Healthcare Financing Solutions for Chiropractic Practices

Chiropractors re-establish adequate spinal mobility while alleviating abnormal spinal reflexes. Chiropractic is a recognized healthcare practice in the United States. This therapeutic line of treatments goes hands in hands with osteopathy and physical therapy. The most common issues addressed by chiropractors are back and neck pain. Overall, chiropractors are consulted for musculoskeletal ailments. Commonly known as the science of healing without drugs, It focuses on manipulation of the musculoskeletal system.

In the United States, the popularity of chiropractic is at an all-time high. As per recent surveys, chiropractic has become a growing component of the health care sector and is gaining a lot of prevalence among the population. The chiropractic diagnosis involves neurological evaluation, observational assessments, orthopedic evaluation, skeletal imaging, and tactile assessments. A chiropractor manages painful physical injuries with adjustments, lifestyle modifications, manipulation, orthotics, patient education, physical therapy modalities, rehabilitation exercises, and other supports.  That, too, without using prescription drugs or surgery. Due to the effectiveness of chiropractic interventions, it is now used as a part of multidisciplinary practices like medical doctors, surgeons, physical therapists. 

Most patients ask the chiropractors to help them get rid of the pain, whereas the root cause of the ailment remains unattended. It solely happens due to the patient's inability to afford the full treatment. Denefits payment plans let you finance the patients seeking chiropractic care and procedures that are not covered by their insurance plans. Denefits payment plans also include all the pre-treatment tests (X Rays, MRI, etc.).

Why Denefits payment plans? NO health insurance? NO Problem!

Denefits medical financing services are particularly helpful for those individuals who live in a limited income bracket. It is often reported that many patients abandon the recommended chiropractic treatments only due to budgetary restraints. Denefits payment plans can potentially remove such barriers. Further, some patients face immense medical debts and cannot afford chiropractic treatments. Such patients can take Denefits Payment plans for chiropractic procedures without worry.

Furthermore, people who are living on limited income often have a low credit score. We do not perform credit checks while financing the patients. So, a bad credit score is not going to hit the acceptability of the patients for Denefits Payments plans. Moreover, if medical financing corporations like Carecredit have refused a patient's request for a medical loan, Denefits is the best choice for medical financing.

Advantages of Denefits payment plans

Guaranteed payments:- Say goodbye to financial uncertainties with assured payments. Our studies have indicated that a fitting payment plan that could ensure guaranteed payments can check the financial losses of a chiropractic practice.

You manage your practice while we manage your patients’ payments. 

Denefits Guaranteed Payments help your practice to run free from financial uncertainties.

Denefits - Finance Any Customer

We ensure guaranteed payments. The feature of guaranteed payments is an integral part of Denefits medical financing service. Our payment plans cover practices for financial uncertainties. Additionally,  the claim process is simple and secure. So, even if a patient does not pay, we keep sending the payments on time.

NO prepayment penalties: - Denefits medical financing services are free from hard/ soft penalties. We understand that the prepay penalties can weigh on the patient's pocket. Hence,  it's not a part of Denefits payment plans.

“If patients wish to settle their debt before its due, they can go for it.

Denefits does not charge patients with a fee for paying early.”

Denefits - Finance Any Customer

While many lenders keep prepaying penalty features sunk in their gruesome paperwork, our clients 'don't have to watch out for prepayment penalties. Denefits medical lending solutions have complete clarity when it comes to telling all terms and condition beforehand.

Free sign up: - Signing up with Denefits healthcare payment plans is free for all healthcare service providers. Our user-friendly platform eliminates the room for any paperwork and its associated regulatory costs.

NO Credit Checks: - If candidates have a bad credit history, don’t worry, Denefits medical financing for bad credit has got them covered! Denefits do not conduct credit checks, either hard or soft. We acknowledge that a patient’s financial records are not a viable mean to decide his/ her coming financial capacities.

100% Approval Rate: - Denefits goal is to make healthcare affordable to all. Hence, we have managed a 100% approval rate. Our medical financing options do not distinguish based on gender, age, race, salary brackets, or any such variables. All individuals in need can garner the advantages of Denefits patient financing system.

Attract more patients: - Denefits gainful medical financing for low credit help to draw more patients to your practice. As most patients avoid to consult chiropractors due to unavailability of funds, with the availability of Denefits financing option, unaffordability matters can be tackled easily.  

