Convenience and Speed in the 21st Century

Consumers of the 21st century are all about convenience and speed. We have discussed the benefits of keeping payment information on file with retailers, like Amazon's 1-Click option, and layaway payment plans for larger purchases. Becoming increasing more popular, is the option to pay bills online. Since the late 1990s, healthcare has been one of the only industries to increase the number of paper bills and payments that are sent out. This is one important area where healthcare could take notes from the retail industry.

Most industries have transitioned into online options for consumers to pay bills, especially the retail industry. This transition is particularly important to the consumer who is looking for fast, easy, and secure ways to make purchases. By 2016 the number of consumers who use mobile bill pay and online bill pay is said to rise from 14 million to 57 million! This statistic is not to be ignored.

Mobile and online commerce is becoming the norm for consumers. Users have on-the-go options to purchase goods and pay bills at their convenience, and at any time. Mobile commerce orders peak at 7pm-9pm, which is outside of normal office hours. How often are your patients receiving paper healthcare provider statements, and then having to call in to your office or send a check to pay by mail?

When patients have to pay their medical bills through the mail or via phone, the security of those payments decreases. Online bill pay security systems use tokenization to keep your patients payment information secure by replacing sensitive data with unique symbols while retaining all the essential information for payments. Studies from Mitek tell us that healthcare is one major area in which millenials want to see mobile capture and online bill pay options be implemented.

Is your practice taking full advantage of the $2.9 trillion retail healthcare market by offering fast and easy healthcare payments? By looking at your billing system through the eyes of retail businesses, your practice could be paid faster and your patients could feel confident that their payment information is secure.

[endif]--![endif]--![endif]--