Challenge
Intermountain Health is a Utah-based not-for-profit health system comprised of 33 hospitals with a net patient revenue of $8.7 billion, utilizing a Cerner EMR. With rising deductibles, Intermountain Health patients were struggling to pay their bills and needed more meaningful ways to manage financial obligations. With patients now collectively comprising the largest non-government payer in healthcare, along with that increased financial responsibility came rising confusion. Patients referred to Intermountain from other providers often weren’t sure if their health insurance would cover the services they needed. Deductibles determined out-of-pocket balances, and patients didn’t know how much they would owe post-service.
On top of consumer confusion, Intermountain Health was carrying significantly more bad debt on its books. Collecting from these self-pay patients was a monumental task that required resources and consumer finance know-how.
Solution
Intermountain Health selected R1 Entri Pay® to help them transform the patient financial experience, offering their patients a solution that was more convenient, clear and flexible. The patient-facing payment portal went live in 2017.
Critical to the success of the undertaking, patients needed to be able to self-manage their bills. Leadership determined that the proposed solution must offer a convenient digital environment, remove confusion, consolidate bills for all family members and provide flexible payment terms. The initiative has been integral to the health system’s Digital Front Door, an integrated digital experience that empowers people to take an active role in managing their health.
The online experience is meant to complement in-person interactions patients have with caregivers.
Another important requirement was better metrics to continuously monitor and improve the financial experience moving forward. Intermountain partnered with R1 to create patient-friendly tools and achieve these transformative goals.
Results
With Entri Pay, Intermountain Health has posted impressive results for patients. More than 435,000 users have registered to use Entri Pay. The health system has watched patient satisfaction grow to almost 90%, and Net Promoter Scores reached 40+ points, demonstrating that patients want and need to manage their own accounts. Patients have many choices for clinical care; as such, retention has become a critical measure for success. Increased satisfaction leads to loyal patients Intermountain can serve in the future. Intermountain has also enjoyed a 45% yield lift.
435K
users registered
90%
patient satisfaction rates
40+
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
45%
increase in patient collection yield
Intermountain is constantly sharing metrics with leadership so they understand the impact Entri Pay is having on staff, patients and the system as a whole. By tracking adoption rates, duration to satisfy obligations, patient satisfaction and other important metrics, the health system can identify trends to guide future decisions.
With help from R1, the two are now closely aligned to make a real difference for patients.
