Which Providers Offer a Great Billing Experience? Finally, a Way to Find Out

Cedar unveils new PFX Benchmarks at the HFMA Annual Conference, offering objective insight into both the financial and human impact of patient financial experience.

LAS VEGAS, June 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Every healthcare provider aims to deliver a great patient financial experience, and for good reason: four in 10 patients have left their provider due to billing issues.

The problem? Too often, providers are left to figure out what good looks like based on product features and functionality—but gold stars from a vendor are not an objective measure of the patient financial experience. And without a universal North Star, providers are in the dark about whether they're truly serving the best interests of their organization and their patients.

That's why Cedar, an end-to-end healthcare financial engagement platform, launched PFX Benchmarks at the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) Annual Conference, giving providers an objective view of their patient financial performance. Unlike traditional benchmarks that focus solely on measures like cash collections or electronic health record usage, Cedar's PFX Benchmarks capture both the financial and human impact of the patient financial experience.

"At Cedar, we believe the best patient financial experiences start with understanding what 'great' looks like. But in the absence of industry benchmarks, providers have no choice but to rely on performance standards based on feature utilization or outdated revenue cycle KPIs, falling short of what a great patient financial experience demands," said Ryan McPherson, Vice President, Commercial Strategy at Cedar. "With the launch of Cedar's PFX Benchmarks, healthcare organizations will be empowered to uncover real insights and set their own course toward patient financial excellence, driving financial sustainability and patient loyalty."

Cedar's analysis of data from a diverse set of healthcare providers, initially sourced via partnership with the Health Management Academy (The Academy) and informed by Cedar usage data from the company's robust network of 900M+ touchpoints across 30M patients, has resulted in five benchmarks that are currently available. These benchmarks include metrics that analyze factors such as the patient-friendliness of the billing process, effectiveness of patient outreach and efficiency of current billing operations. The number of benchmarks will expand significantly as more organizations participate in this effort and will include insights regarding patients' digital engagement and accessibility of affordable payment options

With Cedar's PFX Benchmarks, providers can compare their performance against industry peers and see where they can make meaningful improvements—independent of product utilization and without vendor bias.

"If you are not measuring patient financial experience metrics then you are not focused on improving it," said Arjun Bhatia, AVP, Revenue Cycle - Consumer Experience, Wellstar Health System, and member of the Patient Billing Experience Benchmarking Advisory Committee with The Academy, Cedar and provider leaders. 

Health systems that participate will receive a detailed PFX Analysis and custom scorecard, offering a report on their current performance and highlighting areas for improvement. To get started, healthcare finance and revenue cycle leaders can stop by booth 319 at the HFMA Annual Conference or visit cedar.com/pfx-benchmark to request a PFX Workbook that outlines the data needed to track and measure performance against the PFX Benchmarks.

In addition to unveiling the PFX Benchmarks at the HFMA Annual Conference, AnMed Chief Strategy Officer Brett Justice and Cedar Head of Marketing Claire Bevan will be presenting on innovative patient financial engagement strategies to improve access to care, increase insurance coverage and boost health system finances on Wednesday, June 26th at 1:00pm PDT in the Exhibit Hall: Gold Rush Theater (W1GR). 

About Cedar
Cedar is committed to improving the healthcare financial experience for all. With an innovative platform that connects providers and payers, Cedar empowers healthcare consumers with an optimized journey—all powered by data science and interactive design. For Cedar clients, this leads to increased payments, more efficient operations and greater consumer loyalty. To learn more about why leading U.S. healthcare organizations trust Cedar to manage the end-to-end consumer experience from pre-registration to post-visit billing, visit www.cedar.com and join us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.

Contact

For Cedar
Jenny Fiegoli
[email protected] 

SOURCE Cedar