NATERA PATIENT PRICE TRANSPARENCY
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I created a journey map of the patient billing experience at Natera to help identify touch points and opportunities. Based on this and what a lot of our competitors were doing, Natera wanted to pilot a program offering patients a choice between using their insurance or paying an up front cash pay price.
The user flow diagram was pretty short and sweet but the main challenge was getting the content and copy simple enough for patients to understand.
BACKGROUND
We rolled out a manual version of this program first, having inside sales reps call out to patients to explain their pricing options.
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This helped us understand peoples' reactions, interest, and questions. Then, we designed a mobile experience that started with a text message or email, sent right after we received a test order from the patient's doctor.
INSIGHTS
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Make authentication easy.
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There was no need for an app or ongoing engagement here. For this simple transaction, we didn't want to require account creation or passwords, just a few pieces of ID.
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Show that it's individualized.
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Some patients were confused about whether the estimate was specific to their own health plan or just a general number. So we added as much personalized information as we could and maee the language clear that we had run the estimate just for them.
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More info isn't always better.
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My first instinct was to link to additional content about how health insurance works so that patients could be as informed as possible. But we found this was associated with more drop-off so we kept the descriptions inside the app brief (the theory was that if people leave the flow and go down a rabbit hole reading about insurance, they don't return or miss the 3-day deadline). ​
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Be specific about next steps.
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For patients that chose to use insurance, the next step of waiting for your bill wasn't clear, leaving people confused about what to do next, so we rewrote the copy to be very explicit and reassuring that they were finished for now.
FINAL DESIGN
The flow only requires the user to enter their date of birth, last name, and zip code to proceed (all information that is easy to remember). From there, it is only a few clicks to read more about each pricing option and make a selection.
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There are also screens to explain the price if the patient goes back to the link after already making a decision.