Better patient experience: - With Denefits patient financing, practitioners can concentrate on the chiropractic needs of their patients rather than bothering about patients out of pocket medical expenditures. It serves to develop the patient experience with the service.

Consumer-friendly digital payment system: - Denefits not only offers affordable financing plans with no credit checks, but we also regularly update our digital interface to render a better experience to our clients. Our customer care representatives work round the clock to support the patients in paying their due amount on time.  

Empower your consumer: - Denefits healthcare financing without credit check allows the patients to choose the facility of their choice and the time to repay the financed amount.

Fundraising through social media: - This is an added unique trait of Denefits patient financing. Denefits agrees that paying medical bills can sometimes be severe. Hence, our Social Healthcare Payments™ supports patients to gather funds for their medical bills. To alleviate the burden of medical bills, patients can request funds through friends, family, and social media.

Improved patient retention: - Denefits approves your procedure cost. We apply the compound interest rates on the financed amount. Denefits ensures your patients to picture the affordable rates of interest on their treatment amounts.  Also, Denefits allows your patients to spread the entire cost of treatment into monthly payments. The time is also chosen by the patients and can be covered in months or even years.

Transparency: -Being a top medical financing company in the US and with its transparent work ethics and dealing with consumers, Denefits has become a lead player in patient financing industry. Denefits never imposes any extra fees which is not previously declared to the clients. Before financing, their respective healthcare providers reveal all terms and conditions. 

List of chiropractic procedures financed by Denefits

Denefits finances treatments of all chiropractic specialties including but not limited to the following. Every chiropractic specialty is covered even if it is not listed here.

    • Detoxification Programs
    • Therapeutic Exercises
    • Reflexology
    • Acupuncture
    • Ultrasound
    • Diathermy
    • Spinal Traction
    • Soft Tissue Manual Therapy
    • Physical Therapy Modalities
    • Muscle Stimulation
    • Cold laser therapy 
    • Ice and Heat Therapy
    • Diet and Nutritional Counseling
    • Lifestyle Modification Counseling
    • Hydrotherapy. 
    • Electrical muscle stimulation. 
    • Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulators (TENS)
    • Traction
    • Infrared radiation
    • Ergonomics
    • Pelvic stabilization
    • Patient education
    • Pediatric chiropractic
    • Physical rehabilitation
    • Chiropractic care during pregnancy
    • Back pain
    • Neck pain
    • Headaches
    • Sports injuries
    • Repetitive strain
    • MRI
    • CT Scan
    • X Rays
    • Logan Basic
    • Gonstead
    • Applied Kinesiology
    • Flexion Distraction
    • Also, many more


Finance your chiropractic treatments with Denefits payment plans

Denefits payment plans are the best way for patients who wish to afford the required chiropractic care. Denefits assures instant approval, NO credit checks, NO hidden fees, low-interest rates, flexible financing terms, and letting the patient's loved ones be their helping hand (Social Healthcare Payments™ where patients can raise funds for their bills).

Denefits grants a full spectrum of medical financing options. We have the best platform that supports patients. Once you attach with Denefits, you can count on instant medical financing with a 100% approval rate without any credit checks. Our user-friendly digital programs concede the patients' needs and yields unique solutions tailored to their financial abilities.With Denefits, patients obtain care when they need it, and pay you in affordable monthly payments. Hence, the income of your practice rises as you get to engage more patients.

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Different Healthcare Financing Options for Patients

Denefits Payment Plans: Effective payment plan option for patients

Denefits payment plans are transforming healthcare practices with their tailor-made flexible patient financing options. Denefits helps all categories of healthcare consumers. Denefits patient financing plans work in tandem with rising healthcare cost while connecting more patients to your practice. Denefits offers not only viable financial programs but also an up to date digital interface to provide the best experience. Denefits continually works on improving its information systems to serve both providers and consumers in a better way. Denefits streamlined tools practically reduce the administrative costs of your healthcare facility. As a result, patient satisfaction and engagement with practice improves automatically.

Denefits financing program for patients

Affordable healthcare is a dream of everyone. However, financial constraints often hold back patients from getting the required medical treatments. The lack of affordable medical insurances and friendly healthcare lending companies/ solutions also hinder the ability of the patients to get standard treatments for their medical problems. However, all that was a thing of the past. Now, Denefits payment plans bring you the best affordable finances for your medical treatments.

