In this environment, it’s important for providers to leverage emerging payment innovations to make paying medical bills as painless for patients as possible. Recently, Nick Mattia, GM and Vice President of Sales for CareCredit, took time to speak with Becker’s about the role of patients under new payment models, innovations that can help providers and patients embrace the payment shift, and why CareCredit is expanding into more healthcare spaces.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Question: Do you think providers are doing enough to embrace healthcare’s payment shift and provide alternatives to traditional payment models?
Nick Mattia: As out-of-pocket costs have risen, providers have been utilizing non-traditional payment models for years to help their patient base cover their growing responsibility. However, typically this has been limited to in-house solutions, and/or installment payment plans. The option for consumers to pay over time for healthcare expenses can be very beneficial when insurance coverage falls short of patients’ expectations and creates more patient financial responsibility.
For the provider there are limitations with in-house solutions — they can be time consuming for the billing and collections staff and risky for the organization. Those limitations can be overcome with third-party financing, where a partner like CareCredit offers promotional financing on a credit card with a revolving line of credit. This can be an external solution providers can integrate into their practice’s billing and CRM system. As the financing partner, CareCredit absorbs risk and liability via a non-recourse program for providers and hospitals and health systems*, and there is less burden on the internal collections team to chase payments.
Q: How will the role of patients change as payment models continue to evolve?
NM: When patients find themselves in a new reality where their financial burden for healthcare continues to increase, the good news is technology is making it easier for patients to track and pay their out-of-pocket expenses. As more providers embrace a mobile environment and offer online payment, patients are no longer limited to paying their healthcare bills via paper statement through the mail and over the phone. Along with the increase in payment choices, patients will increasingly find managing their healthcare expenses to be easy and simple through these online solutions.
Q: What kinds of third-party players will emerge in this new landscape?
NM: While there is seemingly a constant stream of new start-ups dedicated to RCM, billing and collections, the companies that will likely succeed will be able to balance an understanding of the unique complexities and challenges of the healthcare industry with its simultaneous shift to a more retail-like environment. With a long history serving the dental, vision, veterinary markets, CareCredit has been in the patient financing space for more than 30 years. In the past few years, CareCredit has expanded to serve the primary and specialty healthcare markets, which coincides with the shift in patient financial responsibility. We’ve found both providers and patients are looking for solutions to manage out-of-pocket higher healthcare costs.
Q: What kind of innovations does CareCredit offer that can help providers and patients embrace the payment shift?
NM: Technology updates can be expensive and complicated for providers. Innovations like CareCredit’s Pay My Provider tool, which allows providers in the CareCredit network to easily begin accepting online payments by simply adding a custom link to their website. CareCredit’s Pay My Provider tool can interface with enrolled providers patient portal or act as a standalone offering. We also have a tool called CareCredit Direct, which is web-based software that can be downloaded to a patient-dedicated tablet or PC for patients to research the promotional financing options available with the CareCredit credit card, and even apply, right from the waiting room. These features directly respond to the shift to a more retail-like healthcare environment, provide greater flexibility to consumers, protect the patient’s privacy, and relieve the burden on providers to focus on billing and collections paperwork.
Q: Why is CareCredit expanding to more healthcare environments?
NM: CareCredit understands that providers truly want to help their patients get the care they recommend, without delay, for the best possible outcomes. When a patient pays with CareCredit, the provider will receive payment in two business days, while the patient gets the opportunity to pay for their care over time**, helping them fit payments into their monthly budget. Patients have told us that they want to use their card for all of their health and personal care needs. We now have 11 million cardholders and more than 200,000 participating locations where they can use their card, which makes CareCredit a great value for both providers and their patients.
*Subject to the representation and warranties in the CareCredit Agreement with Participating Providers, including but not limited to only charging for services that have been completed or that be completed within 30 days of the initial charge, always obtaining patient’s signature on in-office applications and the cardholder’s signature on the printed receipt.
** Subject to credit approval. Minimum monthly payments required. See carecredit.com for details.
