Self Pay Case Study
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Case Study Self-Pay Collections Large, ministry-based healthcare system partners with Convergent Revenue Cycle Management to more than triple its self-pay collections rate above historical baselines and increase patient satisfaction. Issues Several years ago, the healthcare provider struggled with pure self-pay and self-pay balances after insurance payment accounts. With limited staff to serve these patients, wait times for inquiry calls averaged 20 minutes and abandonment rates ran sky high. This resulted in significant patient satisfaction concerns the provider wanted to resolve quickly. Convergent Healthcare Recoveries, Inc. (CHRI), a Convergent affiliate company, had already worked with the healthcare provider in a different capacity as the provider of either primary or secondary bad debt collection services over the past 13 years. Recognizing an opportunity to help the large health system improve self-pay collec- tion service levels and raise much-needed revenue, the CHRI team recommended that the provider consider Convergent Revenue Cycle Management (Convergent) as a partner in reducing self-pay receivables while increasing patient collections and improving patient satisfaction with the business office experi- ence. Pleased with its existing CHRI relationship and the company’s performance, the healthcare provider turned to Convergent for full collections support on all primary self-pay accounts. “The quality of service that we receive and the compassion shown to our patients made Convergent a natural choice for our self-pay receivables,” said, Director of Patient Financial Services. Answers For the healthcare provider, the transition to outsourced accounts receivable management for self-pay balances was near-instant. Convergent immediately placed two representatives on-site to begin the collections work as it continued to build its off-site team. “Convergent’s on-site staff quickly adapted to our culture and became part of our bigger team. As liaisons between the two companies, they really help to minimize our involvement in this portion of the business. We’re able to keep our focus on third-party receivables,” said Director of Patient Financial Services. Convergent operates as a true call center for the provider, helping patients resolve their issues. Its robust off-site customer service department includes a predictive dialer for more productive and cost-effective outbound calling to patients. “We do have a dialer, but it didn’t function well for us and we stopped using it. With Convergent, we have a more advanced system for reaching out to patients without the cost, complication and worry of running it,” said the Director. Convergent also handles in-bound calls from patients, giving the provider the ability to listen in on live calls. “We listen to calls every two weeks, which helps us work together to continually improve the quality of calls. It also confirms that Convergent treats our patients with the same level of compassion that we do as a Catholic organization,” said the Director. “We listen to calls every two weeks, which helps us work together to continually improve the quality of calls. It also confirms that Convergent treats our patients with the same level of compassion that we do as a Catholic organization.” Director of Patient Financial Services 888.511.7901 www.convergentusa.com/healthcare Page 1 Profile: Not-for-profit organization with more than 100 sites including 15 hospital campuses, three transitional and extended care facilities, two home health agencies, more than 3,500 physicians, 70 clinic sites with approximately 600 employed physicians, and approximately 17,000 associates.
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Transcript of Self Pay Case Study
Case StudySelf-Pay Collections
Large, ministry-based healthcare system partners with Convergent Revenue Cycle Management to more than triple its self-pay collections rate above historical baselines and increase patient satisfaction.
Issues
Several years ago, the healthcare provider struggled with pure self-pay and self-pay balances after insurance payment accounts. With limited staff to serve these patients, wait times for inquiry calls averaged 20 minutes and abandonment rates ran sky high. This resulted in significant patient satisfaction concerns the provider wanted to resolve quickly.
Convergent Healthcare Recoveries, Inc. (CHRI), a Convergent affiliate company, had already worked with the healthcare providerin a different capacity as the provider of either primary or secondary bad debt collection services over the past 13 years. Recognizing an opportunity to help the large health system improve self-pay collec-tion service levels and raise much-needed revenue, the CHRI team recommended that the provider consider Convergent Revenue Cycle Management (Convergent) as a partner in reducing self-pay receivables while increasing patient collections and improving patient satisfaction with the business office experi-ence.
Pleased with its existing CHRI relationship and the company’s performance, the healthcareprovider turned to Convergent for full collections support on all primary self-pay accounts. “The quality of service that we receive and the compassion shown to our patients made Convergent a natural choice for our self-pay receivables,” said, Director of Patient Financial Services.
Answers
For the healthcare provider, the transition to outsourced accounts receivable management for self-pay balances was near-instant. Convergent immediately placed two representatives on-site to begin the collections work as it continued to build its off-site team. “Convergent’s on-site staff quickly adapted to our culture and became part of our bigger team. As liaisons between the two companies, they really help to minimize our involvement in this portion of the business. We’re able to keep our focus on third-party receivables,” said Director of Patient Financial Services.
