KPJ Healthcare and Pine Labs Team Up on Patient BNPL Plan

The growing market for alternatives for patients to pay increasingly costly healthcare bills has spawned another payments partnership.

Malaysia-based KPJ Healthcare, a specialist healthcare organization, announced Thursday (Nov 10) that it has partnered with merchant commerce platform Pine Labs to create a new zero-interest installment payment plan for patients.

The companies describe the collaboration as a new pay-over-time option that will be available through POS terminals in KPJ’s hospitals for charges of about $100 or more for up to 24 months via a debit or credit card.

“Pine Labs’ thriving network of banking partners, which includes key banks in Malaysia, presents us with an extensive reach and ensures our patients across Malaysia can enjoy this new payment option,” said Norhaizam Mohammad, officer in charge and CFO of KPJ Healthcare, calling the platform highly effective and streamlined.

The importance of payment plans in healthcare is reinforced in the PYMNTS research report, “Managing Healthcare Costs: How Patients Use Payment Plans.”

The report found that 19% of patients that live paycheck to paycheck have issues paying bills and set up a payment plan. These same people are also very or extremely likely to switch healthcare providers for a better payments experience.

With this new BNPL option for healthcare bill payments, it offers those patients a new, and possibly more affordable, option to pay off their medical debt.

This partnership between KPJ and Pine Labs also represents the first time a BNPL service has been offered at hospitals in Malaysia.

Read more: Pine Labs Payments Unit Plural Expects Exponential Growth Within 2 Years

Pine Labs also recently (Aug. 5) revealed that its online payments processing division Plural is anticipated to grow 10 to 15 times in the next two years, and earn $4 to $5 billion in monthly transactions in the same amount of time.