Healthcare price transparency is here to stay. New federal regulations require hospitals to publicly disclose their prices and negotiated rates for care services. Non-compliance can result in steep fines. Providers outside of the hospital may also need to comply with additional state-level transparency rules. With our Shop Book and Pay™ service, providers can comply with CMS price transparency rules by creating a digital storefront to give patients the clarity they seek. By offering transparent pricing and a quality digital shopping experience, providers can drive patient acquisition, increase collections, and differentiate their business in a crowded market. Simplify Scheduling: Shop Book and Pay is as easy to use as the best online retail sites. Patients search for a specific procedure or test, comparing providers by price and quality. After choosing a provider, the patient simply adds the chosen procedure to their cart. Patients can immediately schedule the test or procedure before paying—all within the same shopping workflow. Shop Book and Pay integrates with your existing scheduling system, allowing patients to select the most convenient date and time for their procedure from your available appointments. Automated follow-up messaging confirms the scheduled appointment, which can be exported to the patient’s calendar. By automating the scheduling and payment process up front, before care is given, Shop Book and Pay helps to reduce no-shows. Patients are more likely to keep their appointments for pre-paid procedures. Comply with Transparency Regulations: As of January 1, 2021, hospitals must publish a machine-readable file of their standard pricing for all services, to include the gross price, cash price, patient’s insurance negotiated price, and the minimum and maximum negotiated price for each payer. They must also establish a consumer-friendly way to find the price for each of 70 CMS-identified and 230 hospital-identified shoppable services. Independently implementing the Shop module of Shop Book and Pay allows your hospital to comply with all of these new price transparency rules— while also distinguishing your business from the competition. Consumer-friendly shopping functionality can pave the way for a full, retail-style digital transformation. Drive Patient Volume: Hospitals and non-hospital providers can help consumers find their providers by delivering a retail-style shopping experience. Each provider can choose a closed or open configuration for its digital storefront. With a closed configuration, patients can see only the prices for a single provider, or providers associated with a hospital network. Providers may also choose to share quality and patient satisfaction ratings. With an open configuration, patients can view and compare prices for all regional providers offering a chosen service. A provider can gain valuable market differentiation by offering consumers a satisfying, quality digital experience—even if the provider is not the lowest cost provider available. Increase Pre-Payments: Shop Book and Pay helps your organization reduce the administrative costs of accounts receivable, as payment is arranged before the episode of care. From the tool’s shopping cart, patients can pay their balance in full (via credit card, health savings account, or PayPal) to receive a discount. As procedures are bundled, their cost includes every service involved in an episode of care. The patient’s purchase pays for the facility fee, physician fee, and any laboratory fees, so there’s no need to worry about additional billing. Patients who are unable to pay in full benefit from knowing exactly how much they owe. Within the tool, they can arrange financing via CareCredit. They can also choose the AutoPay option, selecting a set amount to be billed each month until their balance is paid.

Change Healthcare is inspiring a better healthcare system. We are a leading independent healthcare company that provides data and analytics-driven solutions to improve clinical, financial and patient engagement outcomes in the U.S. healthcare system. Our comprehensive suite of software, analytics, technology-enabled services and network solutions take costs out of the healthcare system by driving improved results in the complex workflows of payers and providers by enhancing clinical decision-making and simplifying billing, collection and payment processes, and enabling a better patient experience. We are creating a stronger and more efficient healthcare system that enables better patient care, choice, and outcomes at scale.

By providing patients with a retail-style digital shopping experience, your organization can improve patient access, provide consumer-style pricing, and increase pre-service collections at the same time. Change Healthcare’s Care Cost SE solution helps providers move patient payments to the front of the revenue cycle, before care is delivered. Shifting to pre-service payments can reduce your cost to collect— while significantly improving your patients’ care experience. Bundle Shoppable Medical Procedures: Care Cost SE uses a unique bundling technology to make medical procedures transparent, shoppable, and instantly transactable. The platform includes all services in an episode of care, which allows for seamless, behind-the-scenes payment coordination between multiple providers. At your digital storefront, patients can view details of your available procedures and shop for care just as they shop for retail goods and services. Patients can take advantage of flexible, competitive cash-pay pricing in exchange for immediate up-front payments. As procedures are bundled, their cost includes every service and fee involved in an episode of care. The result for your patients is no surprise billing. The result for your organization is earlier, less expensive self-pay collections. Offer Cost Transparency: With Care Cost SE, providers can offer patients the consumer-style pricing they want. Patients can see the true price of care before it is delivered, and can lock in pre-service pricing. Care Cost SE offers a variety of digital payment channels, including several accepted credit cards and FSA/HSA/HRA cards. Patients can even arrange financing within the tool via Care Credit. Staff can also collect point-of-service payments at the time of appointment or scheduling. Engage Patients With Automated Outreach: Care Cost SE’s campaign management tools allow you to customize the type of communication your patients receive. Automated outreach can be triggered by a variety of events, including referral orders, scheduling events, price estimates, or preventative care notifications. Like many online retailers, Care Cost SE can also automate the delivery of shopping carts. If desired, the solution can use clinical and access-related data triggers to prompt shopping cart creation and distribution among a given patient population. Support Better Patient Outcomes: Your organization can select multiple triggering events to engage your patients throughout their healthcare journey—and encourage healthy behaviors. For example, you can choose to send diabetic patients quarterly carts populated with an A1C test visit to increase patient compliance with needed testing. By leveraging automated outreach to prompt active self-care, you can help improve patient outcomes while reducing your manual processes to collect. Newly compliant patients can also contribute to an incremental increase in volume and utilization. The solution’s omni-channel communication provides your patients with timely reminders, convenient payments, and a wealth of actionable steps throughout their healthcare experience.

Change Healthcare is inspiring a better healthcare system. We are a leading independent healthcare company that provides data and analytics-driven solutions to improve clinical, financial and patient engagement outcomes in the U.S. healthcare system. Our comprehensive suite of software, analytics, technology-enabled services and network solutions take costs out of the healthcare system by driving improved results in the complex workflows of payers and providers by enhancing clinical decision-making and simplifying billing, collection and payment processes, and enabling a better patient experience. We are creating a stronger and more efficient healthcare system that enables better patient care, choice, and outcomes at scale.