How a Healthcare Financial Concierge Boosts Patient Satisfaction

Healthcare concierge services can elevate the patient experience and increase patient satisfaction for healthcare providers seeking to stand out from the crowd.

With the increasing trend of healthcare consumerism, patients are demanding high quality care and better experiences with their providers.

Healthcare consumers expect to receive patient-centered healthcare along with technologies that enable an optimized patient journey.

Accenture’s 2020 Digital Health Consumer Survey revealed that 39 percent of consumers surveyed believe a good digital interaction has a major influence on the patient experience. More than a quarter (26%) are even willing to switch to a new provider for high-quality digital services.

The survey also showed that healthcare consumers expect their healthcare providers to offer digital capabilities to book appointments online, receive reminders, and reduce wait time.

This is why many healthcare providers are investing in healthcare concierge services like having patient concierge centers, patient financial advocates, and innovative payment technologies.

Having a patient concierge center to assist patients whether they have a concern with their billing or with the quality of care they received ensures that patients leave with a happy experience.

Healthcare concierge can be a vague term as it can mean different things to different people.

It could mean the healthcare arrangement in which patients pay a certain fee (monthly, quarterly, or annual fixed fee) to receive care at a medical practice or physician.

This type of healthcare concierge is also called concierge medicine, retainer medicine, or fee-for-care (FFC). Patients pay fees for conveniences like same-day appointments and 24/7 physician availability.

Healthcare concierge can also mean the convenience services which manage the non-clinical needs of patients and their families. This is also known as “patient concierge” or hospital concierge and can benefit the patient experience greatly as well as the facility’s revenue cycle.

Patient concierges also manage other customer service-centric tasks like helping patients understand their medical bills and financing options. Hospital concierges can do almost anything for patients that falls outside the scope of clinical staffs’ duties.

Healthcare concierge takes the patient experience to the next level. Unlike medical professionals, patient concierge services focus on making patients and patient families’ hospital visits comfortable and convenient.

Similar to delivering concierge services to guests at a hotel, healthcare concierge services focus on creating exceptional experiences for patients in a hospital setting.

Today’s digital landscape has changed the expectations of consumers. One can order something online and it’s delivered the same day with just a few clicks.

Healthcare consumers expect to get the same frictionless experience and will choose medical providers who offer digital capabilities and concierge-level type of services — going above and beyond for patient satisfaction.

In essence, here are some of the benefits of healthcare concierge to both patients and providers:

• Customer service and the patient experience becomes a priority
  • In one survey, only 9% of US employees showed an understanding of basic insurance terms. That’s why patients need support in navigating the confusing health care system and its terminologies.
  • While there is a lot of information online, it makes a difference to patients to have an actual person explain everything — especially for something as complicated as health insurance.

• Providers operate more efficiently
  • Having an exceptional healthcare concierge program allows doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff to focus on patient care without the administrative burdens and pressures.
  • Utilizing technologies that streamline processes and improve the patient experience can help free up resources so that providers can focus on delivering high quality care. Healthcare concierge services increase patients’ comfort during their stay while not affecting the workload of their care teams.

• Improve patient satisfaction and hospital productivity
  • Concierge-level types of services or one-on-one support help providers improve their relationships with patients leading to better patient satisfaction and loyalty. These services help patients overcome obstacles to getting the care they need and being able to pay their medical bills.

A digital concierge service might sound like a luxury, but with Mnet as your partner, your facility will stand out from the crowd.

By working as an extension of your facility with its First-Party Patient Billing solutions, Mnet provides every patient with the best experience possible with exceptional level of service. We help patients understand their bill in over 200 languages, provide easy ways for them to pay including sensible payment plans and financing options.

Mnet offers innovative technologies that support concierge-level of service like:

• Text-to-Pay – allows your facility to send patient invoices, reminders, collect payments, and provide receipts all via text message. With this platform, all patient financial services —from payment in full to pay-plans and financing — can be neatly offered in a text experience.
• PaySUITE – Mnet’s state-of-the-art payment technology is custom-branded to your facility. PaySUITE has everything you need for your patients to pay – from online & mobile bill pay, self-help payment plans & financing options, and customer phone support with multi-lingual agents.

Mnet’s Patient Financial Advocates (covering 200+ languages and available nights and weekends) are uniquely trained to answer patients’ questions and educate them about their financial responsibility, including offering payment plans and financing options.

Conversations with patient financial advocates or patient concierges who can speak in their native language can go a long way to make visitors and patients more comfortable.

By partnering with Mnet, healthcare facilities can quickly provide an exceptional experience at par with the level of services offered by retail or hospitality.

We believe every patient deserves a helpful, transparent, easy-to-navigate financial experience in healthcare.

Mnet is the premier revenue cycle management & technology provider to the surgical industry. Mnet provides customized patient-pay solutions to surgical hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. Mnet Health partners with over 900 surgical facilities nationwide and is the preferred vendor to the leading ASC management companies in the US both directly with and in support of centralized billing offices.

Mnet’s tailor-made brand, PaySUITE, is a white-labeled payment technology platform that helps surgical facilities, and their providers grow their business by helping patients pay. Mnet’s patient-pay solutions significantly increase self-pay collections while creating a better financial experience for patients. For more information, visit mnethealth.com.