Denefits financial solutions for patients don't let your out-of-pocket medical expenses hold you back from your recommended treatments. Denefits offers the real solution of getting financial protection during the course of your treatment plans. Denefits offers instant patient financing for all healthcare scenarios. Denefits understands that your current financial circumstances should not be considered the only criteria to measure your ability to repay. So, we offer quick patient financing with no credit checks & that too, at low-interest rates. Denefits funding program for patients for healthcare problems is the best financial protection that works for medical procedures of all ranges, including finance options for mental health counseling.

“There are many companies in the market which claim to approve your financial needs. However, it’s only Denefits payment plans that can assist with the financial needs of Patients in no time. We understand that medical emergencies do not wait for your insurance to respond to your financial needs.” 

To paint a clear picture, the following is a summary for why to choose Denefits Payment Plans Vs. In House Payment Plans Vs. Financing Credit Cards.

SR.	The Good	The Bad
1	More time to pay.	Reduces the amount you need to borrow.
2	Avoid high-interest rates.	Retailers must have an established lending business.
3	Create smaller, more manageable payments.	More beneficial for Automobile sector.
4	Helps to retain the patients for a longer duration.	Can only be applied for bigger monetary value.
5	It's like a free of cost advertisement as your clients tell all their friends about it.	Norms for having an In House Payment Plan vary in different states    (pre-registration of the firm is required).
The Bottom line: - There is a lot of pre-thinking required before actually opting for an In house Payment plan. For instance: - Do you have sufficient manpower to manage it?   How will you manage bad debt? Have you researched the collection laws for your state? Do you have a system to effectively manage payment plans? How will you protect the personally identifiable information (PII) of clients?

The good, the bad, and the bottom line of having Financing Credit Cards
Sr.	The Good	The Bad
1	Such cards can be used for a broad range of healthcare services	Just A Credit Card
2	Can be used as a payment option for out-of-pocket costs that aren’t covered by medical insurance	High Rates
3	An extensive network of participating providers	Requires credit approval
4	Applying for a card is generally kept simple	Cardholders need to be approved prior
5	Online account management tools are available	Your staff needs thorough training before you start accepting the cards
The Bottom line: - It is widely discussed that financing credit cards are simply another form of a credit card. For instance: - It is possible the agencies which offer such cards may or may not be the actual financing companies. Often, there is no option for a loan.  These agencies perform a rigorous credit check before considering an applicant. Additionally, the charges can rise in accordance with the extended payment plans.

The good, the bad, and the bottom line of having Denefits Payment Plans
SR.	The Good	The Bad
1	Instant Approval with a 100% rate	A young company in the financing market
2	NO Credit Checks	Little information is published
3	Low-interest rates & No Hidden Fees	Mixed reviews from clients
4	Flexible Financing Terms with free sign up	Check & money orders are not accepted
5	Social Healthcare Payments™	The dashboard interface is frequently updated
The Bottom line: - Trust, transparency, and accountability for clients are the very virtues of Denefits payment plans. With state of the art of digital technology, Denefits offers the best financial solutions to healthcare problems. Denefits is a young company, but this is not a disadvantage it is rather our strength. Our young team players are full of innovative ideas and yield creative financial solutions tailored to the individual needs of the clients.

Healthcare financing company for patients: Reinventing Payment Plans Options  

   

Often patients from the low-income brackets are not able to afford the full cost of the required treatment. Such circumstances force patients to travel to seek affordable remedies (like medical tourism). With Denefits payment plans, your patients can count on timely care, accurate, and complete treatment for their ailments at their doorsteps. Denefits assists your patients to get routine medical tests, check-ups to emergency surgeries, cosmetic surgeries, dental procedures, vision care, hearing aid treatments, medical dermatological treatments, and many more without worrying about the cost. 

Denefits Making Healthcare Affordable to All: Funding for multiple medical issues 

“Denefits helps all categories of healthcare consumers. 

Denefits Payment Plans work in tandem with rising healthcare cost,

While connecting more patients to your practice”.

Our knowledge and expertise in the sector of medical patient financing help practitioners in meeting their critical growing challenge, i.e., affordable healthcare. Denefits efforts in making healthcare affordable to all have helped thousands of patients to achieve the best healthcare experiences. Additionally, the practices also get to meet the wellness needs of their patients conveniently. This aspect mentioned above has helped in building a trusted relationship between the healthcare service providers and the patients.   

