Kudos for admissions; boos for billing
If you want to boost patient satisfaction, look at your billing operation. A survey of 2,500 patients shows they are are generally satisfied with hospital registration and business office staff but give the billing experience low scores.
The survey, by Zimmerman & Associates, a health care consulting firm in Hales Corner, WI, indicates that patients have trouble understanding their bills, frequently detect billing inaccuracies, and often cannot get an explanation of their insurance coverage from hospital staff. Less than half the patients surveyed said they were satisfied with those aspects of their bill.
But patients gave high scores to their admitting experience. Roughly 80% were "very satisfied" with the courtesy, responsiveness, and helpfulness of registration staff. Patients also gave high scores to business office staff: Seventy percent were "very satisfied" with the way the staff helped, listened, and answered questions about everything except their bills.
On the other hand, four out of 10 patients said they did not receive enough information on insurance coverage at the time of registration or discharge, or on how to pay their portion of the bill. More than 6% of patients surveyed were so disappointed with billing and collection procedures that they would not return to the hospital for future care or recommend it to others.
About 40% of those surveyed said they were not happy with the assistance they received obtaining information about billing questions or problems. Many complained about the speed with which an answer or solution was given. Lack of friendliness on the part of the representative also was a cause for discontent, the study found.
More than one-third of all patients said they received no information about insurance billing during the registration process, at time of discharge, or during insurance billing.
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