Telehealth brand improves continuity of care with Butter by reducing involuntary churn
Machine-learning powered retry strategy ensures patients with significant mental health issues keep access to critical services
66%
patient continuity recovery rate
51%
increase in the recovery rate for failed one-time transactions
2%
increase in first-time patient access
Overview
The telehealth brand offers high-quality online mental health care for all. With several full-service monthly subscription plans to choose from, members receive online access to therapists and prescribing providers—all from the comfort of home or anywhere else with an internet connection.
Quick Jump
“Butter has been instrumental to our success. We have regular touch bases. We talk through a lot of different solutions. They review our data and give us suggestions on how to improve. Frankly, they go above and beyond.”
The Challenge
Solving failed payments to improve patient care
The telehealth brand takes their patients’ mental health seriously. When the organization realized a meaningful portion of their patients were losing access to their service because of payment inefficiencies leading to involuntary churn, they set out to solve the issue as quickly as possible to ensure that their patients maintained uninterrupted access.
“We want our patients to receive the best care, and we were looking for opportunities to preserve their access if a payment issue accidentally occurs,” said the brand’s Associate Director of Product. “Solving involuntary churn made the most sense.”
The Solution
Switching to Butter to boost retention and patient care
Like other leading enterprise brands, the company determined the best way to ensure all of their patients received continuous care was by partnering with a payments optimization solution. Building their own tool would have taken too long, cost valuable engineering resources, and required extensive payments expertise that they would need to hire for.
The business tested two well-known providers, and while they saw some success, there was room for improvement with each solution. That’s when they made the switch to Butter.
“We found that other solutions were expensive and didn’t necessarily deliver what we wanted,” said the Associate Director of Product. “We compared and contrasted and found that Butter was more efficient and more effective in lowering involuntary churn.”
In addition to Butter’s proven track record with enterprise subscription brands, the telehealth company selected the payments optimization solution because it also mitigated failed payments for one-time transactions and utilized non-disruptive recovery tactics.
One-time transaction payment recovery
Ensuring continuity of care goes beyond helping patients keep their access to their therapists—it also means ensuring they receive prescribed medications on time, without fail. Generally, prescribed medications are one-time transactions. Because Butter reduces failed payments for one-time transactions, patients' prescriptions are unlikely to be interrupted.
Non-disruption recovery tactics
Butter’s advanced machine-learning technology analyzes hundreds of data points associated with every transaction to determine the most effective recovery strategy for each customer. Then, it resolves the failed payment issue in the background without needing to put pressure on or bother the patient.
“Sometimes these folks are dealing with serious mental illnesses or high anxiety or high depression,” said the Associate Director of Product. “They might forget to update their credit card or load their prepaid card on time. These situations can come up, and it can be very difficult for them to take the right action. Having Butter in place has allowed us to take that burden off them.”
The Results
Solving involuntary churn due to failed payments positively impacted continuity of care for the company’s patients by enabling them to stay enrolled in their care program for longer and receive their prescribed medications on time.
66% patient continuity recovery rate
By implementing Butter, the company took their patient invoice recovery rate from 50% to 66%—a 32% relative improvement. Now, more patients are getting the mental health care they need.
51% increase in the recovery rate for one-time transactions
With Butter, the telehealth brand saw a massive jump in the recovery rate for failed one-time transactions, such as one-off co-pays and initiation fees, ensuring the company’s patients would continue to receive prescribed medication and mental health care.
2% boost in first-time patient access
In addition to improving continuity of care, the brand made it easier for first-time patients seeking care to enroll in a membership. The company saw a 2% jump in initial success rate, equating to thousands of new patients.
To achieve the spike in new patients, Butter’s team of experts helped the business conduct a BIN (bank identification number) analysis to determine payment issues with specific banks and shared how they could restructure their checkout flow to help more patients enroll faster.
“The results speak for themselves. What it comes down to is that you can trust Butter. If you have an issue or question, they’ll get back to you quickly,” said Associate Director of Product. “That speaks volumes to me about the impact they’re trying to make for their clients.”
“Butter allowed my team to focus less on how to get payments stabilized and more toward growing our ability to deliver premier and accessible health care services.”