What is the best way for a healthcare platform to provide more value to its clients and streamline their experiences? Which department plays a crucial role in being a practice’s lifeline, but at the same time, can mark the difference between a satisfied and an irritated client? The billing department.
Just like any other online and physical platform, healthcare and telemedicine platforms need a way to reduce costs and improve ROI. The best way for providers do that is to integrate payment model convenient to patients and their families.
In this article, we will consider how payment integration solutions can have a direct impact on health care and telemedicine industry in today’s digital world.
ISV Payment Integration Solutions for Health & Medicine – An Overview
Whether it’s a fee-for-service plan or bundled payment, customers are looking for more convenient ways to make healthcare payments and streamline the process. In today’s evolving economy, the only way medical providers and telemedicine companies can ensure better client service and improved facilitation is through ISV payment integrations,
The idea is to give customers more convenient payment options to help make services more accessible ultimately and increase the confidence in providers. Other benefits that ISVs can offer healthcare providers include:
- More streamlined account management
- Better record of transactions
- Streamlined transactional processes
- Increased payment efficiency
- Improved cashflow
- Better time management
We’ll discuss these in more detail in a later section. First, let us consider the demand for ISV payment integration solutions specific to the health and medicine industry.
Looking at the Numbers – Consumers
Recent reports by JP Morgan have shown that customers and providers are looking for more ways to make/receive healthcare payments, suggesting that they are hit hardest by these trends. Key demographic factors that providers are keeping these factors in mind when getting new software developed.
The report suggests that 83% of customers asked if the provider accepts electronic payment for medical bills. This can be the determining factor for whether a consumer stays or moves on to another provider. 28% of millennials and Generation X customers are likely to consider switching their provider for a better payment experience.
Looking at the Numbers – Providers
A majority of providers (87%) can’t collect e-payments or use automated processes.
Healthcare providers are now prioritizing customer preferences, with >86% looking to embed customer-centric payment solutions into their internal ERPs. By letting customers choose the payment method and their preferred currency (including crypto) within the provider’s platform, they are looking to improve the overall value of healthcare services provided considerably.
As an ISV, this would mean you have to provide your customers with dedicated functionality for:
- Recording payment information and choosing payment methods
- Generating invoices converted into the provider’s preferred format
- Submit orders and inform staff immediately
- Disburse payments to vendors/suppliers automatically
- Issue refunds and manage payments automatically without increasing administrative load.
Benefits of ISV Payment Integrations for Health & Telemedicine
ISVs can reap several benefits by integrating payment methods into their products.
1. Offering a Simplified User Experience to Providers & Their Clients
According to a report by InstaMed in 2019:
- 66% of customers consider the flexibility of payment options before admitting themselves or their loved ones into a healthcare facility
- 77% of patients prefer receiving eStatements
- Only 23% of healthcare providers offer eStatements on their own.
Integrated payments can address these issues and hence save patients and their families time and invite more business opportuneness for providers.
2. Payment Flexibility
There has always been a demand for more streamlined solutions in the healthcare industry. This is because patients or their families are often unable to understand how, why, and when they are being billed amid their emotions, providers find themselves unable to efficiently collect payments via traditional, manual methods.
Integrated payment solutions by ISVs not only upgrade clients’ ability to accept more modes of payment but also patients’ ability to pay via a method most convenient to them.
3. Better Track of Installments & Recurring Bills
To facilitate patients’ health providers often allow customers to make payments in instalments. Both providers and customers find keeping track of these payments difficult. There is a heightened interest in software that can support these recurring payment options, benefiting all parties, especially low and middle-income families.
Through customer vault APIs (payment management for customers), you can allow providers to manage customer-specific payment plans, information, and more via tokenization. Having a wide range of payment options and currencies will be a further win-win for all parties involved, i.e., you (the ISV), the healthcare provider (clients), and their customers.
Apart from that, there are several financial benefits health and telemedicine providers can enjoy with integrated payment processing, such as:
- More streamlined account management
- Better invoicing. The integrated payment processing module can automatically record all transactions and export the data to other enterprise solutions. This helps reduce administrative load on different departments.
- Streamlined transactional processes. Patients do not have to leave the provider’s website to make payments, making the payment process much more straightforward for both parties. The automatic receipt system makes it easy to keep track of transactions as well.
- Increased payment efficiency. The transaction doesn’t have any third parties involved, which means reduced transaction fees for the client and/or ISV to benefit from.
- Improved cashflow. In many cases, payment integrations combined with customer portals speed up the collection process and through timely notifications, reduces the chance of late/missed payments from customers. Furthermore, via improved receivable and payable visibility, integrated payment solutions minimize efforts to keep track of them and therefore, help improve cash flow.
- Better time management
You can also integrate a tool that brings all transactions directly into the accounting software being used by the client, effectively streamlining transactional entries.
4. Modern Adaptability
By staying up to date with the latest payment methods and technological advancements, you will be able to cater to a global healthcare market and help clients adapt to an ever-changing environment. When developing software, ISVs can offer payment integration services that offer long-term solutions, instead of catering just to the present.
5. Better Preparation for the New Economy
The economy seems to be shifting towards digital currencies now, making digital payments more common. In this new landscape, currencies are also evolving and there is no telling what the future might hold.
Still, accepting crypto payments along with cards and ACH allows patients to pay with whatever method they prefer. When you integrate payments with your ISV health or telemedicine platform, all payment methods are readily available & updated without any work on your part.
Today’s payment processing solutions are constantly evolving and therefore are geared towards helping providers prepare for the ever-evolving economy. Whether fiat regains its strength or digital currencies prevail, independent software vendor payment solutions can be updated easily to meet market demands.
Better Payment Integration for ISVs – Better Healthcare for All
The boom seen in the healthcare industry today is much more prevalent now, with a CAGR of 11.3%. This growth rate means that ISVs will need to follow suit. Simply offering cost-effective software development solutions isn’t enough anymore. Now, it’s about providing value for money.
Integrated payments are the cornerstone on which the “digital evolution” of healthcare relies on. From getting to choose how they pay, when they pay and get a clear idea of why they’re paying, providers can offer a much more transparent experience, which translates into increased business opportunities.
ISVs need to be backed with the right payment solutions provider to ensure seamless and efficient services. If you are considering options and would like to learn how we can help, get in touch with us and see how we can help you add value to all those in the evolving healthcare industry.