INBOX Red House CaseStudy.pdf

Case Study / Patient Billing Reimagined

!

Jeff Increases Patient Payments by 20% with Personalized Billing

!

It wasn’t Jeff’s lifelong plan to own a medical billing company. He kind of fell into it.

After many years running a successful financial consulting business, a curious healthcare client asked if Jeff could also do medical billing. It seemed like a natural extension of his business. But Jeff quickly realized that the processing of medical bills is a commoditized business with razor-thin margins. “It’s the ancillary offerings around bill processing that will push this industry forward,” he added.

Lacking the flexibility required to manage payment flow efficiently, Jeff knew change was needed but didn’t know how much and where to start. Benchmarking his processes using the Patient Billing Score (patientbillingscore.com) allowed him to identify 4 key areas to focus on for better patient billing:

  1. Relying less on paper
  2. Improving communication between office and billing staff
  3. Better management of employee workflow
  4. Identifying and measuring against the right patient metrics

Innovation starts with the patient

Healthcare does a great job focusing on the patient while at the doctor’s office but struggles once they leave their appointment. This struggle is becoming increasingly impactful to practices and billers as the patient bill becomes a larger chunk of a doctor’s revenue. Despite often low collection rates, most patients want to pay their bills. Jeff will say they are just not empowered to do so because of outdated communication and payment procedures anchored in paper statements.

Jeff knew he needed to act fast because the shift in patient attitude away from traditional billing was accelerating, and patients were quick to leave a review for a doctor based on their billing experience. As Jeff looked for a partner to improve his operations and competitiveness, he needed a solution that would integrate with his existing practice management systems, take advantage of robotic process automation (RPA), and get up and running quickly.

Empowered patients pay quicker

Jeff teamed up with Inbox Health because they were “the only solution that focused on the patient, and provided a flexible and fully customizable customer experience.”

Focusing on patient communication and payment preferences, this new automated approach keeps the patient in focus even after they leave the doctor’s office. Red House patients now receive their medical bills through their preferred channels, with ongoing adjustments made to the timing and nature of each touchpoint based on positive patient interaction and outcomes.

This new personalization has helped Red House patients understand their bills and feel more comfortable paying them. Empowering the patient and improving their experience with Inbox Health has increased Red House’s overall payments by roughly 20%, and increased the speed of payment. The amount of patients paying within 60 days increased by 60%. Jeff’s doctors are getting paid more and quicker, and are less concerned about patients leaving a bad review because of their billing experience. With the Inbox Health solution running nearly invisible in the background, Red House doctors saw drastic improvement without any disruption to their business.

By keeping the patient at the center of the billing cycle, Jeff has reduced the time between doctor visit and statement, and cut the number of paper bills Red House sends out, lowering his company’s capital and environmental costs. The automation of the patient experience improved the Red House operational efficiency by cutting down on human errors, allowing Jeff to shift personnel from chasing down patient payments to growth areas for the business.

Jeff retook the patient billing score assessment to see how much he improved after implementing the Inbox Health solution. His score increased by nearly 80%, going from 374 to 672, out of a total of 850.

The anti-commoditized billing company

“Medical billing is similar to financial advising, it’s the same kind of relationship, and we (billers) put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” said Jeff. “Everyone needs to make money but healthcare shouldn’t put people in financial distress. We want to help patients understand and manage their payments, and this is why Inbox Health is a great partner. It gives patients options. Most people want to pay their bill. We want to be there to empower patients while helping our clients get the money they deserve.”

Anyone who speaks with Jeff immediately senses his passion to push the needle of innovation for a better customer outcome. His belief to make things better for the patient while driving results for his doctors and his business is infectious.

Jeff has grown his medical billing company, Red House Medical Billing, and is offering billing services in 15 states from Boston to San Diego. While medical bill processing might be commoditized, Jeff has differentiated Red House by providing value-add ancillary services for his doctors, and their patients, positioning his business for accelerated growth – today and into the future.

Results:

About Jeff: