BOSTON, MA – OCT. 9, 2024 – Kyruus Health, the leading care access platform, announced the launch of Reach, a listings management solution designed to help health systems, hospitals, and medical groups to extend their brand’s reach, drive appointments, and increase patient acquisition.

The wonderful city of Nashville, Tennessee, hosted AHIP’s 2024 Consumer Experience and Digital Health Forum. It was an opportunity to learn about digital health best practices and the shifting care delivery landscape. With over 50 interactive sessions, attendees gathered insights that could help them and their organizations deliver personalized care and improve health outcomes. One of those sessions discussed mental health care access and included Koleen Cavanaugh, the Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer of Independence Blue Cross; Cynthia Grant, PhD, LCSW, MBA, the Head of Clinical Excellence of Grow Therapy; and Brandon Spring, the Chief Revenue Officer of Kyruus Health.

The panel discussed the complexity of navigating the healthcare system, especially when it comes to behavioral healthcare. And how digital transparency tools play a critical role in improving healthcare access. They emphasized the importance of removing barriers, empowering patients, and simplifying the often burdensome process of scheduling appointments and accessing care.

The Challenge: A “Sick Care” System

A recurring theme was the growing strain on the primary care system, where patients with mental health needs often seek help. These professionals, however, frequently lack the resources and time to adequately address behavioral health issues, which only exacerbates the problem. With long wait times and a shortage of specialists, many individuals delay seeking care until they are in crisis. This leads to what is sometimes called a “sick care system” rather than a proactive healthcare system focused on prevention and early intervention. All panelists agreed that technology can help deliver more access to care.

“This has been something that has plagued our profession for decades and it is both something that is perceived and felt by patients that are seeking care as well as providers who have a desire to be able to get someone matched for services.”

–Cynthia Grant, Head of Clinical Excellence, Grow Therapy

Empowering Patients Through Digital Tools

To address these challenges, Independence Blue Cross and Grow Therapy have been integrating digital tools that make it easier for patients to access mental health services. One tool both organizations agree is pertinent to increasing behavioral care access is enhanced provider directories. These directories enable patients to schedule mental health appointments with just a few clicks. It also allows patients to not only see who is available for virtual or in-person care but also provides detailed information about providers, including their specialty, language spoken, and availability.

The simplicity of the user interface aims to meet modern patient expectations, especially among younger generations who are accustomed to making reservations or appointments online for almost every aspect of life. And when more people know about these virtual options for care, the more likely they are to access them.

“When the pandemic hit, we sent a message out to our membership just to create awareness of benefits for virtual behavioral health care. And in one week’s time, from that message going out, we saw a 1000% increase in people booking online behavioral health visits. And while we didn’t see that same pattern with traditional health care, that behavioral health has continued. People like the access to virtual behavioral health.”

-Koleen Cavanaugh, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Independence Blue Cross

The Future: Seamless Integration for Improved Access

The discussion closed with optimism. While the complexity of behavioral healthcare, especially when dealing with access to care, will always present challenges, integrating digital tools and collaboration between health systems, payers, and technology companies offers a path forward. Partnerships like these are streamlining processes, making provider directories more accurate, and giving patients the tools they need to take charge of their health and ensure they are choosing the right care.

BOSTON, MA – SEPT. 17, 2024 – Kyruus Health, the leading care access platform, today announced the launch of two products for health plans; Guide, a conversational AI search experience, and Provider Data Solutions, a provider data management and attestation solution. In combination, these solutions are designed to help health plans use their provider data to deliver a better member experience while helping to connect members to the right care.

Guide and Provider Data Solutions are the newest additions to Kyruus Connect for Payers, the care access platform that unifies data to streamline provider search, drive member engagement, and guide people to make informed care choices—all while advancing your organization’s growth and compliance goals.

Enhancing Provider Data for Health Plans

With provider information scattered across multiple databases, tools, and processes, maintaining a unified and accurate data source for health plans is costly and difficult. According to the Gartner® Hype Cycle Report, “Payers experience increased consumer and provider satisfaction as well as better financial results and operational efficiency when operating with more accurate provider data. Improved claims payment performance—including lower denial rates and improved financial reconciliation—are an example of a function improved by better provider data. Additionally, provider data management (PDM) tools reduce the risk of state and federal regulatory penalties for poor provider directory data quality.”

