Major Gaps Still Exist Between Medical Billing Practices and Patient Preferences

For many years, patients have made it clear that they want their medical bills to be more predictable and more convenient. To be sure, providers have made some progress in that direction, but less than you might think.

In fact, a new survey from InstaMed suggests that there is still a significant disconnect between what consumers want and what healthcare organizations are delivering on the billing front.

For example, 70% of consumer respondents still get their medical bills by mail, which is already an inconvenience in a digital-first world. Worse, 25% of consumers attempting to pay a medical bill ended their transaction because they couldn’t pay using a credit or debit card.

And how about this massive gap in perceptions?  Seventy-four percent of millennial consumers said they would switch providers for a better healthcare payments experience, while 39% of providers reported believing that billing and collection efforts have no impact on patient experiences.

Given these issues, you won’t be surprised to learn that while 87% of consumers were surprised by a medical bill in 2021, just 21% of providers said that they made price transparency a priority.

Moving from the sublime to the obvious, 90% of consumers told InstaMed that they pay recurring bills online, and 87% of consumers said they wanted to make all of their healthcare payments in one place. We’re nowhere near making that happen yet.

Sadly, it also seems that billing practices haven’t improved much over the last few years. Back in 2019, when I reported on InstaMed’s ninth annual billing survey, 90% of consumers reported being surprised by medical bills during the previous year, and we’ve only gone down by three points over three years.

At the time, 90% of providers reported that they used paper and manual processes for collections efforts. This year, 75% of providers reported that they still use paper and manual processes for collections. Sure, that’s an improvement, but it’s nothing to write home about. This reliance on paper and traditional processes is probably why 82% of providers responding to the survey said they issue refunds via paper check.

Payers haven’t made giant leaps forward either. For example, three years ago payers were missing big opportunities to meet consumer demands for digital tools.  needs. While 72% of consumers had told InstaMed they wanted electronic statements for health plan premium bills, 42% said that such statements weren’t available from their insurer.

It’s hard to tell how much overall progress payers have made since the 2019 report was published, but clearly, despite their vast resources they still haven’t addressed some important billing concerns consumers have.

For example, this year’s report notes that while 65% of consumers would prefer to schedule automatic payment of premiums, 30% can’t do this at present.

Also, it should be noted that providers seemingly aren’t addressing some major consumer preferences. For example, 65% of consumers gave positive scores to payer websites and mobile apps. On the other hand, 62% of consumers who use their plan portal only registered and didn’t come back.

To me, this survey underscores one way in which the traditionally conservative healthcare business culture is causing major problems. When patients find it inconvenient to pay their medical bills, they get turned off and their loyalty may go elsewhere, while healthcare organizations don’t get paid. Talk about a lose-lose situation.

About the author

Anne Zieger

Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

   

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