January 14, 2020
Serving Millennials – Food for Thought Regarding the Patient Financial Experience
A recent Becker’s article correlates millennial behavior around lunch breaks to medical expectations. The article noted that the shift from power lunches to 15-minute “quick lunches,” which consists of speed ordering and delivering food from an app with little waiting and human engagement, is an indicator that millennials place a high value on efficiency. The piece pointed out that the ideal medical appointment for millennials would involve online scheduling, check-in at a faceless kiosk, a straightforward and bare-bones clinical interaction and, finally, the ability to pay online, ideally through a specialized app — and all of this in 20 minutes or less.
Millennials (those born between 1982 and 2000) make up 25% of the US population and have emerged as a group who will pay a premium price for efficiency, minimal human interaction, and convenience. Having interacted with technology since childhood, millennials are an important generational study, especially when it comes to staying abreast on the latest technology trends and consumer habits. If you want to know where the digital healthcare frontier is headed, pay attention to how millennials are shaping other industries.
Arguably, the medical experience itself has come farther than the financial experience when it comes to speed, ease, and modernization. According to RevSpring research, 15% of patients feel that paying for healthcare is too time consuming, and 69% reported never receiving the option to have their healthcare bills delivered electronically. What steps can we take to bridge the experience gap for millennials when it comes to paying for service?
Satiate Their Appetite for Convenience and a Speedy Healthcare Engagement
For healthcare providers, an omni-channel engine is a crucial ingredient for accommodating millennials’ desire for speed, ease, and convenience. By centralizing patient data and preferences, an omni-channel patient engagement strategy uses the intelligence gathered to create a personalized journey for each of your patients. Here are some strategies to help make each of your patient engagement encounters personalized and more convenient to their needs:
- Use text messaging to enable patients to cancel or reschedule appointments through text, complete forms online prior to their visit, and make a pre-service payment from their smartphone
- Speed up the receipt of billing communications by sending a text or email prior to them receiving their mailed statement —which delivers the information faster by up to five business days
- Make paying for their healthcare more flexible and expedient with text-to-pay and online payment options, such as payment plans and financial aid enrollment enabled on your patient payment portal
- Help them manage their follow-up and yearly reminders and appointment scheduling with post-service appointment reminders
- Make sure you prioritize the gathering of each patient’s digital profile and preferences, including email, text, and phone number. If possible, be sure to measure and optimize the best performing channels
RevSpring Leads Digital Transformation in Healthcare
RevSpring is a digital leader in patient communications and offers omni-channel strategies to move your organization forward. To learn more about how we can modernize your patient engagement strategy, contact us here.
