The hidden cost of health care automation

“Revenue cycle management” is a term we hear routinely in health care. Chances are strong you’re very familiar with it. Essentially, revenue cycle management companies follow a patient through their health care journey to help providers track everything from patient experience to insurance claims and collections. Their value proposition is that they’ll help you run your health care practice more smoothly.

The reality tends to play out much differently.

I’ve been running my area’s leading ophthalmology practice for nearly 30 years, and I see it almost weekly now: The moment an address I’ve been mailing payments to for years changes to a lockbox service or a new P.O. box in Dallas, New York, or Chicago, I know immediately that my experience is about to change, and usually not for the better.

This is a telltale sign that the company got rid of its accounts receivable team and outsourced that work. Now? My team has suddenly become their accounting department.

For us, a vendor making the “simple” change to a revenue cycle management company directly correlates with thousands, if not tens of thousands, of additional emails in our inboxes a month. Instead of a single monthly statement, we’re now receiving five to six individual invoices for a single pair of glasses. Multiply that by the 100,000 pairs we sell every year, and by the hundreds of vendors we work with, and I’m sure you can imagine that this creates some pretty overwhelming situations for our team. What simplified things for a vendor has shifted a manageable process into an operational nightmare for us, their client.

I’m talking primarily about eye care operations here, but this same scenario can be applied to all kinds of health care verticals. The long and short of it is that automated systems, when implemented too quickly, may be causing unintended consequences for the people relying on certain services.

Modernization matters. But we can’t automate the human element out of the customer experience and expect our businesses to thrive. Conversely, here are a few ways to approach technology adoption in a way that balances the critical relationship component many of these systems overlook.

1. Remember that humans still want to deal with humans. Yes, there are times it’s great to be able to pay a bill online or with a QR code. But when an issue arises, there needs to be a path to a solution. If your customers can’t easily connect with your human team, you’re going to lose them eventually.

2. Don’t “just do the math.” There are professionals and models out there that will tell you it doesn’t even matter if you lose 10 percent of your customers because you’re saving so much in efficiency elsewhere. But in my experience, making long-term decisions based on short-term numbers is always a losing strategy. Also consider the multiplier effect of 10 percent of your former customer base telling their friends, family, coworkers, Reddit users, and others why they no longer do business with you.

3. View negative feedback as a courtesy. Most people who have a negative experience with your practice won’t call you, email you, or leave a negative Google review. Most of them will just disappear. If someone shares a negative experience with you, take the time to really consider what they’re saying. There’s a very good chance others are having the same experience but didn’t take the time to share.

4. Be in contact with customers. It’s critical to stay in contact with your patients, particularly during times of change. Give them a call, text, email, or all three. Ask them how things are going. You know who your patients are, so be sure you also know what they’re experiencing as a result of your operational changes.

5. Simplify the experience: don’t shift the work to your patients. Right now, automation often just transfers labor. If your “efficiency” creates more work on the other end, that’s not streamlining. It’s cost shifting. Before implementing any system, ask: Does this make life easier for the people who depend on my services? Or does it just make operations cheaper for me?

Keeping patients means prioritizing customer service

When you build a practice, you spend years earning trust, one referral or good interaction at a time. It’s surprisingly easy to chip away at that trust in the name of efficiency.

Over the long term, whether that’s the next visit or the next year, you’re either making it easier for people to stay with you or easier for them to choose someone else. What feels like convenience on your end may feel like frustration on theirs. Patients always get the final vote. And they vote with their wallet.

If you’re building a practice that’s meant to last, don’t forget how hard it was to earn that patient in the first place. Sure, it’s important to modernize. So do your part to improve. Streamline where it makes sense.

Just don’t automate the relationship out of the equation.

Ray Mays is the CEO at Eye Centers of Tennessee.