Experience Matters: How Novant Health is Transforming the Patient Financial Journey

Today’s healthcare experience is often disjointed, and health systems and hospitals are having to redefine their patient experience to meet the demands of the modern consumer.

To address some of the challenges healthcare organizations are facing, Angela Yochem, former Chief Transformation and Digital Officer at Novant Health and Florian Otto, CEO of Cedar, came together to explore Novant Health’s digital strategy and how they are embracing new technologies to improve the overall healthcare experience. 

This discussion, first presented in collaboration with the Scottsdale Institute on March 23, 2023, highlights technology’s role in enhancing the patient experience, how the financial experience is just beginning to be a part of that conversation, and Novant Health’s path to digital transformation. 

Watch the full session or read the top takeaways below and learn more about the Novant Health and Cedar partnership. 

Novant Health’s path to digital transformation and improving the patient financial experience

“Managing our finances is a very important topic and in some cases a very stressful topic. What is equally as stressful for people is managing their health and wellness, and the health and wellness of their family members.” 

To simplify the experience and reduce those stressors, Novant Health, and many other health systems, are focused on helping patients manage their health as seamlessly as possible, from finding and booking care all the way through their follow-up. Novant Health noticed an opportunity to extend this seamless experience to the billing and payment processing. 

Health systems have invested significant resources to make their digital experiences exceptional, then, “the paper bill arrives and sits on the counter.”

“When we think about the way we think about finances as the patient journey - we just started thinking about it as the patient journey. Once you start thinking about it as part of the patient experience, it becomes very obvious where the gaps are.” 

Enhancing EHRs to improve the patient experience 

Novant Health utilizes Epic as their EHR and embraces its native capabilities to drive digital transformation. They also look for ways to optimize their EHR to enhance their engagement capabilities. As a result, they have successfully integrated multiple third-party tools. 

Cedar has become a key part of Novant Health’s digital strategy to simplify the billing process, and is now a key piece of their engagement strategy. Since implementing Cedar Pay, Novant Health has seen an increase in the percentage of patients that pay within the first 24 hours of bills being generated, and an increase in the number of patients who pay bills within the week. This lift in engagement has driven significant financial returns that go straight to Novant Health’s bottom line.

Additionally, Novant Health has integrated tools like NuanceDAX, a voice recognition tool that allows physicians to “get their hands off the keyboard and get their eyes on the patient” and has improved the way that patients receive care. They also implemented LeanTaaS to power advanced scheduling for Novant Health’s Infusion Center within their newly constructed Cancer Center in Charlotte, NC. 

The Nuances of Systems of Record vs. Systems of Engagement

Systems of record, like EHRs, help providers standardize their approach to data intake and reporting, and typically offer a vast amount of patient-facing features that automate all facets of the healthcare journey. But when it comes to modern consumer engagement, providers must take a de-standardized approach to deliver an experience that is personal and actionable. That’s where a system of engagement can help.

Novant Health further underscored that organizations typically have more than one system of record and challenged health systems to consider multiple systems of engagement for patients to leverage. 

“It's not reasonable to expect there will be one door through which the patient will walk. We need to provide as many doors as possible in a way that seems cohesive to the patient and offers maximum opportunity for engagement of all sorts.

I believe there will be systems of engagement that live certainly - one system of engagement for us is Epic, we use MyChart liberally. We have many ways in which the patient can engage with us through Epic-based tools, but we also have many other systems to help patients engage with us and manage their own care.” 

What’s next on the Novant Health roadmap

“It’s important to extend the successes we have talked about today related to cohesive patient experience as a differentiating factor for organization.” Novant Health will continue to see exciting expansions on the patient journey as it continues to improve its overall experience.

“It’s an interesting time, most of us have put ourselves in a position to allow us to focus on things that are most important to the patients—and make the most impact for the patients.” 

See how Novant Health lifts patient payments by adding Cedar Pay to their Epic EHR. 

Liz Austin is an Executive Marketing and Programming Lead at Cedar