Healthcare Payments Need a Dose of Money Mobility

Healthcare can be a source of frustration in the lives of too many consumers. Although there is a lot of attention on the cost and quality of care, there is less on another important part of the equation: how consumers pay for health-related products and services. Most providers still rely on paper and manual procedures for patient collections, giving rise to a host of problems.

In the past 12 months, 54% of consumers dealt with at least one pain point during the payment process, according to PYMNTS data. Consumer difficulties in understanding what they are paying for and when is one of the biggest problems, as 76% of consumers report receiving an unexpected medical bill and 71% say health bills confuse them. Moreover, consumers must often navigate multiple platforms, including those of medical providers and insurance companies, to receive and pay for healthcare services.

The “Money Mobility Tracker®” explores how healthcare providers can improve the healthcare experience by adopting modern payment systems.

Around the Money Mobility Space

Romanian insurance giant SIGNAL IDUNA has launched Easy Pay, a virtual card to streamline the health insurance process. Policyholders can request the card, and once provisioned, SIGNAL IDUNA will transfer the funds needed onto the card before the appointment. Users can also add the virtual card to their digital wallets, including Google Pay and Apple Pay.

Meanwhile, Weave, a communication and engagement platform for small to midsized businesses, announced the addition of Online Bill Pay to its suite of products. The addition will enable businesses to generate, send and embed a link for customers to pay bills online, helping healthcare providers collect revenue faster and offer an improved digital payment experience.

For more on these and other stories, visit the Tracker’s News and Trends section.

Nearly One-Third of Consumers Use Digital Portals for Healthcare Payments

PYMNTS research found that consumers of all ages are making healthcare payments. Seventy-five percent of respondents paid for a healthcare product or service in the past 12 months, and did so in a variety of ways. The most common way to pay, cited by 36% of respondents, is at the doctor’s office, while digital platforms come in second at 29%.

To learn more about consumer use of digital platforms and other payment methods, read the Tracker’s Chart of the Month.

Healthcare Payments Platforms Increase Customer Satisfaction While Reducing Costs

Healthcare providers can benefit from adopting modern payment methods and digital platforms for payments or disbursements. The issues with existing payment solutions are so bad that 42% of consumers would switch — or already have switched — healthcare providers for an improved payment experience.

Digital platforms that handle various payment and disbursement needs are among the best tools for healthcare providers. These platforms often come with an array of helpful features and capabilities, including support for multiple payment methods and automated recurring payments, among others — and they are immensely popular among consumers. According to PYMNTS research, 79% of consumers want to pay all their medical bills through a single digital platform.

To learn more about the benefits of payments modernization in the healthcare industry, read the Tracker’s PYMNTS Intelligence.

About the Tracker

The “Money Mobility Tracker®,” a collaboration with Ingo Money, examines the myriad problems affecting the healthcare payments experience and how healthcare providers can remedy these problems with payments modernization.