Patients are now responsible for a larger portion of healthcare costs than ever before. Even those who have health coverage may be considered “underinsured” due to high cost-sharing plans that leave them with significant out-of-pocket expenses they often cannot afford to pay.
According to the Commonwealth Fund’s Biennial Health Insurance Survey, as of June 2020:
12.5% of U.S. adults ages 19 to 64 were uninsured.
43.4% of U.S. adults ages 19 to 64 were inadequately insured. (uninsured, underinsured based on out-of-pocket medical costs compared to income, or experienced a gap in coverage).
Rural patients are more likely to be uninsured than are non-rural patients.
The financial viability of rural healthcare facilities will depend on their ability to find alternative funding sources for the medical bills that their patients may not be able to pay.
ActiveASSIST is HealthWare Systems’ financial assistance screening tool and workflow management solution. ActiveASSIST identifies potential funding sources for patient accounts before their date of service and ensures the provider is the payer of last resort by exhausting all other options first.
ActiveASSIST streamlines and automates the financial assistance process by:
Utilizing business rules to determine which patients are most likely to qualify for charitable assistance.
Simultaneously pursuing multiple assistance programs for these patients.
Pre-populating patients’ application forms with their data.
Providing real-time updates, while monitoring progress and documentation requirements.
Tracking follow-up tasks and escalating accounts that are not advancing at an acceptable pace.
Implementing ActiveASSIST at your facility does not require you to hire additional employees – our solution is designed to enable your internal staff, on-site vendors, and/or off-site and field associates to manage your self-pay and underinsured patient population.
ActiveASSIST promotes a culture of patient advocacy by not only lowering or eliminating patients’ medical fees but also through empowering patients with financial counseling and education. Patients who understand their financial responsibility are much more likely to make their payments (if they can).
ActiveASSIST aids staff with follow-up and counseling discussions, helping them provide compassionate, supportive guidance and providing payment collection options based on each patient’s situation.
Many rural patients face unique barriers to healthcare access, which may include living long distances from healthcare facilities and specialists, poverty, provider shortages, and rural hospital closures or service cutbacks – and each of these has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As mentioned, rural patients are also more likely to be uninsured than non-rural patients. Unfortunately, insufficient health coverage is a major barrier to healthcare access and can cause patients to delay or avoid medical care altogether.
ActiveASSIST can help you remove some of these obstacles and improve your patients’ access to the care they need.
With ActiveASSIST, you can both alleviate your patients’ financial burden and enhance the financial outlook of your organization to ensure you remain open and can continue serving your patients and community.
Contact us to learn more about ActiveASSIST and financial assistance screening for rural patients; plus, view our other solutions for rural healthcare facilities.