16% of Consumers Paid Doctor Bills Digitally

Shaking up the payments landscape in healthcare, the rise of provider portals and unified digital platforms is revolutionizing how we pay the doctor in a time of digital transformation.

We analyzed this in the study “The Digital Platform Promise: How Patients Want to Streamline Healthcare Payments,” a PYMNTS and Lynx collaboration based on surveys of over 2,500 U.S. consumers looking into shifting healthcare payment preferences.

By way of marquee findings, the study notes that “29% of consumers used a digital portal at least once to pay a medical bill in the past year, and 25% say it is their preferred way to pay. This represents a major shift away from in-person and other traditional methods, such as mail-in payments.”

We found that 3 in 4 U.S. consumers made at least one payment for a healthcare product or service in the past 12 months, with an increasing number opting for digital channels.

“In-person channels may remain the most common way to pay for healthcare expenses, but our research shows that digital patient and health-plan portals are equally preferred. One-quarter of respondents said they favor digital portals above other methods — the same share that chose in-person payments,” the study states.

Unpacking demographic differences in how consumers are paying medical bills today, we found that “younger consumers are somewhat more likely to prefer digital portals, with 28% of millennials and 27% of Gen Z indicating this as their most preferred method, while baby boomers and seniors (34%) were most likely to favor paying in person.”

In short, more consumers are choosing digital patient and health-plan portals as their go-to way to pay for healthcare expenses. “In the last 12 months, 16% of consumers paid more often through digital portals than through any other channel. Digital portals are in second place behind in-person payments (24%), but far ahead of payments by mail (10%) and phone (7.6%).”

Get the study: The Digital Platform Promise: How Patients Want to Streamline Healthcare Payments