HFMA unveils patient communications initiative

The Healthcare Financial Management Association unveiled on Sunday evening the latest initiative in its ongoing effort to provide clearer information to patients about their bills. Its latest recommendations cover not only how to communicate with patients, but also offer guidelines for price transparency and medical account resolution.

The new project, Healthcare Dollars & Sense, builds on last year's guidelines for how to improve patient financial communications. The group introduced the initiative at its annual National Institute in Las Vegas.

“Every year at ANI, we talk about being patient or member friendly,” HMFA President and CEO Joe Fifer said. “We hear it often but sometimes it's easy to lose sight of what it really means. We're breaking that down into pieces.”

There's a new level of interest among insurers and providers in working together, Fifer said, but he acknowledged that being more transparent can be difficult. “We all know healthcare was not designed to be a retail marketplace,” he said.

Surveys of consumers show a large knowledge gap in understanding health plan terminology—even basic concepts such as what a premium is. “There's going to be a great need to do education to help patients understand their coverage,” said Mark Rukavina, former executive director at the Boston-based Access Project who now counsels health systems on billing and collection issues as president of Community Health Advisors.

As patients have become responsible for a greater share of their bills, providers have been investing heavily in new technologies—such as online bill pay capabilities and electronic payment reminders that aim to make it more likely they'll pay what they owe.

Some of those efforts are paying off, while others, such as price transparency, are harder to measure.

Publishing prices can build loyalty for a hospital, and it's part of the transition to acting more like a retail business, said Terrah Opferman, vice president at JP Morgan. But the return on investment is harder to quantify, she added.

Follow Beth Kutscher on Twitter: @MHbkutscher

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