Draft: Grinnell Regional Medical Center Releases Results from Partnership with Patientco

Grinnell Regional Medical Center Releases Results from Partnership with Patientco

Two-year engagement has helped promote patient financial engagement through simplified billing, increased access to payment options

ATLANTA (June XX, 2014) – Patientco, an industry-leading revenue cycle management software company that works with healthcare organizations to improve the way payments occur between patients and providers, released today results from its two-year partnership with Grinnell Regional Medical Center, a 49-bed rural medical center in Grinnell, Iowa. By leveraging Patientco’s cloud-based platform, Grinnell Regional Medical Center (GRMC) has simplified the payment process and improved billing accessibility for its patients, increasing cash collections by seven percent, decreasing FTE workload and enhancing overall patient satisfaction.

“Healthcare organizations are constantly striving to improve patient care from a clinical perspective, but many don’t consider the financial aspect of the care journey,” said Kyle Wilcox, assistant vice president, finance at Grinnell Regional Medical Center. “We recognize the importance of making the patient payment process as simple as possible, and Patientco has enabled us to do just that. We were able to implement the payment automation platform in less than six weeks and see fast business results as well as positive patient feedback.”

Grinnell Regional Medical Center partnered with Patientco in 2012 when they realized their basic payment options and black-and-white statements were not helping to improve its patients’ overall experience with GRMC or its collections processes. The improved statements from Patientco, designed around patients’ needs, have proven to be two and a half times more effective at positively influencing patient payment behavior, with 79 percent of current payments made through self-service methods. Additionally, Patientco’s technology has helped Grinnell Regional Medical Center save approximately 124 hours per month, time which was previously spent on opening checks, posting payments and processing address changes or returned mail.

“In today’s healthcare environment, organizations are focusing more on patient financial engagement and how it impacts the overall care experience,” said Bird Blitch, CEO of Patientco. “At Patientco, we are committed to providing our partners with the right tools they need to better manage the revenue cycle while enhancing patient satisfaction. As our partnership with Grinnell Regional Medical Center continues to grow, we will continue to work closely with their team to improve patient payment processes that will ultimately benefit both patients and providers.”

Patientco’s patient-focused solution has also enabled Grinnell Regional Medical Center to:

·         Improve payment accessibility and flexibility. Patients have access to manage and pay their healthcare expenses in the method that is most convenient via different payment options, such as online bill pay, by mail, over the phone or check.

·         Reduce bad debt. With Patientco, Grinnell Regional Medical Center has not only improved collections, but also reduced bad debt while simultaneously increasing financial assistance to its patients.

·         Enhance patient satisfaction. Patients have expressed positive feedback and less frequently file billing complaints because of easy-to-understand statements and accessible payment options.

For more information, visit www.patientco.com.

About Grinnell Regional Medical Center

Grinnell Regional Medical Center (GRMC) is a private, non-profit and non-tax supported medical center, serving more than 40,000 residents in a six-county rural area of central Iowa. A 49-bed hospital with 50 physicians and allied healthcare professionals, 390 employees and more than 200 volunteers, GRMC provides an array of services from birth to end-of-life. Specialties include primary care in family practice, obstetrics and gynecology and general surgery, as well as specialists in anesthesiology, bariatrics/weight loss surgery, emergency medicine, internal medicine, mental health, pain management, pathology, podiatry, psychiatry, obstetrics/gynecology, orthopedic surgery, radiology and urology. Visiting specialists in 11 areas provide additional specialty care for area residents.  For more information, call 641-236-7511.

About Patientco

Patientco is a leading provider of cloud-based patient payment automation solutions designed to increase revenue and cut costs by simplifying the payment process for patients and streamlining the patient revenue cycle for providers. Patientco’s suite of intuitive revenue cycle tools produces easy-to-understand statements, offers patients their choice of secure payment options, facilitates direct provider-to-patient communication and automates traditionally manual back-office processes for providers. To learn more, call 888-747-2455 or visit info.patientco.com/providers.