Convergent operates as a true call center for the provider, helping patients resolve their issues.Its robust off-site customer service department includes a predictive dialer for more productive and cost-effective outbound calling to patients. “We do have a dialer, but it didn’t function well for us and we stopped using it. WithConvergent, we have a more advanced system for reaching out to patients without the cost, complication and worry of running it,” said the Director.
Convergent also handles in-bound calls from patients, giving the provider the ability to listen in on live calls. “We listen to calls every two weeks, which helps us work together to continually improve the quality of calls. It also confirms that Convergent treats our patients with the same level of compassion that we do as a Catholic organization,” said the Director.
“We listen to calls every two weeks, which helps
us work together to continually improve the
quality of calls. It also confirms that Convergent
treats our patients with the same level of
compassion that we do as a Catholic organization.”
Director of Patient Financial Services
888.511.7901 www.convergentusa.com/healthcare Page 1
Profile: Not-for-profit organization with more than 100 sites including 15 hospital campuses, three transitional and extended care facilities, two home health agencies, more than 3,500 physicians, 70 clinic sites with approximately 600 employed physicians, and approximately 17,000 associates.
At one point in the multi-year relationship, the healthcare provider chose to split the self-pay collections work between Convergent and a second vendor to move away from a single-source situation. “Unfortunately, the second vendor was not able to provide the level of service we receive from Convergent,” said the Director. “We quickly made the decision to return all self-pay accounts to Convergent.” After releasing the equivalent of more than 20 full-time employees, Convergent was able to quickly bring these resources back on board to reinstate services. “Convergent is very reliable and responsive to our changing needs. They are always willing to find solutions to new challenges that arise,” she continued.
Recently, the healthcare providerturned to Convergent to help reduce an overload of self-pay and insurance accounts with credit balances. Convergent put two employees to work on the project, resolving the accounts and saving them the costs of overtime it would have incurred by using its own staff.
Outcomes
Convergent has helped the provider free up self-pay cash to allocate to other areas of the business and raise the quality of service extended to patients with self-pay balances. Phone metrics also demonstrate a tremen-dous improvement in customer service levels. For inbound calls, the wait time to speak to a representative has dropped from an average of 20 minutes to just 30 seconds 70 percent of the time. Call abandonment rates are now under five percent.
By continually working together to uncover and resolve issues standing in the way of greater productivity, the provider and Convergent have exceeded the original goals the companies set for both collections and call response by 100 percent. “Convergent is a true part of our business office. To me, they are us,” said the Director.
Since teaming up in 2005, Convergent has helped the provider to more than triple its self-pay collections rate. “Not only have we generated revenue, we’ve also reduced expenses. From a system and staffing perspective,
we just can’t do what Convergent does for thecost.”
Derek Pickell, CEO, Convergent Revenue Cycle Management, explained Convergent’s position, “Convergent understands that a steady cash flow is essential for any health-care organization committed to serving patients in need. Our primary focus is to help our client partners improve their financial position from the very start of the relationship while strengthening relationships with patients and the community. We always strive to be a true partner and an extension of our client’s management staff. We have invested literally millions of dollars in our state of the art Patient Contact Centers to ensure our client partners are provided the highest level of financial and patient satisfaction performance possible in the industry today. In addition to the ability of our client partners to remotely listen to live calls in our Patient Contact Center, the recent implementation of our proprietary CEScore (Convergent Employee Scorecard) software enables management and our associates to monitor individual performance as compared to client key performance indicators in real time. We know if we can’t measure perfor-mance, we can’t expect to achieve industry leading performance across our business.CEScore is another example of the leading edge technology we now utilize to differentiate ourselves from our competition.”
About Convergent
“Not only have wegenerated revenue, we’ve
also reduced expenses.From a system and
staffing perspective, we just can’t do what
Convergent does for the cost.”
Director of PatientFinancial Services
Copyright © 2012 ConvergentAll rights reserved.
Convergent Revenue Cycle Management, Inc.
13575 Heathcote BoulevardSuite 300Gainesville, VA 20155888.511.7901
www.convergentusa.com/healthcare
*Bad debt services are provided byConvergent Healthcare Recoveries, Inc., an affiliate company ofConvergent Revenue CycleManagement, Inc.
888.511.7901 www.convergentusa.com/healthcare Page 2
With nearly 700 employees, including more than 60 healthcare attorneys, Convergent’s healthcare division has a 20 plus year history of innovation in the healthcare industry. Convergent’s regulatory expertise and consumer-focused patient contact center technology optimize revenue cycle perfor-mance and improve healthcare provider relation-ships with patients.
As the premier niche revenue cycle management company in healthcare, Convergent provides innovative solutions across the revenue cycle spectrum including front-end patient access, early out self-pay collections, attorney-powered third party reimbursement and bad debt recovery (through Convergent Healthcare Recoveries, Inc.). The healthcare division has operation centers in Virginia, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois.
