What Does a Great Patient Payment Experience Really Look Like

Nov 14, 2022 | Patient Experience

When patients have a better experience with their chiropractic providers everyone benefits. Patients are more likely to seek chiropractic care, while providers can deliver better services and collect payments more consistently. However, many chiropractic practices fall short, especially when it comes to online payment processing.

Nearly three-quarters of Generation Z and 76% of Millennials use online platforms for healthcare transactions. About 65% of Generation X and nearly half of the Baby Boomers also take care of their healthcare transactions online. This means online payment is not just popular among the younger generations but all age groups seek online payment solutions.

Today, most of your patients from all age groups want the freedom to pay their bills how and when they want. In fact, 79% of patients consider the billing and payment process when selecting a provider. If your chiropractic office is not offering the same, seamless digital payments experience they get in the retail and banking industries and your peers’ clinics, you might continue to lose more and more patients.

The good news is that the right patient payment solutions will not only improve the patient experience but also increase collections overall. Here’s how you can set up the best payment experience for your patients.

1. Know what your patients want

Seventy-two percent of consumers are confused by their EOBs. This confusion is driving frustration among patients, leading to poor patient experiences.

Industry leaders such as Amazon, Uber, and Starbucks have listened to what consumers are looking for and have created end-to-end positive experiences.

While creating a seamless payment experience is becoming a trend across all industries, chiropractic clinics will have to approach this trend differently. Why?

a. Because patients do not know the exact price of their care ahead of time.

b. Spending money on chiropractic care is not something that patients typically plan for ahead of time – it is often an unplanned visit or required care.

According to this Healthcare Payment Experience Report, 23 percent of patients with balances due after a visit paid their bill online, while 37 percent and 34 percent cited credit and debit cards, respectively, as their preferred payment methods.

Healthcare Payment Experience

Image Source: Pymnts Healthcare Payment Experience Report

There is an opportunity for chiropractic providers to improve patient engagement while eliminating costly payment mishaps.

Patients typically want different payment processing solutions. Offering patients with tap-and-pay, online payments, digital wallets, and different payment options at checkout can simplify payment processing and increase collections.

2. Remove the friction in the payment experience

Today’s patients depend on online payment options, but your online payment system has to be frictionless in order to actually make the experience better for patients.

When looking at features patients want in their payment experience, it is also important to consider what they don’t want.

A survey found that ambiguity in the patient financial experience and bill pay process is negatively affecting patient satisfaction. They might be happy with your chiropractic care but if they find the payment process to be disconnected, it could lead to patient confusion and frustration.

The best way to satisfy patients with your payment solution is to:

a) Make sure your payment processing solution is easy to use on any device. The easier it is for patients to submit a payment, the more quickly they will take action to do so. The payment solution should allow patients to pay online with just a few clicks.

b) Ensure you include as much information about the services and charges as possible in the invoice. One of the biggest reasons that patients don’t pay their bills on time is that they don’t understand what it is they’re paying. So make sure your invoice contains simple, clear, and easy-to-understand information. If possible, outline what patients are paying for by service.

c) Maintain payment consistency across the entire practice. Inconsistently designed billing statements with differing payment collection methods often confuse and frustrate patients.

d) Improve communication and engagement with patients. A recent survey of US healthcare consumers found out that 44% pay bills faster when they receive email or phone notifications about billing, and 49% would pay by text if available. By communicating with patients in consumer-centric ways, providers can speed up payment collections.

3. Finally, a truly great experience is personalized

Do you know what makes the Starbucks app so successful? The Starbucks app understands users’ habits and order preferences and accommodates them. The app automatically places the users’ favorite beverage on their screen so they can quickly tap and order the beverage during their next visit.

Chiropractic offices need to personalize the patient payment experience. This includes how providers communicate with each patient and what payment options are made available to them.

For example, a patient with a $50 bill balance probably can probably pay the full amount, but a patient with a bill balance over $1,500 would like to make a partial payment on a bill and then clear the rest of the balance on their next visit. This is an opportunity for the provider to improve patient payment collection by providing payment processing options tailored to their patient’s current bill balance.

Another example of customizing the payment experience is communication timing. A Mailchimp study referenced above found that most B2C email open rates hover around 20 percent. Sending messages on specific days of the week or at times of the day could help providers get better email/text interaction and response. If your patients are most likely to respond at night versus during lunchtime, optimize communication timing to provide a customized payment experience.

How Chiropractors Can Provide a Great Patient Payment Experience

Simple: Your practice needs an integrated payment processing solution that offers:

One-click online payment experience across all devices
One-time payments from any card, digital wallet, or phone
The option to schedule recurring payments
The ability to store cards on file
Auto-posting of payments to your chiropractic software
Reports to easily track and manage payments

zHealth Pay is a payment processing system designed specifically for chiropractors to help them provide a seamless payment experience. zHealth Pay is integrated with our chiropractic software so you can manage and collect all aspects of patient payments in one convenient place. Your patients will appreciate the ability to use their preferred method of payment with the many, simple payment solutions you offer.

zHealth Pay – Payment Processing Capabilities

A modern chiropractic practice must stay up-to-speed with all the ways to process a patient’s credit card. Fortunately, with zHealth Pay, you can offer different payment options to improve patient payment collection:

a) POS Payment Processing

For patients who prefer to pay in person, you can use zHealth Pay’s credit card terminal to guarantee a quick, secure payment while checking out after their appointment.

b) Card on File

According to a Healthcare Payment Experience Report, 43 percent of patients are willing to store their payment and card details with their providers and another 43 percent would automate payments to avoid repetitive manual data entry. With zHealth Pay, store cards on file securely and compliantly. So every time the patient visits your clinic, just select the Card on File option on your payment screen to complete the payment faster. Patients can have more than one card on file. You have the flexibility to choose a specific card on file for collecting payments.

c) Online Payment Processing

If your practice relies on online invoices for payments, we’re here to improve the patient payment experience and keep the process simple.

With zHealth Pay, you can enhance the online payment experience by simply emailing invoices to patients. Each invoice includes a secure pay link, so patients can pay online with just two clicks—using their debit or credit card. It’s a fast, convenient way to streamline your patient collection and build up your practice’s revenue.

Conclusion:

Incorporating best practices for patient payments—like offering secure online payment options, sending timely reminders, and providing multiple payment methods—can make the payment process easier and more efficient. By enhancing the payment experience, you’ll improve patient satisfaction, reduce outstanding balances, and boost your practice’s revenue.