Why Patients Want to Pre-Check & 2 Steps High-Growth Practices Take

The ability to pre-register for appointments, ahead of their office visits, has become a top requirement that patients are looking for from their healthcare providers. A recent study shows nearly 50% of today’s patients want the ability to check-in or complete health forms before arriving. Our customers, specialty healthcare practices, hospitals and health systems, are seeing similar trends from their patients. In one month alone, one million patients used Clearwave to self-register for their appointments. Of those patients, over 500,000 pre-registered for their appointment, making it over half of our customer’s patients. Spot on with the national survey. 

In recent months, the number of patients using Clearwave to complete pre-check increased by 15%, with the numbers continuing to trend upward. What does this trend mean for your high-growth practice? 

Providing patients with the ability to pre-register for their appointments and self-check-in at the office drives patient loyalty and practice revenue. See how and why it’s time to adjust your approach accordingly. 

1. Provide Pre-Check & Self-Registration to Increase Patient Loyalty

Patients of all ages, including baby boomers, have become accustomed to using kiosks and pre-registration solutions to check-in for a flight, order a meal or register at other specialty practices. They understand the benefits that come with self-registering at their healthcare provider’s office, like: 

• Shorter wait times 
• Easier ability to update their data 
• Private and simple payment options 

With these benefits, it’s not surprising that patient adoption of self-registration and completion of pre-check has increased significantly. Recent studies prove these assumptions true, with 68% of patients considering a fast check-in process as important to their in-office experience. Additionally, 79% of patients place importance on timeliness and wait time when deciding to see the same doctor. 

What does this mean for your practice?  

When patients are accustomed to the ease and privacy of self-registration, interactions without these benefits will stand out to patients. They’ll further remember long wait times or when they were awkwardly asked to make a payment in front of a long line of patients. Regardless of the care your physicians provide, these situations can cause a rift with your patients, which can significantly impact your patient retention rate and reputation management.  

Recommended Next Steps to Boost Patient Loyalty and Positive Reviews 

Meet your patients where they are by implementing simple and fast patient self-registration solutions, like pre-check links sent with reminders and check-in kiosks in your office. This step can help you streamline the registration process for your patients, providing them with the experiences they’ve come to expect from their healthcare providers. As a result, patients will leave positive reviews about their in-office experience and wait times will drop while your point-of-service payments increase!  

Real-World Example: 96% Patient Utilization of Self-Registration 

Practice Administrator at Cary Dermatology, Mary Ann McNeill, recently shared how their growing practice implemented self-registration and drives 96% patient adoption, despite having an elderly patient base. Today, their practice has increased positive patient reviews, while also speeding up collections and check-in times. Hear their full story in this conversation or read the summary here. 

2. Use Pre-Check & Self-Registration to Boost Patient Revenue

Patient adoption of self-registration solutions, like pre-registration with clinical intake and check-in kiosks, also benefit your practice’s ability to collect more and get paid faster. High-growth practices are able to improve data capture by having patients review and update their data personally, rather than via paper clipboards that require manual staff transfer or through face-to-face interaction with staff.  

McNeill from Cary Dermatology shares, “It is shocking how many patients were not listening to us when we were asking the questions verbally. They were telling us their information hadn’t changed, but when it came time to verify their insurance or mail bills later on, we would see our information wasn’t accurate. Patient self-registration has improved our data accuracy, we’re able to file their insurance and get paid faster.” 

What does this mean for your practice? 

With a self-registration solution that automatically captures and reconciles patient data into your PMS/EHR, you can ensure you have accurate information for cleaner and faster claims processing. This step speeds up your revenue cycle and reduces costs associated with claims rejections. Additionally, with new and existing patients completing pre-check, including clinical intake, ahead of their arrival, you can significantly reduce patient wait times and the crowd in your waiting room. 

Self-registration solutions also offer a private way for patients to review their co-pays and past-due balances, enabling them to make payments right from the kiosk or via their mobile phone. As a result, you reduce the staff burden of asking for payment and ensure that every patient is prompted to make a payment at check-in, which drives immediate improvements to collections and cash flow.  

Streamlining your registration process removes the tedium of staff checking in hundreds of patients a day or manually entering data into your PMS, helping you reduce churn and hiring expenses as you boost collections. 

Recommended Next Steps to Boost Patient Revenue 

Give your practice an automated solution to improve claims processing and increase collections, by implementing patient check-in kiosks and pre-registration.  High-growth practices use proven patient self-check-in systems to tailor their automated workflows to meet provider needs, speed up throughput, capture cleaner data, complete clinical intake and ultimately — boost revenue! 

Real-World Example: 112% Increase in Point-of-Service Collections 

Mann Eye Institute saw a 112% increase in point-of-service collections after implementing self-registration solutions into their practice. This ophthalmology practice uses targeted patient check-in workflows to not just boost collections, but also increase awareness and interest in premium services without increasing ad spend. See how in this conversation and read their full story here for insights you can leverage at your practice. 

Boost Patient Revenue & Retention with a Proven Self-Registration Platform

Providing patients with self-registration and pre-check options will help you increase retention and revenue. Competitive, high-growth practices are seeing this success firsthand, getting paid faster while fueling patient retention and positive reviews. 

Clearwave has proven time and again to be the Patient Revenue Platform™ for high-growth practices. See how you can leverage Clearwave to accelerate your success. Let’s get you paid!