Price checks part of new consumer landscape
July 1, 2006 2 minutes read
Price checks part of new consumer landscape
What should access role be?
A major consideration with the increase in consumer-driven health plans is that patients are likely to want to know more about what they now are paying for, suggests Gillian Cappiello, CHAM, senior director for access services and chief privacy officer at Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago.
That newfound quest for information, Cappiello predicts, will lead to more questions and phone calls directed to access staff, and perhaps some inclination on the part of patients to price-shop and negotiate fees.
While inquiries about pricing flexibility typically are transferred to the chief financial officer or the director of finance, she says, Cappiello questions whether access employees might need to receive training in that regard.
"Are we going to need to empower [staff] to provide the answer if people call to inquire about the cost of a CAT scan? Will they have the bottom line they can go to if somebody says, 'I can get the CAT scan for this amount down the street.' What, if any, flexibility will front-end staff have to say yes or no?"
At minimum, she says, it's key that frontline staff don't just transfer such calls to the finance department heads, but rather communicate back to their supervisors and managers what kinds of questions are coming in.
In addition, Cappiello notes, staff will face new challenges in determining and sharing with patients the details associated with meeting the various requirements of consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs).
With these eventualities in mind, she says, Swedish Covenant will create new dialogue — depending on what patients are asking — as part of the scripting program already in place at the hospital.
"The purpose is not to tell people exactly what they should be saying; but the idea is that the message should be consistent," she says. "It's important that [staff responses] essentially have the same content, so we don't have confusion of, 'This person told me this and someone else said this.'"
Having a key phrase ready also "allows a little time to think about what you want to say next," Cappiello notes.
Among other things, she says, scripting will be helpful in "making sure people understand that in some cases a [CDHP] is not insurance — or maybe it is, but the deductible is very high."
A major consideration with the increase in consumer-driven health plans is that patients are likely to want to know more about what they now are paying for.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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