Kyruus Health’s Provider Data Solutions improve data quality through the ingestion, curation, and cleansing of data from various sources, building on the compliance and attestation capabilities launched through Validate. The result is a single, trusted source of truth of provider data that is more convenient and reliable across all access points. Kyruus Health payer customers are already experiencing the difference with enhanced provider profiles, with increases in member interactions of up to 114%.

In addition to better data quality and richness, 92% of consumers also express interest in scheduling appointments online according to the 2024 Care Access Benchmark Report for Health Plans,. To fill this need, Kyruus Health’s Provider Data Solutions also enable health plans to collect and display availability and appointment scheduling information, driving better member engagement and closing gaps in care.

“As a foundation for innovative technologies like Gen AI, accurate and reliable provider data is critical,” said Harshit Shah, Chief Technology Officer of Kyruus Health. “With Kyruus Health’s Provider Data Solutions, we meticulously manage and optimize provider data, enhancing its accuracy and trustworthiness, which paves the way for more meaningful AI-powered interactions and a superior member experience.”

If you’ll be at AHIP 2024 Consumer Experience & Digital Health Forum from Sep 24 – 26, 2024 in Nashville, TN, schedule time to meet with the Kyruus Health team.

Gartner, Hype Cycle for U.S. Healthcare Payers, 2024, By Mandi Bishop, Austynn Eubank, Connie Salgy, 29 July 2024. 

Gartner and Hype Cycle are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Over the past decade, contactless care has become increasingly prominent in healthcare. While it might have sounded futuristic a decade or so ago, it’s an important component of healthcare consumerism. With the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating adoption of contactless technology in most consumer-facing industries, prospective patients are increasingly expecting to access and manage their healthcare through more convenient, contactless means.

What exactly is contactless care? Basically, it describes a patient experience delivered in a way that avoids unnecessary person-to-person contact. This type of care leverages digital technologies and tools to offer healthcare and health-related services for everything from appointment scheduling and contactless patient intake to virtual consult and online payment. 

Today’s patients expect a seamless experience, similar to that offered in industries such as retail and hospitality. They want healthcare services that are not only convenient but also enable them to connect with providers on their terms. 

Contactless care isn’t only a bonus for a lot of individuals — it’s a requirement. Many consumers are looking for expanded digital capabilities that enable them to complete more tasks online, at their convenience, with over 85% of consumers interested in making payments, completing pre-visit forms, providing insurance, and even alerting the front desk that they’ve arrived for a visit via digital means.

Many healthcare providers realize the benefits of contactless care, too. Roughly 93% of physicians believe these tools provide an advantage in their ability to care for their patients.

Promoting Patient and Staff Satisfaction

Contactless care offers many more benefits than just convenience. Along with meeting consumer demand for ease, access, transparency, and speed, it aids in mitigating crowded waiting rooms, high-touch areas, wait times, and unnecessary travel. 

Contactless care can even help improve health outcomes by delivering safe, timely, and consistent care that’s accessible and affordable. By putting patients at the center, it often drives higher levels of engagement and satisfaction. Additional advantages of contactless care include:

• Fewer medical errors
• Augmented patient safety
• Improved patient-provider communication
• Increased HIPAA compliance
• Enhanced provider and staff productivity and satisfaction
• Fewer repetitive administrative tasks
• Enhanced patient loyalty and retention

How to Provide a Contactless Patient Care Journey

Patients should be able to experience a contactless patient journey, from pre-visit registration all the way to post-appointment payment. Medical groups utilizing the technology to produce this, however, are best served with tools that enable them to increase workflow efficiencies while meeting patient needs. 

The most popular digital health tools for contactless care are those that automate tasks before, during, and after a patient’s appointment. More patient control means less work for medical group staff. Prime examples of these tools are those used for appointment scheduling, check-in, and payment.

Online Patient Scheduling

Patient registration and appointment scheduling are the first and most important steps in a patient’s healthcare journey. A majority of patients prefer to have the resources available to schedule appointments, register, and check-in in a contactless manner through their smartphone, computer, or other mobile device.  

Approximately 40% of consumers now prefer to book appointments online. And, about 70% of patients are more likely to choose a medical group that allows them to book, change, and cancel appointments online. 

Why has the use of online scheduling grown so quickly? Only half of patients who call for an appointment are able to book an appointment over the phone on the first try. Scheduling via phone is also inefficient, taking eight minutes on average versus one minute online. 

Manually contacting patients to remind them of an upcoming appointment is certainly time-consuming. It also does little to minimize no-shows and cancellations or aid providers in improving the accuracy of their schedules.

