Despite the relatively complex, interdependent spheres of patient needs, provider services, and payment structures, the healthcare industry is among the most widely used ecosystems. However, healthcare use and spending dropped significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic due to cancellations of elective care to increase hospital capacity, as well as the implementation of social distancing measures to reduce the community spread of the coronavirus.

While telemedicine use has expanded significantly, the easing of lockdowns saw a rebound for in-person care, as demand for office, hospital, and lab services resumed. Furthermore, the pandemic served as an accelerant to the growing trend of patients truly becoming healthcare consumers, with more demand for convenience, communication, and choice from their providers and payers.

While industries such as retail and telecommunications have been transitioning to a more customer-centric mindset, healthcare has lagged behind, largely due to the challenges of balancing communication and transparency with patient privacy and adherence to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). By and large, consumers do not fully understand the terminology and processes used to manage the care delivery and payment system.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) defines health literacy as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information needed to make appropriate health decisions.” A survey conducted in 2020 by United HealthGroup found that health literacy varied greatly by county; in the best performing counties, just 15% to 27% of the population had limited health literacy, compared to 36% to 59% in the lowest performing counties.

As a result, providers and payers can take several steps to make it easier for patients to shop for healthcare and interact with the system:

• Implement price transparency tools that clearly indicate to patients how much their healthcare will cost them before receiving it.
• Provide additional patient navigation tools to help patients identify the proper department or tool to use when searching for or selecting care options.
• Provide more patient-centric engagement center tools and services that account for the complicated nature of healthcare topics and the payment system.

Perhaps the biggest step healthcare providers can take to improve the patient—or customer—experience is to build trust. This can be accomplished by demonstrating empathy for the patient and their unique situation, offering information in a transparent and accurate manner, and being available to answer their questions through multiple channels, including self-service and via live, human agents.

By serving as a trusted advisor, healthcare companies can not only ensure their patients are efficiently using the resources available to them, but can also help develop a deeper level of engagement with patients. This is particularly important in an era when patients have a greater level of choice in selecting a provider for routine care, as well as for higher-value activities, such as birth care, disease management, and elective surgery. Some healthcare organizations and providers have taken note and have already implemented technology tools designed to improve the patient care experience. For example, many providers are using text messages to reach out to remind patients about appointments, while others have developed mobile applications that allow patients to schedule and manage appointments, connect with their doctor, receive laboratory results, and manage their co-pays and billing arrangements. Still others are using automated, intelligent bots to answer frequently asked care questions, freeing up live agents to handle more complex inquiries or patient-specific questions.