Patient Access 2018
A Deeper Dive Into Broad Adoption

For most vendors, limited-adopter customers are still slightly more satisfied than broad adopters. The exception is Experian Health, whose broad-adopter customers are nearly 20% more satisfied overall than their limited-adopter counterparts. Experian’s solution is designed to be workflow driven, enhancing the experience of broad adopters, who, compared to limited adopters, receive better training, are more satisfied with the attention and service they receive from Experian, and more often feel the product has needed functionality. Limited adopters’ poor service experience drags down Experian’s overall score; these customers report poor ticket resolution, lack of follow-up, and difficulty getting ahold of the vendor.

Recondo Technology Leads the Way in Automated Preauthorizations

Across vendors, automated preauthorizations are difficult and slow to develop and deploy. Recondo Technology stands out with 80% of interviewed broad-adopter customers using automated preauthorizations (almost double the market average). As the first vendor to use web bots to scan payer websites for needed information, Recondo led the market in advancing preauthorizations. Compared to other vendors’ customers, Recondo customers using automated preauthorization functionality tend to have been using their solution longer and have it more fully set up, although they are not immune to common functionality challenges.

When customers struggle to get accurate estimates, they are less likely to report that their system has a highly positive impact on patients. Recondo Technology falls behind all other vendors in impact on patients, staff, and billing (latter two discussed below). Specifically regarding patient impact, Recondo has the lowest percentage of customers reporting a highly positive impact. Though these customers do report a slightly positive impact overall, they express less enthusiasm about their solution than other vendors’ customers, giving fewer specifics about how it has positively impacted patients or benefited their organization (accurate estimates, increased point-of-service collections, less rescheduling, etc.). Other vendors’ customers, such as Experian Health’s, are more likely to tell detailed patient success stories when talking about the impact of their solution on patients.

Often employees resist a new patient access solution at first, but initial pushback is not an indication of long-term negative impact on staff. DCS Global’s customers in particular see that resistance tends to fade with time: one-third of the broad adopters KLAS spoke with report their staff initially struggled with the solution or was hesitant to use a new, unfamiliar workflow, but 100% of respondents report that over time, the staff experience became positive. Regardless of vendor, respondents say staff satisfaction is driven by having needed functionality and having quality, comprehensive training from knowledgeable trainers (through the vendor or the provider organization).

Regardless of vendor, many interviewed organizations don’t see a clear connection between their patient access system and back-end billing and report no impact on billing processes. Those who more readily make the connection tend to report a highly positive impact. Change Healthcare is the only vendor with all interviewed customers reporting a positive impact on back-end billing. Other vendors’ customers mostly report a positive impact, with a small handful reporting a negative impact or no impact. Change Healthcare customers praise the solution’s registration process and up-front collections, which help smooth out back-end billing. Customers also say system alerts about potential billing problems are helpful and reduce back-end billing issues, even if the comprehensiveness of these alerts can be an annoyance.