The last three years have brought spiked costs, overwhelmed staff, and intense challenges in scheduling and no-shows to the healthcare industry. And in response, according to the Healthcare Financial Management Association, practices want to increase revenue to add stability and sustainability in their facilities.

While several things contribute to revenue loss in the healthcare space, there are three huge issues that seem to be universal: unpaid invoices, missed appointments, and poor patient experiences. But a healthcare contact center can help.

Check out our cloud contact center here.

A Healthcare Contact Center Can Reduce the Number of Unpaid Invoices

According to KFF, people in the U.S. owe at least $220 billion in medical debt. And around 14 million people owe over $1,000 in medical bills, while 3 million people owe more than $10,000.

But it’s not just patients who feel the burn of medical debt. Some practices are losing significant revenue to these outstanding invoices as well.

J.P. Morgan’s Annual Healthcare Report found a disconnect between the healthcare industry and consumers.

• 50% of providers were challenged by large patient balances
• 71% of providers collect from patients with paper and manual processes
• 75% of consumers want to pay medical bills online

Most patients simply can’t pay. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released new research showing that 15 million Americans have medical bills on their credit reports. Instead of calling to set up a payment plan, patients tend to put bills aside until the office contacts them.

Practices are also losing revenue trying to remind patients about their bills. The J.P. Morgan study showed that most people pay their medical bills using manual processes (i.e., snail mail). But with increasing postage costs, it’s expensive.

As a result, many practices now use email for invoice reminders. Unfortunately, what they gain in cost savings, they lose in efficiency. Constant Contact found that the open rate for emails is only 37.72%. The healthcare industry is slightly higher at 41.2%. That’s if the email reaches the patient’s primary inbox and not the spam folder.

How a Healthcare Contact Center Can Help

A healthcare-specific contact center can help you remind your patients of their outstanding invoices. And many times, this technology comes equipped with customizable scripts, omnichannel services, and automated dialing. Functionality like this can help you to collect payments quickly and efficiently.

Customized scripts can help employees create payment plans that meet patients’ needs. Employees can also use scripts to educate patients on their options and avoid collections. This brings lost revenue back into the practice and improves patient satisfaction.

Check out this blog on the benefits of a virtual contact center for your practice.

A Healthcare Contact Center Can Decrease the Number of Missed Appointments

It’s not just past-due invoices that are sucking up revenue. Medical practices also face the costly challenge of missed appointments. Most offices use outdated reminder tactics that just don’t work like they used to. And as a result, patients — and their money — aren’t coming in the door.

No-shows and missed appointments impact your resources and compromise services. This leads to revenue loss. According to Repugen, the no-show rate for primary care is 19%, but for specialty clinics, it is 39%. Yikes.

One of the most common reasons for no-shows? Forgetfulness.

Almost 28% of patients rely on their memory to recall appointments. And 24.2% rely on their phones and computers to remind them.

Reminding patients about their appointments is important, but the solution isn’t simple. The healthcare industry is still navigating staffing shortages and dwindling workforces. Because of this, many are short-staffed. As a result, reminder calls often take the backburner to patient care.

Staffing shortages are partly to blame for the increasing number of no-shows. Contact methods are also a factor. The traditional appointment reminder process is time-consuming and laborious. It usually ends with employees leaving a voicemail. Unfortunately, the alternatives — mail and email — also lack efficiency and effectiveness.

• Mailing appointment reminders is inefficient and unaffordable. Sure, postage rates have increased. But it’s also time-consuming and labor-intensive to design and print the reminders. Then, you have to make a label, stamp it, and drop it off at the post office.
• While emailing is affordable and easy, it’s becoming ineffective. With low open rates, less than half of patients open email reminders.

How a Healthcare Contact Center Can Help

With decreasing workforces and overburdened employees, appointment reminders are often missed. But a healthcare contact center solution can help you improve no-show rates.

With a contact center as a service (CCaaS) solution, you can connect with your patients on a number of channels. Tools like automated dialing, integrated patient records, and easy call logging can also help with follow-ups.

A CCaaS solution can also automate outreach efforts and optimize appointment reminders, leading to more profitability.

Learn more about how a CCaaS platform can reduce your no-show rate here.

A Healthcare Contact Center Can Improve the Patient Experience

You already know that a healthy physician-patient relationship is key. It decreases no-show rates and patients are more willing to work out payment plans. And a healthcare contact center can help you create that trust by enhancing patient communications and follow-up strategies.

Every interaction contributes to the patient experience. Quick, informative, and frequent communication lets patients build positive relationships. This helps your reputation and boosts patients’ willingness to pay. With this, they’re also more likely to keep appointments.

Most patients complain that their experience varies depending on the channel they use. These inconsistencies can be frustrating and disappointing for patients.

Here are a few possible reasons for the inconsistency:

• Staff training on each channel can vary
• Scripting tools aren’t available for agents, leading to misinformation and delayed resolutions
• Communication channels are answered with varying urgency
• Most channels don’t offer an omnichannel view of the patient

How a Healthcare Contact Center Can Help

An omnichannel CCaaS solution integrates the patient experience across channels. This increases patient and employee satisfaction. Our omnichannel functionality unifies communications and provides one, centralized platform. All transactions, interactions, and notes are in one place, meaning your team can offer a simple, pleasant experience in every connection.

A healthcare contact center solution lets you meet patients where they are when they need help the most. Then, advanced training tools let your team get the information and skills they need to resolve any issue that comes their way, adding autonomy and confidence into their workflow.

Learn more about how an omnichannel CCaaS solution can improve patient satisfaction.

A Healthcare Contact Center Can Heal Many Ailments

A CCaaS solution can’t heal all wounds, but it can help strengthen your communication strategies. And that improves your patient experience.

This post originally published on March 16, 2023 and was revised on September 23, 2024.