Our 2020 Story and Outlook for 2021 By David Hamilton, CEO of Mnet Health

As the year 2020 comes to a close, it is helpful to take a look back on what we’ve been through and set our sights on the dawn of a new year.

A snippet from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities serves perfectly well to describe 2020: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

COVID-19 rattled the whole world with rising death tolls and ICU-bed occupancy. Health systems have been put under strain. Many companies have furloughed staff, while others have closed forever, leaving employees to find job opportunities elsewhere.

On the bright side, the current crisis has forced organizations to adapt rapidly to new realities and faster ways of working with their customers and partners.

In fact, during the pandemic, McKinsey & Company data showed that we have vaulted five years forward in consumer and business digital adoption in a matter of around eight weeks.

Telemedicine saw tremendous adoption in the healthcare industry. Schools have pivoted to online learning and digital classrooms. Brick-and-mortar stores have shifted to online ordering and delivery.

Here at Mnet, we focused on our mission to help patients pay and preserve the integrity of our industry.

As Mnet works with over 700 surgical facilities nationwide handling over 1.5 million patients, we strengthened our commitment to work with the medical community in keeping the lines of communication open with patients.

In March, as we navigated the unprecedented circumstances around COVID-19, we transitioned our team members to work remotely to have every department fully operational.

With our remote call center technology and Patient Financial Advocates, we stood ready to field inbound calls, help patients pertaining to payment, answer any billing questions, and even offered practical suggestions such as how to apply for unemployment.

Amidst the coronavirus crisis, Mnet saw an increase in total patient payment by 1.6% compared to the period prior to Covid-19.

We saw more patients pay in full (+2.0%), make larger payments (+3.3%), or establish payment plans (+13.3%).

Consumers became less inclined to spend more on non-essentials. Instead, they used their money to pay down debt and keep their credit lines open.

As patients stayed at home and worked remotely, they were far more available and had more time to devote to resolving their balances. They also wanted to show their gratitude to healthcare workers.

As restrictions eased in August and elective procedures resumed, healthcare facilities were ramping up case volumes to recover some financial ground.

Mnet added 200 languages to its call center capability in order to help patients pay. A huge backlog of 4 million elective surgeries canceled in the US at the height of the pandemic was awaiting rescheduling.

As many of these patients were self-pay, we helped them by removing language barriers and communicating in their native tongue in order to provide an outstanding patient experience.

Mnet also launched its Text-to-Pay platform which can deliver all patient financial services — everything from payment in full to pay-plans and financing within a text conversation.

Text-to-Pay has become an essential solution for healthcare facilities to provide a contactless payment method for their patients.

The overarching theme of 2020 for Mnet was resilience and adaptability. We achieved several milestones in 2020 and signed on over 70 new facilities despite the challenging backdrop.

As we enter a new year, we think the changes in digital adoption that transpired in 2020 will continue to be pertinent. Consumer preference and digital transformation will continue to play center-stage roles in 2021.

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

In 2021, we have the possibility of dramatically changing how things are done. Join us in helping patients pay and create better financial experiences.

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. We provide custom patient-pay solutions to surgical hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. As of 2020, Mnet Health partners with over 700 surgical facilities nationwide and is the preferred vendor of both United Surgical Partners International (USPI) and Surgical Care Affiliates (SCA) – both directly with and in support of centralized billing offices.

Mnet’s custom 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 https://onemnethealth.com.