The Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council (MCHC), and doxo, today announced a new program to unify the patient financial experience by connecting multiple healthcare providers and insurers in one place, through the doxo digital file cabinet. This new program will dramatically reduce the complexity patients face when dealing with medical bills, payments, and Explanation of Benefits (EOBs).
Many of Chicago’s healthcare providers are already participating and connecting with patients through doxo, starting with eight Advocate Health Care Hospitals, Advocate Medical Group, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Rockford Health System, Rush-Copley Medical Center, University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System, and a regional insurance provider.
“One of the central challenges of healthcare is that patients need to deal with multiple providers and their health insurer for episodes of care. This new initiative tackles that head-on, by creating a coordinated financial and administrative experience across providers and health insurers on doxo,” said Carl Pellettieri, principal, Impact, a MCHC company. “For patients using doxo, medical bills are now received right alongside their health insurance EOBs, with tracking and organizational tools, which greatly simplifies the process. For our member providers, doxo dramatically improves patient convenience and lowers costs. Through doxo we’re setting a new standard for the way hospitals interact with their patients.”
To participate, patients simply set up their personal doxo digital file cabinet, and add each of their healthcare providers and insurers to their account. doxo is fully designed around patient privacy and HIPAA compliance to ensure health records are secure and confidential. The patient can then connect to other providers on doxo - similar to how people connect on Facebook or LinkedIn - to securely share a digital file drawer in the patients free doxo account.
"Healthcare bills can be difficult to navigate," said Richard Nagengast, the director of patient accounting at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial. "As part of our Patients First mission, we view it as our responsibility to help patients understand their statements and the billing process. Consolidating bills and records together with other healthcare providers and insurers through the doxo digital file cabinet allows us to deliver a significantly improved billing experience.”
By connecting on doxo, providers no longer mail paper documents. Rather, all account documents, statements, and bills are placed directly in the user’s doxo account; automatically organized and archived. For the first time, a patient’s medical bills are organized right alongside their associated insurance EOB’s, greatly simplifying the reconciliation process. In addition, patients can make medical or insurance payments, or set up auto-pay, using doxoPAY. Patients’ archived information can always be accessed through their doxo account online and on their iPhone or Androidsmartphone.
“Our patients increasingly must manage bills and documents across multiple family members and from a number of different healthcare providers,” said Rick Lyman, vice president revenue cycle, Advocate Health Care. “We want to make it easy to do business with us, and unifying the patient experience through doxo helps us do that. We are particularly pleased with the fact that our patients now can have their bills, EOBs, and other related records with them on their smartphones, so they’re right at hand if needed when they visit our care facilities.”