The Unique Feature of Denefits: Social Healthcare Payments™

Denefits supports the fact that it is possible for patients not to be able to pay off their medical bills all the time. Thus, Denefits has made the payments easy, and patients can also take help from their near and dear ones. Social Healthcare Payments™ is a unique feature of Denefits payment plans. We understand that paying off medical bills can sometimes be severe. So, our Social Healthcare Payments™ option allows your patients to raise funds for their medical bills. The patients can request funds through friends, family, and social media. It eases the financial burden of their medical bills even more. 

Denefits Commitment

Denefits is committed to bringing patients closer to affordable healthcare in the US. Our innovation has helped us to fill the gaps between the financial constraints and expensive treatment plans. Our transparent system of dealing with patients has allowed us to conquer a unique space among the leading patient financing platforms used by patients across North America. Now, Denefits financial platform supports hundreds of distinct healthcare service providers to offer affordable treatment options to their patients.

Choose Denefits Today!

“If your practice is not yielding the revenues you expect, we would be glad to be of assistance. Denefits can help your practice to attract more patients by offering Affordable Payment Plans. Let's together begin a journey to grow your business by increasing referrals and patient satisfaction."  

Denefits offers a full spectrum of patient financing programs. It is the best platform that supports patients to pay their expensive/ unexpected medical bills, conveniently. Once you connect with Denefits, you can count on instant patient financing and 100% approval rate that too, without credit checks. Denefits interactive digital platform understands the patients’ needs and yields unique solutions tailored to their financial capacities.

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How Denefits Payment Plans Help Retaining Patients

As a health care practitioner, your major focus is to offer the best medical treatment plan for patients. In general, it is recommended that your treatment decisions should not be influenced by the financial challenges faced by the patients. However, the lack of healthcare patient financing solutions, medical insurance, poor credit history, denied credit applications force patients to discontinue the required medical treatment. This gesture of patients can cause huge losses in your revenues.

How Denefits allows your patients to pay for your prescribed treatment?

It is perfectly understandable that a patient may need treatment irrespective of time or place. Hence, Denefits offers financing for medical procedures while offering payment plans to your patients. Across North America, Denefits finances your patients instantly. 

“No Good Credit History - No Worries.” 

Denefits (Healthcare Financing Company) does not run credit checks of your patients. We offer guaranteed payments. So, the practitioners can freely focus on an adequate treatment plan for their patients. We assist your practice to offer treatment for all those who approach your doorsteps. With these affordable treatment plans, your patients will certainly avail the necessary follow-ups. Hence, you can capture more recurring revenues.

The ethics & transparency of Denefits

The most common complaint of several consumers is that the credit card companies/ health insurances are often equipped with hidden fees & terms. Rest assured with Denefits, our healthcare financing services don't support such financial protocols. We don't have any hidden fees or terms & conditions. We are a value-based system. We stress on sharing all the terms & conditions beforehand. Hence, our system makes it impossible to charge your patients any additional service fee that has not been declared to them.

The flexibility with Denefits

Our medical patient financing lets your patients choose the amount they need and the time to repay the same, whatever suits their financial capacities. Denefits patient financing platform allows you to distribute your medical expense over months/ years. It, therefore, becomes convenient for your patients to pay the entire cost of any treatment plan in an easy & stress-free manner.

The innovative solutions of Denefits offer quick financial assistance and being a leading player in the patient financing industry, we are always keen to bring greater values and better opportunities to our business model. Our patient financial solutions can positively help to grow your practice with a higher number of satisfied patients. Our bond with practice makes it free from the burden of any financial condition of patients and the practitioner becomes free to focus on the medical needs of the patients.  

Choose Denefits Today!  

• Denefits offers a full spectrum of patient financing programs. It is the best platform that supports patients to pay their expensive/ unexpected medical bills, conveniently.
• Once you are connected with Denefits, you can count on instant patient financing and 100% approval rate that too, without credit checks. 
• Denefits interactive digital platform understands the patients’ needs and yields unique solutions tailored to their financial capacities.

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Affordable Plastic Surgery Financing For Skin Burns

What is burn surgery?

