Business Solutions: Improving Care Access with Third-Party Financing
Download MP3Well, hi, everyone. I'm Daniel Williams, senior editor at MGMA and host of the MGMA Podcast Network. We're back with a guest we've had on many times. That is Claude Royster, Vice President and General Manager of Health and Wellness at CareCredit and Synchrony. Claude, first of all, I just want to welcome you back to the show.
Daniel Williams:How are things going with you?
Claude Royster:Things are going very well. It's it's been a, busy start to the year. Everything's just moving very fast, but, pleasure to see you and pleasure to be here.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. We were talking offline. We talked previously when you when you were on the show. You are a true road warrior, but you said that it dialed back just a little bit, but it's about to ramp up again. I believe you were sharing that you're gonna be in Minneapolis at, MGMA's Private Practice Conference in June.
Daniel Williams:Is that correct?
Claude Royster:That is that is correct. And and a little bit about my background, I actually lived in Minnesota for about, twelve years working for a prior organization, but, it's been a while since I've been up there. So I'm looking forward to, you know, spending time with the conference, but also going back to a place at, at at one point I called home.
Daniel Williams:Okay. Now you have been on the show before, but it's always good. We never know if we'll get, new listeners that may not have heard, before. So just tell us, if you don't mind, just a little bit about your background and then what you're doing there at CareCredit and Synchrony right now.
Claude Royster:Absolutely. So for the audience, again, my name is Claude Royster. I have been in the consumer finance industry now for about thirty five years in a variety of different, leadership roles, sales operations, merchant experience, etc. I'm currently with, Jeff Credit and Synchrony right now. I've been in this, this part of the business for about five years.
Claude Royster:And my responsibility is is basically I provide, oversight of over 40 different industries in the healthcare space. And my goal is to work with providers, multi specialty physician groups, and come up with innovative solutions that are going to help them in their practices and their facilities to help patients get the care they need when they need
Daniel Williams:Perfect. Yeah. And our main theme today is navigating health care cost, evaluating that those in house financing plans and third party partners. And so that really sets the stage for where we are with our discussion. So with that said, what are the trends you're seeing right now around rising costs and how they're impacting patients?
Claude Royster:Absolutely. So, I I did you know, we just talked a little bit about, you know, some of the macro effects, but if you, if you drill a little bit further and understand what's happening with the patients, there's some interesting statistics. We, we, periodically, we go out and do some surveys and research, And some of the I'll just share some of the comments that we have found, some of the research we found. One out of every two consumers, report that they have delayed care that they need due to cost. Over fifty percent said that they struggle with paying for the, for their cost because of some of the out of pocket medical expenses, deductibles, things like that.
Claude Royster:And three out of four said that they, they would pursue additional medical services if they had the means to pay for them. So when you when you bottle that up, you think about some of the the sentiments from consumers. Financial discussions play a large part in when they get care, perhaps where they get care, and the timing of all that. So, again, we are are my responsibility is to work with the providers to ensure that they are taking time to have those discussions, educate the patients, whether it's, you know, you're an in network, out of network. What does that mean to you financially?
Claude Royster:And and here are ways that you can get this care by thinking about the financial of taking that off of their plate and focusing more on the care that they need.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. What are you hearing then from providers about what they're seeing specifically when it comes to barriers around care financing? What's going on in that space?
Claude Royster:It's really just it's education and and ensuring that they understand the options that they have. There are, you know and as as the as the industry evolves, you know, we're trying to digitize how we do business with providers to make it seamless, make it frictionless, make sure they understand how it benefits them from a practice perspective. And and so it's it's really important for us to not only focus on the patient but also the provider and how we can help them alleviate some of the administrative costs associated with providing care to to to patients and you know, many of them have taken on the responsibility of doing in house financing or in house billing. You know, we're a bank and and and we lend money and we collect money, non recourse. We would like to be that partner with the providers to ensure that they can focus on delivering care.
Claude Royster:They can focus on making sure that that patient is comfortable and and getting the care that they need while we focus on the administration need to ensure that those customers have the ability to meet those financial needs related to the care that they receive and it meant frees up, you know, receivables and things like that for the providers so that they can really truly focus on the patient experience and the outcomes, and we can focus on the, you know, financial side of things.
