Attracting Patients via Narrow Networks
Narrow networks have surged in attempts for health plans and employers to tame rising healthcare costs. In many ways, patients negatively associate the phrase, “out-of-network” with arbitrary limitations of their choice. Frustrating, we’ve all felt it. How then can provider networks bolster their network and promote increased accessibility, care continuity, and ultimately the best quality of care to their patients?
Narrow network strategies, form a business perspective, often begin and end at the negotiation table. However, providers practicing within intelligent networks can pounce on the opportunity to better understand their patient population and tailor services to meet their patient’s needs, while sustaining solvency in turbulent times. A common example of this includes patient scheduling via referrals. Many Clinically Integration Networks (CINs) include a variety of independent practices and health systems that do not have centralized resources. As a result, patients and the front desk staff understand the inefficiencies within most referral/scheduling practices.
Though your relationship across practices and specialists likely exists on paper, leveraging this relationship so two disparate practices can align themselves in easing the referral scheduling proves difficult. Especially if you’d also like to inform the patient of this assistance. Patients always find out when two EHR’s don’t talk to each other, can your network find the time to market the benefit of a finely established relationship that eliminates duplicate imaging, lab testing, and visits?
These basic questions are rarely resolved by basic answers. Even when they do, many healthcare leaders often inflate the successfulness of their endeavors that may or may not impact the patient experience. So what can we do?
- Constant Contact. Ideally, you have a consistent and effective process in place to contact your patients. In an effective narrow network, your patients should be informed that you know who they are and what services you can offer them. Far too often patients are caught in a misaligned lack of understanding between their doctor, their insurance company, their pharmacy, and even hospital facility. Welcoming your attributed patients with prioritized information sharing will increase your ‘stick rate’ (Patient Loyalty). If you have a process, ensure you are using business intelligence to learn how successful it really is. If you don’t have a process as a network, make this an easy win and develop an outreach strategy.
- Expand your traditional strengths. Take time to ensure primary and follow-up care is available within your network and even consider focus groups to detect errors. Detect internally suggested avenues for improvement in patient scheduling, referring, and transferring of records from your front desk staff. They know their work best, and they have the keenest insight on your patient’s difficulties.
- Create and foster a practice transformation workgroup. Governance structures often spawn out of necessity, sometimes even legal necessity. Despite the obligatory yawn imposed by the phrase “workgroup,” make patient navigation your necessity. Assign leaders from within the network to develop clinical pathway initiatives that simply make more sense. This creates internal ownership and evolves into accountability and a well-understood pathway for other ideas to come to fruition.
- Go Get Easy Wins. Most CINs focus on ambitious contracting goals that undoubtedly take time. While these negotiations develop, aim for opportunities to satisfy membership quickly with patient-facing victories. Furnish and polish a few concepts that your membership is already considering and bring resources for those providers to appreciate. Creating just a few clinical practice adjustments will become contagious and open the possibility to create real local change.
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