--- title: "Billing Experience: The Last Stop to a Positive Patient Encounter" description: Billing is the last touchpoint of the patient journey. After a bad billing experience, only 18% of patients who had good care kept a positive view overall. image: https://www.joshweidenfeller.com/hubfs/site-art/v3/og/card-billing-experience-wide.jpg --- [Skip to content](https://www.joshweidenfeller.com/insights/billing-experience#main) [Josh Weidenfeller](https://www.joshweidenfeller.com/) Menu - [Work](https://www.joshweidenfeller.com/work) - [The System](https://www.joshweidenfeller.com/system) - [Creative](https://www.joshweidenfeller.com/creative) - [Blog](https://www.joshweidenfeller.com/insights) - [About](https://www.joshweidenfeller.com/about) - [Contact](https://www.joshweidenfeller.com/contact) - [Résumé (PDF)](https://www.joshweidenfeller.com/hubfs/resume/Josh-Weidenfeller-Resume.pdf) [Start a conversation](https://www.joshweidenfeller.com/contact) [Blog](https://www.joshweidenfeller.com/insights) 4 min read # Billing Experience The Last Stop to a Positive Patient Encounter On this page *Originally published in 2024, while I was at NRC Health. Edited September 2026: statistics sourced and linked, two asides removed.* **Ease of payment in consumer transactions outside of healthcare is considered the norm, and an expectation. Anything other than an easy paying experience will decrease consumer loyalty, and risk tarnishing your brand. Why should healthcare see it any different?** Patient billing is often the last touchpoint of the patient journey — the last step for a patient before sharing their story with family and friends, or in an online review. In a care setting, billing experience should be an even bigger priority compared to the consumer world, but billing is often outsourced, or the hardest step in an otherwise positive patient experience. Imagine you’re receiving care, and you have had an amazing, quality experience with your care team. Everyone is giving you their full attention, answering all your questions, and really taking the time to fully understand you and your illness so that you can get back to being the best you. This positive experience then comes to a screeching halt after you are on your third phone call trying to find someone who can answer your questions or assist you with billing errors. Now you are on hold, listening to the same music for over an hour. After all is said and done, do you think the patient is still focused on how great of a care experience they just received? Best case scenario, the patient’s experience has been tarnished, but not completely ruined as they still value the care they received. They will go back to your system to receive care in the future but will always dread coming because they know how difficult the billing process is. Even more so, they will not be as big of a promoter of your brand as they would’ve been if their last consumer touchpoint was a positive one. Worst case scenario, you have lost a patient for life and possibly their friends and family. In fact, NRC Health research found that only 18% of patients who had a good care experience would come away with a positive overall perception of care if they had a bad experience with the billing and payment process ([NRC Health, November 2023](https://nrchealth.com/resource/full-report-broad-view-of-experience-payment/)). For such an important stage in the patient journey, why would you hand the keys over to a third-party organization, or a department not under your purview? Billing is the last patient touchpoint after they leave your facility and having a bad taste in your mouth because of billing will surely affect that patient’s health system of choice. In Cedar’s 2024 Healthcare Financial Experience Study, a survey of 1,239 U.S. consumers, 38% said they had switched healthcare providers because of a negative billing experience, and 47% said difficulty paying a healthcare bill had hurt their well-being or healing ([Cedar, September 2023](https://www.cedar.com/all-press/nearly-half-of-consumers-report-their-healing-has-been-directly-impacted-by-difficulty-paying-medical-bills)). That is a big chunk of patients leaving for non-clinical reasons. This starts to make even more sense when we look at how many hospitals are even in compliance with pricing transparency regulation. PatientRightsAdvocate.org’s February 2024 review found that only 34.5% of the 2,000 hospitals it examined were fully compliant with federal price transparency rules ([PatientRightsAdvocate.org, February 2024](https://www.patientrightsadvocate.org/semi-annual-report-feb2024)). This means that many health systems are not providing access to clear and accurate pricing information. CMS requires systems to provide a machine-readable file with all items and services, as well as a consumer-friendly display of services. When we look at the whole picture, it starts to make sense on why healthcare billing is an uphill battle for patients. Some patient experience teams have started to take control of this last touchpoint of the patient journey by capturing meaningful insights during the billing process. Teams are then able to successfully measure billing experiences, empowering them to drive process improvement through the consumer sentiment they receive. Others are using automated systems to catch patients with billing issues so that teams can follow up to answer questions and assist. Whether it’s listening to consumers throughout their billing experience, or by having a team dedicated to billing questions and disputes, it’s important to take ownership of the last stage of the patient’s experience. ## Sources - NRC Health. (2023, November 9). [*The “Ouch” Factor of Billing and Payment*](https://nrchealth.com/resource/full-report-broad-view-of-experience-payment/). - PatientRightsAdvocate.org. (2024, February). [*Sixth Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Report*](https://www.patientrightsadvocate.org/semi-annual-report-feb2024). - CMS.gov. (2023). *Hospital price transparency.* - Cedar. (2023, September 19). [*2024 Healthcare Financial Experience Study*](https://www.cedar.com/all-press/nearly-half-of-consumers-report-their-healing-has-been-directly-impacted-by-difficulty-paying-medical-bills) (press release; survey of 1,239 U.S. consumers, April and May 2023). ![](https://www.joshweidenfeller.com/hs-fs/hubfs/site-art/v3/josh-weidenfeller-headshot-square.jpeg?width=176&height=176&name=josh-weidenfeller-headshot-square.jpeg) Josh Weidenfeller I build demand generation for companies whose products are hard to sell: complex, RFP-driven, long sales cycles and buying committees. The work covers GTM strategy, revenue systems and pipeline reporting. 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