The survival rate of burn victims is high, however, most individuals have to deal with serious skin scarring. Skin burns often cause loss of sensation and aesthetic appearance. Both primary and secondary reconstructive measures help to heal the patient's wounds and improve the aesthetic aspects. There are well-established techniques such as debridement, grafts, and scar revisions which can help to regain the aesthetically pleasing skin.

There are two approaches to tackle burn wounds. Either an acute surgery is performed immediately after a burn injury or reconstructive procedures are performed after the burn wound starts to heal. Plastic surgery is not only a promising tool to counter skin burn wounds but it also helps the patients to recover from their traumatic experience.               

What are the plastic surgery options for burns?

Plastic surgery is the best option for both mild and severe burn injuries. It can help to regain cosmetically appealing skin. There are several plastic surgery options for burn injuries. For severe wounds, prior to reconstructive surgery, the injuries are subjected to debriding (removal of damaged tissue). Afterward, the following approaches can be considered-
Skin Grafts: - This is a common approach used for burn patients. In this method, skin from another part of the body is removed and transplanted over the burnt area. Skin grafts are basically of two types:
Split-thickness grafts: - In this case, only a few layers of outer skin are transplanted.  
Full-thickness grafts: - In this case, the entire dermis is transplanted.
The skin is removed from the donor site with a skin cutting instrument called a dermatome. The donor sites are usually the inner thighs or buttocks. After removal, this skin is placed on the recipient area (burnt site) with stitches. Afterward, these sites are covered with a dressing to prevent infections.

Microsurgery: - Microsurgery is a reconstructive procedure when there is a case of a lost finger, toe, ear, or lip. This medical procedure aims at reattaching of the above mentioned. During this procedure, the Cosmetic surgeon will sew the tiny blood vessels. This method also concerts with free flap procedures.

Free Flap Procedure: -  This method is well suited for breast reconstruction. This method includes the transfer of muscles, skin, or even bone with active blood supply. Often performed with microsurgery, it’s healing time can exceed from a few weeks to a couple of months.

Tissue expansions: - This technique allows the burnt patients to grow extra skin which can later be used for reconstructive procedures. Balloon expanders (an instrument) can help to achieve this extra growth of the skin. This balloon is placed under the skin and is filled with the saline solution which causes the skin to expand as happens during pregnancy. After sufficient skin is grown, it can be used to correct or reconstruct the damaged area. The best thing about this method is that the reconstructed area has even skin colour and texture compared to the neighboring area.

How to afford burn surgery on a tight budget?

With the advancement in plastic surgery treatment for skin burn, the out-of-pocket expenses grow rapidly. The inability of health insurance to cover all treatment cost forces the patients to look for affordable financing options. So, opt for Denefits revolutionary payment plans for plastic surgery procedures of all ranges.

For more info, call us at  +1-833-336-3348 or visit us

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5 Thoughts On How To Improve The Patient Financial Experience

Most patients already have their disposable income earmarked for other bills and priorities. If a patient has to choose between paying his or her electric bill and medical care, for instance, he or she likely will opt to keep the lights on and let the medical bill slip another month. As patients take on more and more financial responsibility, this is unlikely to change unless healthcare organizations become more proactive and think like other consumer-driven industries. Car dealerships and appliance stores, for example, typically facilitate and offer financing options so big-ticket items like cars and refrigerators are more affordable to consumers. Hospitals and health systems are following a similar model to make healthcare more affordable to patients. Therefore they have made strategies and best practices for hospitals and health systems to consider when developing a patient financing program.

Millions of folks reside with unhealthy credit – and immeasurable folks have medical emergencies. What if you have got poor credit and unpaid medical bills? If you’re during this scenario, there are companies that offer to fund via medical loans for unhealthy credit. Sudden medical prices will threaten your monetary stability and obtaining a medical loan currently permits you to manage your finances – before the bills become overwhelming. Having bad credit makes getting any type of loan more difficult. But, it’s not impossible. And if you’re drowning in unexpected medical expenses, you may not be able to wait until your credit improves.

No Credit Check Financing

Your credit score is employed by lenders to see if you’re an honest candidate to increase credit to. But a coffee credit score will flag you as a credit risk and should create it tough to induce credit. If you’re offered credit with a nasty credit score, you’ll possibly pay a lot of in fees and charges as a result of you will qualify just for a better charge per unit. plenty of individuals resides with unhealthy tallies. There are people that cannot pay the medical bills because they can’t afford it. This feature enables you to finance patients with no credit history or but excellent credit score, making patient financing easy. Thus although you have got unhealthy credit score or low balance, this can facilitate.

we tend to don’t have any dangerous promotional offers and that we don’t charge any delayed interest or hidden fee from your patients.