Daniel Williams:Right. We know that demand for health and wellness care is rising. We have an aging population. There is a need for that. So talk about that in house financing.
Daniel Williams:You brought that up previous. You just a moment ago brought up in house financing. So talk about how our providers can optimize that for spreading out cost over time, how it can make their businesses more efficient, more profitable from a financial standpoint.
Claude Royster:Abs absolutely. And and and I can't stress enough how important it is to have that conversation early in the patient journey as opposed to on the end of the patient journey. Because it it gets it it takes the the burden and the ease off the patient to make those decisions and convert more patients to get the care that they need right away. When when it when you when you think about the, you know, some of some of the trends that you've seen in some of the benchmarking, there's, you know, there's an additional burden that's placed on the the health systems and and and practices when you have to collect monies and the additional expense that you will incur by trying, you know, working with third parties and and trying to collect on receivables based on what you're you're allowing patients to finance through the through the practice. That that could become an additional burden with all the the the challenges that the the health systems and the practices have as far as staffing.
Claude Royster:You know, just burnout and things like that. Financing can certainly enable that and or certainly help to eliminate some of those strains because we're we're providing an easier way for patients to be able to get the care that they need and, you know, those additional overhead costs related to, you know, having the staff, having to pay for third party vendor to collect. Those monies can be incorporated into potentially adding more staff so you can see more patients and provide more care. So, we try to think about this from a big picture perspective. It's not just about, you know, financing.
Claude Royster:We wanna make sure that our practices have the tools that they need to be able to care for the patients that are coming in to see them on a day to day basis.
Daniel Williams:Okay. I'm trying to get my head around it. I've, obviously financed a few cars over time. So Yeah. I've been on that side of it.
Daniel Williams:But when we're talking about these providers, what are some of the solutions they're looking for? And what are some of the ones that CareCredit's providing for them to make their lives easier in in the fact of running their business?
Claude Royster:Absolutely. So so one of the things that, we have, really focused on and and we're investing in is working with third party, you know, ISVs. And those are those are those are companies you think about the epics of the world or Salud Bros. We try to partner with these companies because they provide a platform that helps facilitate a lot of the transactional services for the patients as well as the providers. You know, they have provider facing, websites.
Claude Royster:They have patient facing portals where the patient can go in and pay their bills. One of the things that we look to do is we try to integrate our solution into those platforms. So, when an administrator is working with a patient and they are focused on, you know, how are we going to pay for this bill now? We are integrated into those platforms so that the patient can can use their CareCredit card to make those transactions seamlessly and first just frictionlessly through those platforms. So, that's just one of the many ways that we try to help support the providers by plugging into platforms that they're already using and just creating additional utility by adding CareCredit to that menu of options for patients to be able to pay.
Daniel Williams:Okay. Now you've talked about third party financing options a couple of times already, so let's go down that road a little bit. What are some of the benefits that providers should be aware of? What are some of the options that they have when they utilize that third party financing?
Claude Royster:So I I think the biggest thing is is is convenience, and conversion. And convenience meaning that, a very simple, easy way for for patients to be able to pay for the care that they need, whether it's to a they can do it from their phone. They can do it from their keyboards. Again, working with ISDs. If you're doing, pre, you know, if we're plugged in with a, a company that does appointment setting, we can actually facilitate payment before.
Claude Royster:So it takes some of that administrative burden off when someone has to come into the office and they have to collect payment prior to services being rendered. So, the ease of use is in in in the convenience of that allows the administrators and the doctors and, and nurse practitioners to be able to focus on the patient. It also, you know, and and and that also helps with savings. You know, we can help the practices save money because anytime we have a patient who decides that they're not going to get the care because they're worried about cost, that's revenue. That's that's revenue that won't be collected from the practice.
