During the interview process, it seemed that most users knew the basic terminology for medical billing and felt comfortable with the overall claims process. It is worth noting that this is not a given with all patients that pay their medical bills or use online billing; interviewees had had terminology and payment processes modeled for them by their family growing up or from their employment.

Most interviewees looked over bills once they were alerted that they owed a balance and confirmed they went in for the particular service. If nothing seemed odd with the balance due, the statement balances were accepted as correct and paid. Most reconciling for billing mattered only when there was an obvious balance issue due to coding errors or if a patient could not confirm if a balance due had been paid already.

Other Noteworthy Insights

All interviewees seemed to have a filing system or “paper trail” outside of paying online for tracking or reconciling payments.
Interestingly, all interviewees still have paper billing as a visual cue; they need to remember to pay their bill and confirm it has gone through insurance.

More senior patients interviewed, in general, will call in to confirm their payment with a person rather than trusting a patient portal. These patients confirmed they were aware of the billing and payment features offered. This aversion to paying and tracking payments with a patient portal could be linked to personal preference or trust in the system.