Designing a More Human Financial Experience: Reimagining Patient Billing at Providence
At a critical moment for Providence Health, the organization sought to fundamentally rethink how patients experience the financial side of healthcare. Facing declining patient satisfaction, delayed payments, and growing public and legal pressure around financial accessibility, Providence needed a patient-centered financial engagement model that emphasized transparency, trust, and early engagement, particularly for vulnerable populations.REDEFINING Billing at Providence
SKILLS & SUbject Matter
Healthcare Experience Design• Research Operations
USER Research • Information Architecture • SERVICE DESIGN
overview
I worked on reimagining Providence’s billing and financial assistance experience across the patient journey, with a focus on helping patients better understand their financial responsibility, access support earlier, and feel confident navigating complex medical billing systems. The work spanned both service and digital experience design, including a rethinking of Providence.org as a primary channel for billing questions and financial assistance.
To ground the work in real patient needs, we conducted in-depth qualitative research to understand how patients experience healthcare billing today and how factors such as income, health status, and life circumstances shape financial behavior and trust. Insights from research revealed deep-rooted barriers related to confusion, fear, and lack of transparency, which informed a new financial engagement model designed to treat patients as individuals rather than transactions.
My work included:
Leading a cross-functional team of 10 in close partnership with Providence executive stakeholders, overseeing research, design, and delivery across a complex, multi-region healthcare organization
Owning research operations end to end, including planning, coordination, synthesis, and executive readouts for qualitative research
Driving synthesis of research findings into core insights, opportunity areas, and design principles that led to the design and refinement of a patient-centered financial engagement model
Directing the reimagining of Providence.org’s billing and financial assistance experience to reduce fragmentation caused by duplicative regional content and improve clarity and navigability
Guiding the development of a streamlined site architecture, clearer content strategy, and refreshed visual approach to make billing support and financial assistance easier to find and understand
Facilitating leadership workshops and working sessions to align executives on priorities, feasibility, and phased rollout considerations
Ensuring alignment with legal, operational, and digital platform constraints so proposed solutions were practical, compliant, and scalable across the organization
This initiative reframed the financial side of healthcare as an essential part of the patient experience. By prioritizing transparency, trust, and accessibility, the work established a more human financial engagement model that supports patients earlier in their care journey and makes help with medical bills easier to understand and access. The result positioned Providence Health to improve patient satisfaction, reduce billing friction, and scale a more equitable approach to financial care across the health system.