It improves cash flow and reduces administrative costs. It enhances customer service and empowers patients to be more engaged in their healthcare options. It makes providers’ jobs easier, and it’s something patients are requesting.
“It” is the trend among healthcare providers to allow patients to manage their account and submit payments online, and with such notable benefits and market demand, it’s no wonder this service is rapidly increasing in use nationwide.
In fact, Brian Clubb, Emdeon’s Product Management Director, reports that the use of Emdeon Patient Pay Online, a self-service patient application that provides comprehensive and secure online billing and payment management, has nearly doubled in volume in each of the last two years.
According to Clubb, the duality of Patient Pay Online’s advantages is the core of its success; providers and patients alike win with this solution.
“By providing patients the ability to pay online, providers simultaneously engage and empower patients to take action and heighten the potential for reimbursement while reducing administrative costs,” Clubb explains.
Patient Pay Online enables patients to keep watch on and make payments toward account balances, set up payment plans—even update billing information as needed. With these capabilities in patients’ hands, providers experience lightened administrative loads, reduced costs related to traditional mailing and postage and better cash flow thanks to automated payment posting. 
In the era of Consumer-Directed Healthcare, Patient Pay Online is an essential tool for patients who now bear more direct responsibility for the payment of their care. These patients are more likely to be accustomed to paying for services of various types online which lowers the barrier to adopt healthcare payment. Providers are finding more and more patients requesting this type of service.
For the providers who respond by introducing Patient Pay Online, the advantages are abundant—beginning with the surprisingly simple implementation process.
“There is no integration required with the provider’s healthcare information system or practice management system, other than the ability to accept a daily payment posting,” states Clubb. “No need to involve the hospital’s IT staff—because the integration is literally that simple.” Providers only need to add a link to the payment portal on their websites, so patients can easily click through to gain access to their statements electronically. Otherwise, Emdeon “does all the heavy lifting,” even customizing the payment portal to blend with providers’ other web properties and overall branding.
Coupling the company’s targeted expertise in healthcare with its wide ranging, bank-friendly solutions ensures Emdeon Patient Pay Online is first—and only—a healthcare service, not a repurposed payment option from another industry. The entire solution is designed expressly to enhance efficiencies for healthcare environments.
Providers using Emdeon Patient Pay Online can also add other payment collection solutions within the Emdeon Patient Connect suite including Emdeon Voice Pay, Emdeon eCashiering and Emdeon Patient Lockbox since these synergistic and interoperable products work together to optimize patient interactions for maximum payment collection.
Emdeon Patient Pay Online is a highly effective option for providers seeking to shrink the time and cost of billing while also minimizing payment receipt and processing and the entire solution is very patient-centric.
“This creates a stronger relationship between healthcare provider and their patient… so both may focus on the health of the patient, not collections.” As Emdeon Patient Pay Online’s popularity grows, Emdeon is stationed on the forefront of technology to identify useful advancements in functionality and integrate updates for user interfaces. “There are some exciting options we’re exploring,” Clubb summarizes. “Anything we integrate is assured to be a win-win.”
Ready to improve cash flow by automating payment collection? Call 877.EMDEON.6 (877.363.3666) or visit us online to learn how Emdeon Patient Pay Online can improve cash flow and improve patient satisfaction by providing online billing and payment management.
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