As frustrating as the pandemic is for patients, frontline healthcare workers are exhausted, stretched thin and quitting in battalions. This is having impacts across practices, including back-office functions that are falling behind on receivables.
Removing the friction from healthcare payments with specialized forms of credit can alleviate some of the pain providers are feeling, while improving patient experience.
Observing that “the patient really has become the new payer,” CareCredit CEO Alberto Casellas told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster, “The shift to consumerism and the consumer becoming a larger payer of [medical bills] has definitely changed the way practices, providers and hospital systems are able to manage how they’re going to get paid for the services that they rendered.”
With more financial responsibility on the shoulders of patients who are often unprepared to handle these expenses, understaffed practices find themselves corralling third-party payers, “but they also have to go to thousands of individual consumers that have outstanding [balances],” Casellas said, greatly compounding the provider cash crunch.
Dealing with consumers as payers “obviously requires a different setup,” he said.
“So, you see the evolution of organizations going to companies like Synchrony, where we [have] multiple ways that we can help providers and healthcare organizations manage consumers that owe a certain part of that bill by providing flexibility of payment options, and being able to take that on, freeing up that staff,” Casellas said.
PYMNTS research found that 21% of consumers paid more in out-of-pocket medical expenses over the past year, totaling $400 million in the U.S. In all, 64% of consumers have out-of-pocket costs for healthcare visits and prescriptions, including those with insurance.
Get the study: How Improving Billing Experiences Impacts Patient Loyalty
Reducing Payments Pains
Casellas told Webster that when it comes to healthcare costs, a little advance notice goes a long way.
“Being able to have those conversations at the time of care, before you get something post-care, is one that I think is important for the industry to continue to look at,” he continued. “The trend is there, but again, it’s not where it needs to be.”
With PYMNTS research finding that 33% of consumers did not seek medical treatment in 2021 due primarily to financial limitations, that’s more lost revenue to pressured practices.
The cure, Casellas said, is “partnering with different organizations that provide that service and being able to decrease the amount of time it takes for providers to get those monies to improve cash flow, improve the overall experience, and give that particular consumer and/or patient the ability to have different options to be able to manage their own [healthcare] budget.”
Partnering with practices and getting the word out about financing options gives consumers peace of mind upfront, and allows medical professionals to do their jobs.
“From that standpoint, digital is the name of the game,” he said.
Read also: 21% of US Consumers Paying More Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Costs This Year
New Year, New Approaches to Market
Successive White House administrations have taken on the byzantine U.S. healthcare system with little to show for it, leaving private industry to remove pain points to care and payment. And it’s an industry where people pay in cash and checks.
“Using technology obviously advances the way that money flows from the hands of a consumer to the hands of the provider and them being able to use that particular asset or payment to the benefit of that provider,” Casellas said.
CareCredit is looking at new ways to deploy its healthcare credit capabilities in 2022, including a pay-in-four-style buy now, pay later (BNPL) concept for smaller amounts, among other applications.
He added, “We’re also looking at ways that we can do eComm payments and installment loans on larger ticket items in certain areas of our business. We see that giving greater choice to consumers to be able to finance some treatments … is one [opportunity] we see in 2022 as an important piece of how we’re continuing to build on our network and … grow our business.”
Financing other aspects of healthcare is another potential growth area for CareCredit that benefits practices, patients and payments at a time when medical debt is soaring.
“A consumer may open up an account at a dental office because that’s an immediate need, but over the years, we see that consumer utilizing the account to buy in other areas,” he said. “They may go to a veterinarian because they have a dog. They may say, ‘I need to have some LASIK surgery,’ and they can use the locator and find a provider that accepts CareCredit.”
Health systems are another 2022 focus for CareCredit.
“It’s a large addressable market,” Casellas said. “It’s about $120 billion in out-of-pocket expense, and many of those procedures are planned.”
See also: CareCredit Branches Out Patient Financing App to Epic App Orchard
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