Consumers are Unaware of Available Financial Assistance for Medical Bills

Almost two-thirds of consumers do not know if their physicians or hospitals offer financial resources such as payment plans or financial assistance programs to help cover medical bills, according to a survey conducted by YouGov commissioned by AKASA.

The survey reflects responses from 2,026 individuals gathered between March 9 and March 14, 2022.

High healthcare prices and limited price transparency from providers and hospitals can lead to substantial barriers to care for Americans. Payment plans and financial assistance offered by healthcare facilities can help mitigate these struggles and reduce medical debt for individuals.

However, many people are unaware that their providers offer this assistance.

When survey respondents were asked if they knew if their physician or hospital offered payment plans or financial assistance, 64 percent said they did not know. Moreover, 80 percent of uninsured Americans said they didn’t know about financial resources offered by their providers.

These findings indicate that patients may be underutilizing available financial assistance because of a lack of awareness.

“Improving the patient financial experience in healthcare is one area that continues to lag behind other industries,” Amy Raymond, vice president of revenue cycle operations at AKASA, said in a press release.
“If the reactive nature of medical billing continues to be the status quo, patients can miss out on opportunities to prevent medical debt, which creates unnecessary hardship.”

“As hospitals and healthcare systems continue to grapple with slim profit margins, workforce shortages, rising denials, and a high cost-to-collect, they must prioritize the patient financial experience and rethink medical billing and revenue cycle as a front-end, patient advocacy function rather than a reactive, back-end process.”

The survey also found that limited price transparency influenced respondents’ decisions on whether to seek care in the first place.

More than a third of Americans (35 percent) said they would be deterred from pursuing necessary care if they were unaware of prices for the services ahead of time. In addition, respondents said not knowing healthcare prices would keep them from seeking care for a dependent (18.3 percent) or a parent or guardian (20 percent).

When patients do choose to receive necessary care, they can be saddled with high medical bills that can be confusing to navigate. According to data from TransUnion Healthcare, the number of patient financial assistance transactions increased by 55 percent between September 2020 and September 2021. Experts said that poor hospital billing practices may have contributed to this growth.

Financial assistance can help patients avoid high medical debt. Four in ten adults have debt caused by medical or dental bills, nearly half of whom owe $2,500 or more, Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) data found.

Healthcare providers can help improve the patient financial experience by shifting to digital payment methods, increasing flexibility around patient finances, and prioritizing price transparency.