St. Luke’s CEO: ‘Patient-Centered Billing’ Is Key
By - Paying the bills is probably not many people’s favorite pastime, and medical bills can be especially confusing. However, executives at Idao-based St. Luke’s Health System felt that they could change that.
The healthcare provider already operated under the idea of “patient-centered care,” so why was the concept of “patient-centered billing” so far-fetched? That was the question that St. Luke’s CEO, Dr. David Pate, said that he was asking, and was determined to find an answer to.
Pate discussed that concept with RevCycleIntelligence.com, and explained how St. Luke’s chose to invest in iVinci Health for its patient billing and revenue management tools.
Investing in iVinci
According to Pate, St. Luke’s had a billing system that is fairly standard in the healthcare industry. Patients receive a letter in the mail that describes the services received, but patients are specifically told “Don’t do anything, this is not a bill.” Pate said that in his own experience, it seemed ridiculous to waste the time and money to say that.
When the actual bill would arrive, Pate said that he would often have to set aside one to two hours of time to gather all statements and explanations of service, line things up, and then finally send a check.
“What happens is we give great care and patients have this wonderful experience with our care, and then we make them angry with our billing,” Pate said. “What sense does this make? I challenged [the CFO] to find a way to have patient centered billing.”
Pate explained that the CFO had previously developed a relationship with iVinci Health, so when the organization launched a new payment system, it was a natural partnership. Additionally, St. Luke’s was part of a recent $5 million fundraising round for iVinci. According to Pate, once it was clear that the two organizations were going to have a good relationship in creating a better billing option, investing and having partial ownership of iVinci made the most sense for St. Luke’s.
Pate was also part of the alpha testing group for iVinci’s product, and said that the time it took him to pay his family’s bills was reduced to about two minutes.
“When I saw that, I knew ‘we’ve got it,’” Pate said.
Long-term goals
St. Luke’s wants to transform healthcare, according to Pate, who added that one of the greatest wastes in the American healthcare system today is the fragmentation. Essentially, it’s very frustrating for patients to have to reregister and re-explain their medical histories to every doctor and hospital. St. Luke’s has worked to be the kind of health system that its employees want for themselves and their families, Pate said.
When you have high-quality care and a billing system that is easy to use and understand, that creates customer loyalty, according to Pate.
“The last step that we always leave patients with is the billing,” Pate said. “What I would hate to do is be so narrowly focused just on the care, that we provide this wonderful experience but then we aggravate our customers on the back end.”
The best part about the iVinci billing system is that it’s part of a “holistic approach to the patient experience,” Pate said. When health systems are able to develop customer loyalty, it will give them a tremendous competitive advantage.
