Millions of older Americans use paid long-term care services and their numbers are expected to grow as more aging boomers require long-term care in institutional settings. Yet fewer than half of adults have had a serious conversation with a loved one about who will take care of them if they need help with daily activities in the future or how the cost of such care will be paid for.
Four in 10 adults say they are not confident that they will have the financial resources to pay for the care they may need as they age. And the overwhelming majority of adults say that it would be impossible or very difficult to pay the estimated $100,000 needed for one year in a nursing home.
Those findings from a 2022 KFF Health News/New York Times reporting project led to this sobering conclusion: “Most adults do not feel prepared to handle the costs of (long-term) care, and most older adults have not taken financial or practical steps to plan for care needs that might arise in the future.”
Serious economic consequences loom for both families and the institutions that care for them.
Fortunately, technology solutions can help.
It begins with convenience. Residents and guarantors expect the same flexibility when financially engaging with your institution as they experience in every other consumer engagement. Providing them with a variety of options — text to pay, online payment portals, pay by phone and even traditional paper statements — reduces friction and often reduces institutional collection costs.
Offering residents the opportunity to store their credit or debit card information in a highly secure online environment is the ultimate in easy payments — for them and for you. With this payment method, a simple text is all that’s needed each month to let a resident or guarantor know the amount to be billed to their card on file.
Engage on their terms
Consumers are increasingly paying this way for many goods and services. Why should paying for long-term care costs be different?
Digital tools also offer easy-to-understand communication that improve convenience and creates a positive experience for guarantors. Technology empowers you to understand how each person prefers to communicate and then personalize communications accordingly. Not only does personalized communication make it easier for guarantors to engage with your organization, it strengthens loyalty and customer satisfaction.
The New York Times/KFF study I referenced earlier also found that paying for long-term care and support services leads to financial consequences for families.
The study found that 56% of those who contributed financially to their own or another’s long-term care said they cut back on spending on food, clothing or other basic household items. That percentage rose to 67% among those in lower-income households, with one-third saying they had trouble making rent or utility payments.
Embracing new financial engagement pathways with technology makes it possible to improve the financial outlook for long-term care organizations and drive affordability and resident satisfaction, convenience and loyalty.
Casey Williams is senior vice president of patient engagement and payment applications for RevSpring. He has more than 20 years’ experience developing intelligent patient communications and payment applications that build a strategic relationship with clients and their patients.
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