It’s 2020. Healthcare is Changing Fast—Are You?

Welcome to 2020. Healthcare (and the key priorities for today’s revenue cycle leadership) are changing fast—is your organization adapting to key trends?

Over the past year, we’ve brought you in-depth analysis from our Cedar experts about rapidly changing consumer expectations for healthcare, a controversial government price transparency mandate and the key barriers holding back leading health systems from modernizing the patient financial journey. We’ve compiled a selection of the need-to-know fast facts and links to full reports on these top trends specifically for healthcare finance and revenue cycle executives, so that you don’t miss a beat starting the New Year.

Key Trend 1: Healthcare consumers expect an easy financial experience (and they are willing to switch providers to get it).

1 in 3 consumers don’t think providers are doing enough to improve the patient billing process and 41% report that they would switch to a provider who offered a better digital experience (with millennials 4x as likely to switch).

The good news? You don’t have to wonder what matters to your patients in 2020. We already asked them. Read the executive brief 2019 Healthcare consumer study all the insights you need to know.

Key Trend 2: Price transparency is coming (and adopting consumer-friendly solutions will bring a competitive advantage to providers).

Patients want greater price transparency in healthcare. And it’s no wonder why: 94% of Americans are worried about their rising healthcare cost responsibilities in the next year. CMS released a new rule aimed at radically changing the price transparency standards in healthcare and enabling consumers to shop around for care. (Providers are expected to comply just 12 months from now.)

While compliance is no small task, providers can turn the requirements into a competitive advantage by embracing modern solutions designed to empower and educate patients. Our Cedar experts have created the complete hospital executive’s guide to turning price transparency into a competitive advantage.

Key Trend 3: Many leading health systems are struggling to meet pressing consumer demands around the financial experience (and their patients are frustrated).

Consumers are demanding an easy, digitally-enabled healthcare experience in line with what they have come to expect from other industries. But these expectations are misaligned with reality in many cases. 45% of patients rate post-visit billing as the worst phase of their healthcare journey, largely due to clunky, outdated tech and processes.

88% of health system executives report that creating a consumer-centric financial experience is at least a top three priority. So why do most still lag behind in delivering a modern end-to-end financial experience for their patients? Find out what’s slowing progress and how you can get ahead of it in the full study from Cedar and the Health Management Academy.

Keeping up with the rapidly changing pace of health-tech and patient expectations is no easy task for today’s revenue cycle leader. We can help. Speak to one of our experts about how Cedar can help you meet your key strategic objectives in 2020.

Sources:

• 2019 Healthcare consumer study executive brief
• The Academy 2019 Report: Optimizing the patient financial experience
• Price transparency executive brief