Geisinger Health System unveiled last week its ProvenExperience program, which will offer refunds to dissatisfied patients.
According to a Geisinger press release, the health system launched a pilot of the ProvenExperience program at Geisinger Medical Center, the health system’s main campus in Danville, Pa. A key component of the pilot program is a patient smartphone app developed by Geisinger that allows patients to rate the service that was provided, and if dissatisfied with the service they received, patients can ask for a refund.
With the pilot program at Geisinger Medical Center, certain surgery patients enrolled in the pilot are allowed to use the app to request a refund and determine the amount of the refund they want based on their co-pay, according to the press release.
The press release stated, “For example, if a spine surgery patient paid a $1,000 co-pay and they weren't pleased with how office staff treated them, they can log into the app and select from a sliding scale how much of their co-pay they want refunded. They can choose from $1 to $1,000 and the refund request is processed within 3 to 5 business days.”
Geisinger Health System president and CEO David Feinberg, M.D., announced the ProvenExperience refund program at the 2015 Press Ganey Executive Leadership Conference in Orlando, Fla.
The ProvenExperience program is an extension of Geisinger's ProvenCare portfolio, which began in 2006. “ProvenCare proved that applying evidence-based protocols could reduce mortality rates, improve outcomes and reduce costly readmissions,” the Geisinger release stated.
As previously reported by Healthcare Informatics, the ProvenCare program established innovative clinical pathways and guaranteed prices for a range of procedures, beginning with coronary artery bypass graft surgery.
"Historically, Geisinger's reputation has been based on transforming the way health care is delivered," Dr. Feinberg said in a statement. "We've been held up as a national model for providing both high-quality and cost-effective medical care and our ProvenCare program has garnered national - and international - praise for eliminating unwarranted variation and applying scientific best practices. Now is the time to focus on compassion."