Contactless Patient Intake

The manual check-in process isn’t only inconvenient, but it also leads to poor time management that results in longer wait times. Medical groups that offer digital check-in tools eliminate the need for physical patient intake tasks and minimize contact with individuals who are ill. 

During the contactless patient intake process, patients can update demographic information, verify their insurance information and medical history, acknowledge and sign consent forms, and complete questionnaires. Other benefits of using digital patient intake platforms are:

• Improved patient satisfaction and engagement
• Shorter wait times
• Mitigation of medical errors
• Alleviated administrative burden
• Enhanced coordination of care
• Improved HIPAA compliance
• Curtailed operational costs
• More reliable revenue 

Additionally, digital check-in technologies that integrate with electronic health records and practice management systems, increase front office bandwidth by automatically capturing patient information and populating it in real-time.

Digital Payment

Offering contactless technologies that enable patients to view and pay their bills digitally—including online, email, and text options—helps consumers feel in control over their finances and creates a better experience. In fact, 96% of consumers consider some sort of cost information when selecting a new provider or service, underscoring the value they place on transparent pricing. Maybe that’s why 78% of consumers want the COVID-19 pandemic’s prevalent contactless payment options to remain in place. 

Contactless payment options do more than keep a medical group’s front desk area cleaner for both patients and staff, they also increase front office employees’ efficiency and productivity. They also are safer than manual payment methods because they rely on credit cards with chips or mobile wallets. 

Kryuus Health offers end-to-end patient access and engagement solutions that enable patients to easily find and schedule care, complete pre-visit tasks, and meaningfully engage with their providers .Request information or schedule a meeting with our team to learn more!

In today’s fast-paced healthcare industry, optimizing the efficiency of front office operations is crucial for delivering exceptional patient care. From managing patient interactions to handling administrative tasks, front office staff play a pivotal role in patients’ satisfaction. Their care experience, when put into practice well, can help improve patient satisfaction for their organization.

Good customer service isn’t just for restaurants, retail, and banks. Consumers of healthcare are more selective than ever when it comes to who is providing their care. With the rapid emergence of healthcare consumerism, spurred in large part due to contactless care precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, patients aren’t stuck with a provider with whom they’re not satisfied.

Creating a Positive Experience to Improve Patient Satisfaction

A patient’s visit with their provider begins and ends at the front desk. This interaction can set the tone for the entire patient journey. It’s often an organization’s first chance to make a good—or bad—impression. 

Sounds easy enough, right? Make sure your front office staff is friendly and helpful to patients. Along with a high quality of care from the physician, your practice can improve patient satisfaction. 

There is a problem with this scenario. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take into account all the other tasks for which your front office staff is responsible. Along with patient registration and insurance verification, these team members typically have additional responsibilities. They must schedule appointments, answer phones, maintain records and accounts, retrieve patient records, collect payments, handle referrals, and much more.

Friendly and efficient frontend operations can increase practice revenue and also improve satisfaction for both providers and their staff. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of four ways to enhance the productivity of your front office staff.

1. Conduct Regular Staff Training

Your front office staff can’t stick to best practices if they’re not aware of them. That’s why you should regularly train them on the steps, policies, and protocols used to run your practice. Ensure that they don’t have to rely on guesswork. Clearly define each staff member’s responsibilities, and provide them with the tools necessary to fulfill them. Some organizations utilize a daily checklist. 

One of the most important aspects of proper staff training is the relevance of software and systems. While this includes electronic health records (EHR), it’s any software or systems that the frontend uses in their duties. By providing comprehensive training, healthcare organizations can help their staff become proficient in using these tools and technologies, which can lead to increased efficiency and accuracy.

2. Offer Patient Self-Scheduling

As we discussed in a recent blog, patient self-scheduling offers myriad advantages for healthcare providers, including labor savings, cost reduction, increased patient satisfaction and engagement, improved care management and adherence, and more. It allows front office staff to focus on other high-value activities, helps the practice fill same-day appointments, and prevents overbooking by providing a clear view of available time slots. 

In addition to promoting a positive patient experience by offering convenient 24/7 access to available appointments, patient self-scheduling can reduce the call volume for front office staff. One study found that front office staff spend an average of 8 minutes on the phone with each patient who calls in looking to schedule an appointment. When this is the only method available to patients who are looking to schedule, the phone lines can quickly become overwhelming.

