Nearly 70% of Hospital Leaders See Rise in Self-Pay Due to COVID

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Alongside an expected increase in Medicaid beneficiaries, health system executives predict that reimbursements from commercials will slide. 

More than one-third of leaders expect to see their organization's IT budgets increase, while over 25% said their IT budgets will likely decrease.

However, only 12% of surveyed executives said their organizations are currently ready to comply with the price transparency rule that is slated to go into effect on January 1, 2021.

Approximately 70% of hospital leaders expect to see an increase in self-pay patients due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Guidehouse Center for Health Insights analysis of a survey conducted by the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) released Wednesday morning.

Alongside an expected increase in Medicaid beneficiaries, health system executives predict that reimbursements from commercial insurers will slide.

Guidehouse's analysis underscores the ongoing budget challenges that hospital and health system leaders face because of the coronavirus outbreak.

"With health system margins primarily driven by elective services, the pandemic is gravely impacting provider revenue streams and payer mix," Timothy E. Kinney, partner at Guidehouse, said in a statement. "Healthcare leaders need to closely evaluate their payer mix and develop winning consumer experience strategies to overcome a slow recovery in patient volumes and an uptick in self-pay and Medicaid enrollees."

On the technology side, nearly all leaders said that their organizations have embraced telehealth to treat patients.

Additionally, nearly two-thirds of respondents said they have implemented financial counseling and payment plans, along with over half who have established patient portals to provide price estimates, to "better engage consumers."

Executives also pointed to a greater adoption of electronic health records (EHR) during the pandemic.

Over 40% said EHR adoption benefits are "outweighing challenges," nearly 70% said they "appropriately utilize available EHR functions," and 55% said they "adapted to functional releases," all of which marked increases compared to the results of the 2019 survey.

Only 12% of surveyed executives said their organizations are currently ready to comply with the price transparency rule that is slated to go into effect on January 1, 2021.

Almost 40% of respondents cited concerns about disclosing rates to "payers, media, and consumers" as the biggest obstacle to embracing the rule, while just over a quarter of respondents cited a lack of a data analytics infrastructure.

https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/finance/nearly-70-hospital-leaders-expect-increase-self-pay-due-covid