Population Health: How community benefit enrollment programs are crucial to patient-centered care

When we think about population health, our aim is to understand and address the medical needs of a specific group of individuals in order to improve conditions and access to care. Essentially, we’re looking to allocate appropriate resources to overcome barriers to patient solutions that may affect populations defined by geography, age range, race, socioeconomic status, or other determining factors. This brings into focus our underinsured and uninsured patient populations.

Across the country, insufficiently insured patients may be unable to afford care, risking their own health as they delay or avoid treatments. In some cases, people may not even realize that programs are available to offer affordable healthcare services. In addition to the plight of these patients, hospitals may also miss out on revenue as potential patients forego medical care.

A vast number of obstacles may stand in the way of patients signing up for affordable care, from cumbersome state regulatory processes and laborious screening/application proceedings, to lack of available resources to inform the public on how to seek coverage. At times, it may be that local health systems are unable to adequately present patients with the opportunity to enroll in helpful programs due to staffing shortages, high team turnover, absence of proper training, inefficient workflows, or lack of procedural standardization.

No matter the underlying reason, failure to address population health concerns can have catastrophic financial effects on a healthcare organization’s ability to serve its community including:

• - High bad debt for hospitals
• - Missed revenue due to avoidable uncompensated care and charity care
• - Fines and recoupments (regulatory compliance risks and ensuing penalties)
• - Low patient satisfaction scores and ratings

The Savista team is here to help your hospital or healthcare organization meet your patients’ needs promptly and effectively, creating positive, customer-focused experiences for incoming patients and simultaneously generating opportunities to accelerate cash flow. While hospitals in rural areas with noticeable staffing issues may be most at risk, poor population health exists in portions of all 50 states and no hospital is immune to its effects.

Our Eligibility & Enrollment Services will help your patients and staff address hospital visits that have already taken place as well as prepare for future visits before they occur. We’re now identifying community benefit enrollment programs to aide and support social determinants of health. If we can identify and combat population health risks before they manifest into critical conditions, we can enable simpler and more cost-effective treatment plans.

Moreover, Savista focuses on patients’ ability to maintain coverage throughout recurring enrollment deadlines, ensuring that patients sustain their benefits for the long term. We offer assistance with renewal applications and support for patients who become ineligible unexpectedly.

Our Eligibility & Enrollment Services will allow you to:

Reduce Uncompensated Care: We manage over 18+ federal, state, county, and third-party payor enrollment programs, and will use the most advanced technology available to meet the needs of our clients. Our experienced, certified, and highly trained colleagues will perform screenings and assist with applications, serving patients using a number of means including onsite support, virtual visits, telescreening services, letter/email outreach and field visit/courier services.

Enhance the Patient Experience: We maintain consistent communication and employ patient-friendly screening tools to serve and engage with patients no matter where they are. Our teams will also stay abreast of new developments and provide proactive solutions to prevent negative impacts.

Rely on a Trusted Partner: Patient engagement is our primary focus, and our model of support extends well beyond a traditional focus on applying for Medicaid coverage. We establish lasting partnerships with our clients as we collaborate to develop new patient-centric programs and optimize patient accounting system processes.