FrontRunnerHC: Productive Data Automation For Successful Financial Journeys

John Donnelly, President and CEO, FrontRunnerHC

1.Though healthcare organizations are typically known for caring for patients, the reimbursement process and the application of health insurance coverage has always been complex and can cause its own type of discomfort to the patient.

2.Inaccurate patient demographic, insurance, and financial data exacerbates the issue and can cause a host of unfavorable effects for the patient as well as their healthcare provider and lab.

These two challenges often go hand-in hand. For example, a patient’s insurance coverage may not apply to a specific service so without accurate and complete information, the patient’s cost may not be correctly estimated. The patient may see a provider and have lab tests taken, only to receive a surprising bill afterwards, leaving the patient understandably upset and the healthcare payment in jeopardy.

These challenges–and others– impact the patient experience, according to John (JD) Donnelly, CEO of FrontRunnerHC. Donnelly urges clients to define the patient experience with a broad lens. “With consumerism becoming more important, the patient experience must be looked at not only in respect to their clinical journey, but their financial journey as well. Leveraging data automation to ensure the patient financial journey is as smooth as possible benefits both the patient and the healthcare organization. In an environment of declining reimbursements and increasing expenses, every opportunity must be taken to collect dollars quickly and retain those dollars, all while ensuring a positive patient experience.”

FrontRunnerHC spends a lot of time thinking about the steps along the Patient Financial Journey and the many problems that can negatively impact the patient’s experience – from the time a patient is registered for a healthcare visit to the time the bill is hopefully paid in full. These problems often stem from missing, incomplete, or invalid patient data.

The lack of real-time, accurate patient information can cause bottlenecks throughout the healthcare process. Already-scarce resources waste time hunting down correct information, making multiple calls or sending letters to insurance companies, referring physicians, or patients. The result? Not only wasted time but irritated patients and physicians, bothered by the inconvenience.

Donnelly offers good news however, saying that, “while data-related problems can wreak havoc throughout the patient financial journey, the right data is out there and quickly accessible with the right data automation tools.”