No need to make a call now to visit a doctor or queue up in line for a diagnostic test.
Yes, you read it right and the best part is that if you prepay and pre-book, you can even get a discount. Thanks to a Nashville based company Change Healthcare.; a provider of revenue and payment cycle management and clinical information exchange solutions connecting payers, providers, and patients in the US Healthcare system.
.It has built a new software that can be used to book schedule and pay for healthcare services as per your convenience. In partnership with Adobe and Microsoft, the company intends to make healthcare not only time-efficient but also consumer-friendly.
The technology gives the consumers a choice to compare and cross-check the cost of services such as MRI across multiple facilities and the regional average for getting not only satisfaction but also value for money.
“We know healthcare is behind. Compare your experience by booking a flight on one of the major U.S. airlines. You compare that to the last time you got an X-ray and they are worlds apart,” said Director Spencer Cross in a phone interview.
By allowing patients to pay upfront, Cross said providers could be paid in days, instead of waiting a month or more for statements to be processed and sent to patients.
“We really think the industry is in a dire need of these e-commerce capabilities. We’re really excited to bring these together in a digital journey for the first time.” quoted Director Spencer Cross.
As the structure is based on cash payment, it offers patients a discount for prepaying for a test or procedure. Furthermore, appointments can be scheduled more methodically and lead to efficient time management.
“When we are encouraging patients to prepay through cash, we are able to steer patients in that way through tools like price, We’ve designed the solution for patients that are pure self-pay or high-deductible plans. We’ve tried to orient the plans around 300 most shoppable services as identified by CMS,” Cross said.
Patients would be able to pay in cash or from a health savings account. The insurance company can be linked automatically for tax purposes. Also, more features are being added for healthcare professionals as well as patients to calculate out of the pocket cost of insurance.
“I think there’s a wealth of possibilities with these capabilities,” Cross said. “We think of building on this e-commerce backbone as much as possible, and making this as personalized as we can.”
With the COVID 19 pandemic creating a wealth of possibilities for online sites, Change healthcare is looking up the horizon in times ahead to redefine the online healthcare industry.