To put it bluntly, consumer satisfaction in health care is taking a dramatic fall. People are just not happy with services anymore. Does this mean that providers are not good anymore? Does this mean that there a not any bedside manner? The answers are no and no. Doctors are always trying their best to provide optimal care. Ponderosa knows that!
The problem is that the billing process is complicated for consumers. This is not suited for a society that is all about convenience. We live in a world that loves their auto-payments, 2-day deliveries, and mobile apps. Our attention spans are incredibly short. This means that our consumers get extremely frustrated with anything that is time-consuming and/or difficult.
There are a couple of problems with health care and billing that can be found in these stats:
- 70% of consumers are confused by medical bills
- 71% of consumers are confused by EOBs
- 49% of people recieve an unexpected bill
Overall, patients are generally extremely dissatisfied with the billing process.
Convenience and Online Reviews
What do most people do when they don’t have a great experience with a doctor (or office)? Most likely, they will give the deadly one-star review. Keep in mind over 90% of people look at online reviews before choosing a business- that includes any medical practice. It’s not your fault that the medical billing process is complicated, but it is important for you to simplify the process for your patients as much as you possibly can.
Online reviews are not only a great “referral” tool for your practice, but now online reviews help to increase the rank of your website only. 98% of people only stay on the first page of search results when they are looking for a business to go to. You want your practice to show up on page number one google search results. Online searches are becoming the number one way that consumers find medical practices (and any other local business). Offering a simplified payment process could increase the chance of your practice getting more reviews and succeeding online.
Provider’s Want a Simplified Billing Process Too… Right?
Consumers aren’t the only ones that want the billing process simplified. If the billing process was simplified, then practices would be able to collect much more than they currently are. It generally takes 3 paper statements to get a patient’s attention to even think about paying a bill. That’s right… 3! The majority of patients are confused by the bill and don’t want to call your office or the insurance company to deal with the confusion. Additionally, most doctors are not able to collect until a month after a bill has been sent out. But honestly, most will not even make the payment at all… leaving your business short of money.
It Shouldn’t Be YOUR Problem
Providers just weren’t trained to deal with insurance collection or deal with billing. Not to say that providers can’t do it on their own. They certainly can, but it will suck up nearly half of your time… leaving you with less time to provide excellent care to your patients. It’s entirely possible that by leaving this in your hands could take a hit not only on your billing convenience, but also the quality of your care. Let billing experts take this off of your hands and increase consumer satisfaction. Get some more rest, provide the best care you can, and start to see those 5-star online reviews increase.
Contact us today if you are craving less work and more excellent reviews!