Cashback Rewards

Who doesn’t likes cashbacks? Well from youngsters to teens, to elder people, everyone gets excited when they get a cashback. Cashback generally refers to a cardholder benefit offered by credit card companies that pay the cardholder a small percentage in cash rewards for each purchase. Because of this feature providers receive a cashback of $5 on each new contract financed.

Raise Funds For Treatments

Fundraising is that the method of gathering voluntary contributions of cash or alternative resources, by requesting donations from people, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies.

Traditionally, fundraising consisted largely of inquiring for donations on the road or at people’s doors, and this is often experiencing terribly sturdy growth within the style of face-to-face fundraising, however new varieties of fundraising, like online fundraising, have emerged in recent years, tho’ these are typically supported older strategies like grassroots fundraising. With this feature, patients will currently raise funds simply for his or her treatments through friends and relations.

Waiting Period

In today’s time, folks do not have the tendency to attend. They need everything to be done on time. This has created it potential for folks to induce treatment there so. Patients are now instantly approved and might get the treatment at the time of their You’re young. You’re healthy. But that doesn’t mean you won’t have a medical emergency tomorrow and get stuck with some whopping bills. These bills can get overwhelming really fast and it can be tempting to just ignore them. But let’s be clear here—you do have to pay them. Unlike most financing companies, there are companies that do not charge the patients a high-interest rate. Now you can easily get treatment at your budget and stay fit.

Guaranteed Payments

Guaranteed payments to partners are payments meant to compensate a partner for services or use of capital. In cases where people cannot afford to pay the medical bills, they want simple and easy solutions that can solve their problems. Here these patient financing features help them shield against uncertainties and guarantee secured payments at no further value. So, albeit your patient defaults, we have a tendency to keep delivering you payments.

Final Thought

Need a medical procedure that your insurance carrier will not cover? Or, your carrier might cover it, but only a portion, leaving you with huge out-of-pocket expenses that you cannot afford? You are not alone. Not everyone is in the position of being able to save for unforeseen medical issues. In fact, according to the statistics of medical bankruptcy cases, very few people do. If you have bad credit, your situation is even more worrisome and you may think that you have no options other than skipping the procedure.

Source: https://denefits.wordpress.com/2018/11/13/5-thoughts-on-how-to-improve-the-patient-financial-experience/

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7 thoughts on what's next and best in healthcare finance

Healthcare is moving outpatient due to technology development and a focus on value-based care. As a result, hospitals and health systems are looking at key strategies to transform their institutions in the future.

At the Becker's Hospital Review 8th Annual Meeting in Chicago, McGuireWoods Partner Geoff Cockrell, JD, moderated a panel titled "Lessons from the Experts: What's New, Next and Best in Healthcare Finance." The panelists included North Ottawa Community Health System CFO Donald Longpre; MemorialCare Health System CFO Karen Testman, RN; Chief Administrative Officer of Marshfield Clinic Health System Scott Polenz; and Director of Analytics and Cybersecurity at GE Healthcare Travis Frosch.

The key trends discussed during the panel include:

1. Balancing inpatient and outpatient investments. Traditionally hospitals invested in inpatient beds and departments for expansions and upgrades, but now more care is moving into the ambulatory setting. More patient interactions are done on the outpatient side and hospitals are building satellite ambulatory locations to extend their reach.

"We are looking for revenue growth opportunities," said Ms. Testman. "We did get into the business of freestanding ASCs and imaging centers. That's been a way for us to diversify our revenue and grow our revenue outside of the hospital environment. We are starting to look at opportunities in physical therapy and skilled nursing facilities."

Mr. Longpre discussed his hospital's efforts to keep patients out of the emergency room and urgent care facilities by attaching patients to a physician when they come in. Community agencies have space in the ER to help patients through the recovery process.

MemorialCare is also focused on outpatient strategy as part of larger population health and consumerism initiatives. The health system is investing in IT development tools to make healthcare access more user friendly, but at the same time continuing to invest on the inpatient side. "Most of our patients don't really appreciate what we are doing in terms of development on the inpatient record. It's not something that touches them," said Ms. Testman. "We are giving that some extra thought and trying to determine whether we can pull back on some of those resources and continue to invest on the ambulatory side and some of the things that our patients will actually touch and feel. For the most part, most of our patients don't end up in the hospital. Their interactions are with our physicians and surgery centers."

