Health and Wellness Informatics News
UConn Health has over 500 physicians in the medical group. Other health systems partnered for automation in the revenue cycle.
UConn Health improved its ROI by working on patient billing and payment experiences. Sarah Ginnetti is the associate vice president of Clinical Revenue Cycle at UConn Health. She worked to change the patient’s financial journey. However, this transformation came up with the upcoming third wave of the COVID-19.
Ginnetti analyses billing, patient balances, coding, and data. She also goes through Health Information Management. These are the heart of the revenue cycle.
This department works for the conversion of clinical information into financial information for inpatients and outpatients. UConn partnered with the patient financing company ClearBalance four years ago. This partnership was to offer patients a long-term payment plan at no interest.
It combines accounts and billing between hospital and medical groups. Therefore, the patient gets one statement.
Ginnetti stated that “It really can make the difference for patients on deciding whether to move forward with the (medical) service. We’ve then funded that account balance in advance, which allows us to have access to capital and cash more quickly than waiting for a payment plan”. She also added that over 90% of patients end up sticking with the payment plan and following through.
UConn Health is averaging a 200% return on investment. And 43% average annual improvement in collections. However, another key factor is that patients are willing to return to use the hospital’s services.
UConn Health’s latest patient experience upgrade constitutes enhanced options through Epic’s MyChart patient portal. MyChart gives patients data about medications and test results. It also constitutes upcoming appointments, medical bills, and price estimates.
Epic began developing the original iteration of MyChart in the early 2000s. Also, more and more data are available to patients over the years.
UConn Health has about 155,000 users. All of them will soon get the payment plan option through MyChart. Ginnetti and the team are working with Epic on the payment estimate process. A project plan on generating estimates through automation within Epic directly is going to start. Ginnetti also stated that the patient’s experiences are always a challenge.