Claude Royster:And then on the back end, you think about, the collection services and, you know, the those balances start to roll and potentially become bad debt. You know, that's a that's a that's a financial burden for practices. So, the earlier you can work with patients and collect that money, the more savings you're gonna get that's gonna help your your PNL. So, we try to help educate practices and make sure that things are frictionless and really try to adopt CareCredit earlier in the process so that they can benefit on the back end by, one, patients having good outcomes, patients being satisfied, and then being able to pay directly to CareCredit, as opposed to the doctors trying to collect on the fees.
Daniel Williams:Okay. Couple of questions in before we sign off. I'd really like to talk about something we've talked about previously, and that's about having those transparent financial conversations with patients. When the providers are in that situation, is there coaching? Is there any tools, scripts, anything that CareCredit can provide them with so they can have more comfortable transparent conversations?
Daniel Williams:Because those can be a little bit tricky to navigate. So where can y'all come in, provide some coaching, some guidance to have those transparent financial conversations?
Claude Royster:Absolutely. First and foremost, we we have a lot of educational materials out on our website, CareCredit.com, w w w CareCredit Com. And and you can find a host of different information on having the financial conversation, understanding payment options. One of our val val props is deferred interest, payment options. So they use the analogy of, you know you know, you bought a car or you bought a piece of furniture.
Claude Royster:Deferred interest financing simply allows patients to buy, pay over time, and if they're on a twelve month, what we call deferred interest, if they pay that full balance in full at the end of the the twelve months, the interest that has been accruing will be waived. So, you've essentially financed the product, and not have to pay any interest on that. So that's a savings to that to that patient. So it's so it's it's it's important to make sure that our doctors and and practices understand how to have that conversation, how to explain how deferred interest works when payments start. And a lot of these tools are not only at the fingertips of the practice but they're at the fingertips of the patient so that they can see that.
Claude Royster:And and understand the different options that they have when they're deciding on getting care that they need. So it it it's very important that we we we continually try to share that information and we communicate out to our practices on the different tools that they have, right at the fingertip. There are tools that we push out that explain promotional financing. We explain some of the research that we have that that really help understand how patients are viewing some of the options that they have or in some cases, some of the mis conceptions. You know, trying to explain to patients, you know, there's a difference in cost between in network and out of network, understanding your deductibles as a result of where you choose to get the care that you need.
Claude Royster:And then, we can talk about, okay, there's care credit, and there's options that you can use to get that care through this financing tool.
Daniel Williams:What have we not talked about here that's on top of mind for you? You as we've talked about it, you are a financial road warrior out there. You hit a lot of the conferences and things. You're hearing from those providers directly. Mhmm.
Daniel Williams:What would you like to share with us to our listeners before we sign off today?
Claude Royster:Yeah. I I think that the main thing I would say is, again, I I I think that our our capabilities, our financial products, and and suite of products are very valid and valuable options that should be incorporated into those financial discussions. We we strive to continually make these products better, more efficient, and allow practices to focus on the care that they need to get the patient and allow us to be the experts in, you know, lending money and collecting money. But we are you know, we've been doing this for thirty five years in this space starting in the dental space, and we've expanded into, a variety of other industries. But the reality is, you know, we're in a we're in a we're in an interesting time right now, and I think that everyone's feeling the strain in some form or fashion when it comes to cost, when it comes to what do some of the things that are happening macroeconomically mean to them.
Claude Royster:We may not feel it now. We may feel it tomorrow, and it's going to affect decisions that we make, particularly in the health and wellness space, on whether we're going to get care. We want to make sure that CareCredit is in the forefront of those conversations as well because we don't want patients to devalue the care that they want to get or delay or postpone because they're concerned about cost. And that's where we come in. So we want to make sure that we're providing financial options that are, going to allow patients to make good decisions without overburdening them financially, but most importantly, taking care of their health.
Daniel Williams:Okay. Well, Claude Royster, thank you for joining us again on the MGMA podcast.
Claude Royster:Thank you for having me.
Daniel Williams:Appreciate You got it. So we've been talking to Claude Royster. He's vice president and general manager of health and wellness at CareCredit and Synchrony. And we're going to provide direct links to some of their research so you can click right to it, learn more about what they're doing. Until then, I wanna thank all of you for being MGMA podcast listeners.
