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When customers are dissatisfied with the service they receive, they can typically get their money back just about anywhere these days. So why should health care be any different? That’s the stance Pennsylvania’s Geisinger Health System is taking. Their new money back policy gives unhappy patients a refund of their co-pay or deductible with no questions asked.
The health system’s president and chief executive David Feinberg, MD told the Chicago Tribune that his peers told him the idea was “dumb”. Those same colleagues are now beginning to change their tune because they can see how the policy goes a long way in impacting patient satisfaction scores–an important health care metric.
As a result of the new policy, between October 2015 and mid-March 2016, Geisinger says it received 74 refund requests totaling almost $80,000 in waived or refunded charges. According to one health care expert that is money well spent not money down the drain.
"If you went out to get a consultant to teach you how to improve patient experience, it would be a lot more than ($80,000)," says Maureen Bisognano, president emerita at the nonprofit Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
Dr. Feinberg agrees, referring to the new policy as a “built-in secret-shopper program”. When dissatisfied patients ask for a refund they offer a unique window into the areas of the hospital system that need improvement like emergency room wait times and poor bedside manner.
To request a refund, patients can use Geisinger’s free mobile app as well as several other options. Most requests are processed within a few days. For unhappy Medicare patients, Geisinger employees are authorized to offer free lunch or dinner vouchers, parking passes or gift certificates to the hospital gift shop.
To learn more, read the entire article.