The Journey

Though the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ updated Star Ratings and proposed rules on hospital price and quality transparency may be clumsy, even ineffective, their intentions are clear. The largest source of revenue to hospitals in the U.S. is setting a new, much higher bar for the way hospitals and payers help patients find and...

Making it easy for patients to pay in advance or at point of service leads to a number of well-documented advantages for both hospitals and patients. But most hospitals lack the ability to engage with patients in a meaningful conversation about price, affordability and payment when it matters most.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has proposed far-reaching new rules requiring hospitals and health plans across the U.S. to make prices for many of their more common procedures available to the public. The industry is realizing that this alone will not empower patients with the tools they need - and finding patient-first ways to...

Several prominent healthcare providers and investors have been featured in recent, damaging national news stories about patient billing and collection tactics. But some hospitals are learning that improved transparency and communications make it possible to partner with patients to increase revenues and burnish their reputations.

The financial impact of cancer treatment can be so severe for patients and their families that it’s been described as “financial toxicity”. For oncologists, a thoughtful patient financial strategy is critical to patient and provider well-being.

Patients are struggling to pay their portion of healthcare costs, discouraging care and placing a crippling bad debt burden on healthcare providers. These financial stressors call for new approaches to better engage with empowered patient-consumers on their terms.

Patients in the U.S. Healthcare System are forced to work with archaic systems that have not kept pace with changing economics and a much more demanding healthcare consumer. Bridging the gap between what patients expect and what they actually get calls for urgent but readily achievable action.

First developed in the early 1970s as clinical data repositories, major developments in the early part of the 21st century propelled the evolution of EMR systems to keep pace with ever-expanding industry requirements. Though these systems offer many benefits, their considerable operating and financial costs have created blind spots that...

Whether or not one agrees that additional regulations are the best solution to the healthcare issues concerning Americans, it’s clear that more regulations are on their way. For industry innovators who lean in to these changes, we believe the prospects for longer-term success are promising, even groundbreaking. The challenge is finding the...

90% of Americans use the Internet, but only 25% use the patient portals offered by most hospitals. This digital disconnect impacts patient experiences and provider performance, but there is good news for providers who act to deliver rewarding online experiences.