Out of Network Services: Not Just Surprise Medical Bills, They Also Erode Care Coordination and Patient Retention

by Clive Riddle, August 23, 2018

Last week, Kaiser Family Foundation released a study of medical bills in large employer plans that found "a significant share of inpatient hospital admissions includes bills from providers not in the health plan’s networks, generally leaving patients subject to higher cost-sharing and potential additional bills from providers." The report stated "almost 18 percent of inpatient admissions result in non-network claims for patients with large employer coverage. Even when enrollees choose in-network facilities, 15 percent of admissions include a bill from an out-of-network provider, such as from a surgeon or an anesthesiologist."

 

The focus of the KFF study of course was surprise medical bills. This week, Kyruus released their 12-page 2018 Referral Trends Report: Positioning for Patient Retention which examines out of network services from a different perspective – when referred by an in-network physician, with the issue focus being on care coordination and patient retention.

The report presents physician survey findings that indicate “one-third of out-of-network referrals would be avoidable with more robust information about in-network colleagues," and "while 77 percent of providers surveyed recognize the importance of keeping patients in-network for care coordination, a notable 79 percent say they refer patients out of network."

The report tells us:

• Among those who refer out of network, 45 percent say that it’s difficult to determine who is in the network
• On average, providers that refer out of network send almost 1/4 of patients out-of-network
• 42 percent of patients leave a provider’s office without a necessary referral appointment booked, despite over 60 percent of providers considering point-of-service scheduling extremely or very important.        
• Personal networks drive current referral behaviors: 72 percent of providers say they or their staff usually refer to the same provider for a given specialty
• 40 percent of providers report always knowing whether or not their referral was appropriate for the patient or whether the patient needed to be re-referred, hindering care coordination.       

The report concludes that "providers understand the importance of keeping patients in network to improve care. However, without the right tools to facilitate clinically appropriate and in-network referrals, providers will not necessarily break from familiar patterns."