2. Updating the financial leadership model. The budget structure at many institutions is outdated in the era of value-based care. It may take a new budget and financial leadership structure to truly overhaul the system. "We are going from the typical budget process which is very painful and not value-added to a rolling forecast which is exciting for us in the aberrations area. I think for the first time in quite some time, our financial leadership wants to work with operations instead of just sitting in the room and sending the report," said Mr. Polenz. "They are sitting down and planning and giving us the tools we need to be able to do things proactively. Those are a couple things that are quite different for us as a system."

3. Value-based payments. The panelists feel value-based payments and risk-sharing payment models are here to stay. As a result, healthcare providers are spending significant resources to navigate patients through the healthcare system efficiently and ensure a pleasant experience. However, not all of providers' revenue is value-based and having one foot in and one foot out of the risk-sharing pool is challenging.

Realted Post: The connection between financial health & physical well-being

"What is interesting is the pace in which we are seeing it grow varies across the country," said Ms. Testman. "In California, we've had different forms of managed care and capitation for 20 years. We are seeing that continue to grow and a lot of creative partnerships and affiliations going on as part of that."

4. Creative partnerships and affiliations. MemorialCare signed an agreement with Anthem to create Vivity, which provides access to MemorialCare, Cedars Sinai and UCLA in addition to other well-respected systems in the area. "We are seeing more and more of the creative partnerships and affiliations involved, but in our market where 30 percent of our revenue is risk-based, the majority is still fee-for-service arrangements and it's hard to tell how quickly that will evolve in our markets," Ms. Testman said. "In other parts of the country, it might still be relatively slow."

5. Cybersecurity investment. As hospitals and health systems move into the digital age, they risk hackers stealing their data and compromising medical records without the appropriate cybersecurity. Around 81 percent of hospitals increased their budget for cybersecurity in the past year, said Mr. Frosch, with some hiring big data analysts and another spending for managed services with more predictable costs.

6. Data analytics. Investment in technology and data analytics can help hospitals create value in small and large ways. In many hospitals, it's a big step forward to gather the cost per case data for a certain procedure and then identifying the surgeon costing the most — perhaps that surgeon is using a more expensive implant — and standardizing the procedure.

In other cases, large health systems are using data analytics to manage population health. "Organizations are taking on massive numbers of lives and they need more robust full sets," said Mr. Frosch. "The thing that we encourage is low hanging fruit, small bites and big return on investment."

Related Post: Best practices for incorporating a patient financing program

Many hospitals don't have a comprehensive analytics strategy or understand where their budget will go in the future, said Mr. Frosch. "We have a framework for engaging with customers called FastWorks [which combines a set of tools and practices designed to build better products]. From anyone in software development, it's agile and in hyper drive," said Mr. Frosch. "I think really sitting down and understanding from the key stakeholders all the viewpoints and perspectives and iterating through that over a time horizon is the only way you can do that. And we've seen tremendous success with that."

7. Avoid overbuilding. Under-utilization is a problem for many healthcare providers, as several operating rooms, exam rooms and patient rooms go empty every day. The unused space still costs providers money and overall becomes a burden on the healthcare system. "We need to re-think what we do," said Mr. Longpre. "We can't say we are this big hospital that provides all this inpatient care. There is technology out there that is going to take orthopedics to outpatient surgery just like gynecology and urology moved from inpatient to outpatient. If you're a small community hospital, you're not going to have that much inpatient care."

Telehealth and virtual health are becoming more important as well. The technology can help people recover at home. Marshfield Clinic Health System is constructing a hospital and taking the trend toward outpatient care into consideration.

"In the market where we are building the hospital, we will try to take care of anywhere from 45 to 55 patients at any given time at the 44-bed hospital," said Mr. Polenz. "We aren't overbuilding because we know [outpatient is] the future. Even in our skilled nursing facility project, we anticipated certain numbers and when we got it up and running even a year later, some of the numbers we projected are being done in the outpatient basis."

Source: https://denefits.wordpress.com/2018/11/12/7-thoughts-on-whats-next-and-best-in-healthcare-finance/

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