPay24 as their trusted, credible, vendor to provide a patient payment platform. Taking on a complex project consisting of two billing systems, a large physician network, over 500 staff collecting payments, and a centralized Cerner EMR, PSH needed a partner with subject-matter expertise to plan and deliver a simplified, integrated, patient payment solution.

On-Boarding with Ease

“Once the go-live timeline was solidified by both sides, HealthPay24 exceeded our expectations in terms of responsiveness, flexibility, support, and their ability to produce results. They really made this a productive, meaningful, and impactful project for us,” added Virginia Robbins.

Measurable Results Across Online, POS & Customer Service

HealthPay24 delivered a PSH branded, online payment portal, to enable patients to pay online and via mobile devices. With a soft launch in Nov of 2015, PSH had collected $17K in its first month of online pay. Within 12 months, PSH was averaging $600K per month. In 2017, the health system now collects over $1.2 million in monthly online payments. ACH & E-Check total $125K per month.

This wave of online payment adoption has also significantly reduced staff burden performing manual collection processes.

Virginia Robbins adds, “We are extremely excited to have an online payment option that delivers a positive patient experience. Simplified bills and payment options boost patient confidence and we are happily experiencing that with HealthPay24.”

HealthPay24 linked the two legacy billing systems with an interface to communicate, collect, and reconcile patient pay transactions across the health system. Upgraded POS devices enabled staff to securely accept any payment type from the patient. Collecting on new & previous patient balances was now completed in one single transaction; resulting in reduced merchant fees and lower costs per transaction.

Within a year of launch, PSH increased its POS collections to average $600K-$700K in monthly POS payments in 2017. With up to 500 staff collecting on patient pay responsibilities, a streamlined payment acceptance and reconciliation process was critical. Now each staff member has a payment device at their workstation, using a single sign-on to collect at POS or over the phone, within any PSH facility location.

Consolidated payment views from HealthPay24 enable staff to have productive conversations and engagement with patients about their responsibilities. This leads to prompt actual service to the patients, resulting in a better provider-patient experience. “The HealthPay24 platform is very intuitive and user-friendly,” says one Medical Office Assistant. “It was so easy for our staff to come on-board to the platform. Since then, we have increased our quality of service to patients and significantly reduced our collection times.”

Across the Board

HealthPay24 fully embraced the opportunity to deliver a custom solution to a highly reputable and well-established health system like Penn State Health. Across the board, the solution has:

• Empowered PSH to Embrace Consumerism
• Increased Patient Service Levels
• Reduced Collection Times
• Streamlined Workflows
• Alleviated Staff Burden
• Increased Visibility to Finance Teams
• Lowered the Costs of Collections