3. Utilize Appointment Reminders

Manually contacting patients to remind them of an upcoming appointment is certainly time-consuming. It also isn’t an easily scalable process and does little to minimize no-shows and cancellations. 

Automated appointment reminders enable providers to communicate with patients using their preferred method, whether that’s a text message, email, or phone call. It can prompt patients to reschedule using a digital health tool instead of just missing their appointment, saving time for both the patient and your front office staff. Plus, your team members can use that extra time to engage with patients in-office.

4. Implement Digital Patient Check-In

Automating administrative intake processes with digital patient check-in lowers the burden on your front office staff. How?  It puts documentation in your patients’ hands, thereby streamlining workflows, saving hundreds of staff hours, and reducing data entry errors. Patients can use a personal smartphone or tablet to verify their insurance, sign consent forms and authorization releases, verify or update clinical information, and more, all of which update in real-time with the patient’s electronic health record. No more manual data entry from a clipboard into the EHR for staff. 

For those patients who may not complete this information before their visit, consider going a step further and providing QR codes in the office waiting room, so that patients can still complete all of their pre-visit forms without causing overcrowding and long wait times at the front desk.

Enabling patients to use digital patient check-in not only decreases wait times, which tends to improve patient satisfaction, it also helps clinicians prepare for a visit sooner, so appointments can be more efficient.

Each of these best practices also aids your front office staff in reducing duplicative processes, mitigating healthcare waste, automating repetitive tasks, and organizing patient data for easier access. They also help to improve the efficiency of your team members without the need for additional staff. Such benefits are especially crucial as the healthcare labor shortage continues.

Schedule a meeting with one of our team members to learn more about how you can increase the productivity of your front office staff and improve patient satisfaction overall!

BOSTON, MA – JULY 16, 2024 – XO Health, an innovative health care services organization designed by and for self-insured employers, has announced a strategic partnership with Kyruus Health, the leading care access platform, to enhance its digital member experience. This collaboration aims to create a more unified healthcare journey for all stakeholders, including members, providers, and payers, with an anticipated go-live date of January 2025.

“Kyruus Health’s advanced technology will empower XO Health’s members by providing clear, accessible information about their healthcare options and costs,” Rick Schneider, SVP, Digital Product, Intelligence and Engineering at XO Health said. “This transparency is crucial in helping our members make informed decisions and ultimately achieve better health outcomes.”

XO Health’s unique business model, which emphasizes next generation alternative payment models, requires flexible support. By integrating Kyruus Connect for Payers, XO Health will offer a seamless digital experience that includes provider search, cost transparency, quality scores, primary care selection, augmented provider data, appointment scheduling, and telehealth integration.

“The Kyruus Health solutions will complement our omnichannel approach to curated and guided care making the member experience more seamless, personalized, and supportive. Our goal is to ensure that all members receive the right care, via the right channel, at the right time and right price,” Howard Kraft, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at XO Health, highlighted. “This integration will significantly enhance our efficiency and service quality.”

This partnership between Kyruus Health and XO Health will provide needed support for companies to comply with cost transparency mandates, maintaining the companies’ accountability and building trust from their employees.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with XO Health, a health plan at the forefront of healthcare innovation,” Peter Boumenot, Chief Product Officer at Kyruus Health said. “Our shared vision of connecting people to the right care will drive member engagement, support informed care decisions, enhance overall transparency, and help XO Health grow their membership.”

Learn more about how Kyruus Health enables over 100 health plan brands to deliver unparalleled member experiences to 150 million members.

Sara Heath

Tech Target Patient Engagement

Patient and family advisory councils (PFACs) aren’t just a hospital mainstay anymore, as health IT vendors host them to gain user insights.

Patient and family advisory councils are starting to find new homes in unexpected places: health IT companies.

PFACs are historically common fixtures in hospitals and health systems. But as the industry continues to embrace a consumer-obsessed approach to patient engagement, that mindset is translating from care sites to the vendors that supply them.

The patient voice isn’t just important for shaping care management; it’s also important for designing the tools that assist with that care management.

Healthcare’s digital transformation means there’s a growing suite of tools, such as patient portals or online provider search and appointment scheduling systems, that directly serve patients. Getting patients’ user intel about how these systems work can give designers the insights necessary to make improvements.

While health IT companies might conduct extensive user testing and focus grouping, adding PFACs is new territory for most developers. How are health IT vendors approaching this new world of patient feedback?

Continue reading the full story here on Patient Engagement.