Kareo Wraps Up Last Day of Summit with More Presentations to Help Billing Companies Thrive

Day two of Kareo Live: Billing Company Success Summit is wrapping up and it has been a busy day! 

The topics ranged from a panel discussion on how to optimize patient collections to a fireside chat with CEO Dan Rodrigues about Kareo’s recent 2021 State of the Independent Report, to an inspirational talk from chief happiness officer Tia Graham on the benefits of promoting a happy workplace.

Other morning sessions for the summit’s last day included Reporting Tips and Tricks and Customer Education Updates and Best Practices. The last session in the afternoon will be a roundup of the Latest Federal Policies Impacting the Healthcare RCM Industry and the afternoon will end with an awards ceremony.

Here are some highlights from three of the morning sessions:

Session: Panel Discussion on Optimizing Patient Collections to Increase Your Bottom Line

d’Artagnan Osborne, General Manager and VP, Payment Solutions, led the patient collections discussion and stressed the importance it has on the independent practice of today.

With the rise in patient responsibility, d’Artagnan shared some interesting facts about the current patient collections landscape. The first point nearly took the audience’s breath away: patients owe $350 billion in healthcare bills.

He shared other interesting facts:

• Average healthcare costs up are 4.1% since 2019
• The average deductible was $1,644 in 2020
• Contactless payments are on the rise and expected to generate over $220 billion in transaction value in the United States by 2023
• Kareo found that 95% of SMS messages are opened within the first few minutes of receipt

d’Artagnan stressed that practice workflows need to offer patients a convenient payment process so the billing company can collect balances as efficiently as possible. This led into a panel discussion with the Patient Collect team and Kareo customers Brittany Lawler, ABS Solutions; Caroline Balestra, Health Prime; and Amy Gardiner, Multi-Medi Specialties. The panel discussed the challenges billing companies face and the technology solutions they use to optimize the collections process.

Session: Insights from Kareo’s 2021 State of the Independent Practice Report

Kareo CEO Dan Rodrigues and Dr. Dee Warmath, an assistant professor of consumer economics at the University of Georgia, sat down for a fireside chat to discuss some key data points that emerged from Kareo’s recent State of the Independent Practice Survey and Report. Dr. Warmath and her research team of graduate students – Camden Cusumano and Evan Pearre – analyzed the data for Kareo and co-wrote the report, which is available for download here.

Rodrigues and Dr. Warmath discussed three key themes and others that emerged from the data.

Here are the highlights:

• The independent practice is not closing or joining hospital groups in big numbers. Even with a worldwide pandemic, providers feel optimistic about their practice and their industry.
• Telehealth is here to stay and providers are seeing the many ways it benefits them and their patients. However, providers are concerned about getting paid as the government regulations for telehealth are evolving and providers need to keep up.
• Independent practices now see the patient as a consumer and are moving toward a more consumer-centric patient experience. They now offer conveniences the patient sees in other industries, such as multiple ways to pay, patient portals, online scheduling, and text communications.

Session: Happiness is Your Superpower 

The morning sessions wrapped up with a motivational talk from Tia Graham, chief happiness officer and author of the soon-to-be-published book, Be a Happy Leader. She shared with the audience the positive impact of having happy employees and a positive work culture. What kind of impact? According to Graham, employees who experience happiness on a regular basis are more motivated, productive, and loyal.

So, happiness can benefit an organization, but how does it benefit individuals? Graham said studies show that happy people in general have a better mindset, increased levels of physical health and longevity, more positive relationships, and greater resilience when faced with life’s challenges.

And while no one is saying people need to be happy all the time, Graham pointed out that encouraging employees to find their inner happiness can result in a more connected team at work, happier customers who enjoy working with your employees (and the results they get from them), and an environment that fosters innovation and creativity. Her top two tips for promoting happiness in the workplace were:
 

• Remind employees that happiness is a choice and to choose happiness behaviors daily; and
• Help employees to see the meaning of their work life and the value they bring to their coworkers, leadership, and company.

I caught up with some attendees of Graham's lively session and they all echoed the same sentiment - Graham did a great job talking about happiness and the importance of social connection - which was especially appreciated after coming out of isolation from the pandemic.

In fact, when I asked other success summit attendees on why they return to our event each year - they often cited their number one reason was for the in-person networking with other billing company representatives and Kareo employees. Now we know that gathering together each year  is not only good for their billing company businesses, but contributes to their overall happiness! 

If you are a billing company interested in seeing how Kareo can help you take your business to the next level, visit us here to see what we can offer you!