One of the largest integrated health systems in Illinois, Endeavor Health (formerly Northshore Edward-Elmhurst Health) encompasses Edward Hospital, Elmhurst Hospital, and Linden Oaks Behavioral. Primarily supporting the suburbs of Chicago, their more than 50 outpatient locations assist nearly 1.7 million residents.
To serve such a large population, Endeavor Health employs nearly 7,700 employees and 1,700 volunteers, 1,900 physicians on staff covering 100 medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties. Recognizing that delivering high-quality care extends to the financial experience and that patients today have many options for their care, Endeavor Health chose to partner with Flywire to deliver the financial experience its patients deserve.
Data drives how we come up with payment plans and include patients’ history and their propensity to pay. We try to make it very personal to the individual patient.
Vision for the future
Realizing that Americans are looking for more affordable and digital payment options from their health systems, Endeavor Health wanted to bring ease and fairness into the financial experience by leveraging data and analytics to fuel a financial experience that drives greater transparency into the financial process and offers each patient a unique payment option so that no patient ever needs to put off care.
As they outlined the scope of their project, key areas they were looking to impact were:
- Consolidate statements for clarity and to better enable action
- Deliver affordable solutions to patients in need
- Leverage payment technology to complement the MyChart experience
Payment technology to complement the MyChart experience
A pure Epic shop, MyChart is the centralized experience for patients in the Endeavor Health ecosystem. Because each patient journey is driven through MyChart, Endeavor Health wanted to make sure that any technology partner they integrated into this journey would not be disruptive but rather would maintain the integrity of that seamless experience while providing the additional benefits they were seeking.
It was Flywire’s EHR agnostic stance and its prior history with implementing Epic clients that assured Endeavor Health that they had chosen the right partner for this project. In partnering with Flywire, Endeavor Health wanted to make it as easy as possible for patients to use the experience without having the need to click in or keep passwords to separate logins.
"We want to be pure Epic, but also want tools like Flywire that will help augment what Epic does," said Greg Arnold, System VP of Revenue Cycle.
Proven results with Flywire
Designing their approach around the idea of making the financial experience easier and delivering affordable options to help alleviate the rising costs of care Endeavor Health hoped to keep the patient more engaged with the financial process. The project worked. In partnering with Flywire, Endeavor Health has seen its auto-payment plan adherence reach 90% and a 40% overall collection rate.
Using the Flywire platform, Endeavor Health patients now receive consolidated billing statements that help eliminate confusion around their financial responsibility, billing and payment communications that are tailored to each individual’s unique preferences, and proactive financial offerings, like payment plans, determined by each patient’s financial situation. This is all packaged into an offering designed to give patients more control over their financial journey by encouraging self-service.