Give your patients a dose of digital

Healthcare enrollment has long been stuck in an analog, paper-based system with obstacles at every step. While other industries have been adding digital processes for years, the healthcare industry has largely ignored it — until now. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced healthcare organizations to make digital adjustments seemingly overnight.

While it’s never fun to be forced to do something, nor is it fun to feel like it needed to be done yesterday, the industry has done a tremendous job shifting from in-office visits, paper forms, and chats at the pharmacy counter to virtual appointments, digital forms, and online prescriptions. But the reality is, the necessary changes have only just begun.

“Anything less than a seamless digital enrollment is a hassle and an excuse to abandon the process,” said Tom Swanson, head of healthcare industry strategy at Adobe. “In some ways, then, digitization is the bare minimum. A better experience comes through personalization, optimization, and consistency at each step.”

In order to meet patient and customer expectations, healthcare organizations need to completely reimagine outdated processes and the entire consumer journey. With a few key principles and the right technology, your transformation will be smooth, cost-effective, and more patient-friendly than ever.

Embrace the opportunity to simplify

Healthcare customers over the age of 35 expressed that “simplicity of experience” was the largest frustration they felt according to a 2019 survey. As you create forms and request information, keep UX elements consistent and concise. Establish a vocabulary using common labels, names, and phrases to guide consumers through enrollment. And remember, once you’ve asked for a piece of information, like their name, they shouldn’t have to fill that out again. Automatically populate new forms with existing patient data.

Protect your teams from paper

Digital enrollment not only simplifies the process for consumers, it simplifies the process for you and your teams. Paper forms and documents require tedious, manual work on all sides. Eliminating legacy forms, streamlining workflows, and employing automation and artificial intelligence (AI) not only boost customer satisfaction, it gives your team members more time to focus on more important tasks.

“The new digital workflow has the potential to save representatives hours every day and save our company millions of dollars annually once fully implemented,” said Marco Bland, director of implementation services at Change Healthcare.

As customers and patients complete the digital enrollment process, it’s then easy to integrate their data with your CRM or DMP. This allows you to provide a smooth and consistent experience across the entire journey as customers and patients move from enrollment into care, authorization, payment, and more.

Meet consumers where it’s convenient for them

More than 40 percent of consumers acknowledged that digital enrollment would happen across multiple sessions and multiple devices. With this in mind, examine every step of the customer journey and ask questions from the consumer’s perspective: Where will they engage? How will they engage? What challenges do they face? Which pieces of the journey can be simplified? Then, craft a coherent experience with the following tactics:

• Use AI-powered design tools to create and update responsive forms across devices and platforms.
• Build a consistent library of design elements to increase familiarity and fluency.
• Design the experience to be as portable as possible, keeping transitions between devices in mind.
• Boost completion rates with progress indicators and micro-rewards.
• Create moments of personalization with autofill or social media account integration.
• Find creative ways to deliver dynamic data so customers can solve their own problems.

Paper forms are risky business

A big misconception is that paper is secure. Superior in nearly every way to the stacks of paper and cabinets full of patient data, digital forms provide several ways to boost customer and patient confidence while simultaneously improving security and ensuring regulatory compliance. With digital enrollment, you can do the following:

• Limit data access to authorized personnel on authorized devices and networks
• Easily update forms and securely meet evolving HIPPA requirements
• Give patients the ability to easily change and revise their information
• Expedite authorizations with e-signatures
• Increase accessibility for customers and patients

Digital is not new, just overdue in healthcare

New technology has wiped out the longest-standing hurdle — digitization of existing paper forms and data. You can now use new utilities and AI to automate the process and ease the conversion of forms into dynamic, editable documents. Telehealth and virtual care have proven viable and even more desirable for patients in a variety of circumstances. While this digital transition is new for healthcare organizations, consumers have long become accustomed to digital processes through other industries.

A 2018 MicKinsey survey found that more than 70 percent of consumers preferred a digital experience as they searched healthcare options, checked health information, paid bills, and filled prescriptions.

While the COVID-19 pandemic may have forced healthcare into digital experiences, the digital bandage has been ripped off. Patients and customers now expect digital experiences putting pressure on healthcare organizations to improve the entire customer journey — and it starts with digital enrollment.