Healthcare organizations have to juggle so much— from navigating payments and insurance providers to dealing with stringent data privacy regulations. That’s why it’s paramount for organizations in the medical space to have a remittance manager that is safe and secure. However, despite the growth of technology in healthcare and in their patients’ personal lives, many organizations are behind the curve when it comes to remittance management. With more regulations and pressures placed on healthcare organizations every day, it’s more important now than ever to have a modern and streamlined remittance process.
If your healthcare organization is struggling with a remittance manager that meets these changing times, it may be a good idea to upgrade. Still not convinced? Here’s 5 reasons your healthcare organization should think about upgrading their remittance system:
1. Offer the Ability for Digital Payments
According to Instamed’s 2021 Trends in Healthcare Payments Annual Report, 76% of payers receive paper-based manual payments for premiums, but 78% of consumers prefer to pay their premiums online. In fact, more than half of consumers would consider switching providers for a better healthcare payments experience. Being able to offer a secure, digital payment solution can add ease to your payment processing and serve your patients that much better.
At FirsTech, we meet this need for digital payments with our My Account solution. This digital portal makes it easy for your customers to quickly view their bills and safely make payments by eCheck or credit card. In addition, our platform offers capabilities for mobile, telephone, and in-person payments. That way, no matter how your patients prefer to pay, the process can be as smooth as possible. In addition, all of these data on payments is completely accessible by your team and is secure. Because we already work with healthcare organizations, our system also has the data privacy solutions to meet all federal and state regulations. That way, the system creates peace of mind for your and your client-base.
2. Keep a Secure System for Mailed Payments
Even in an increasingly digital world, many customers still prefer to pay in person at a medical office or by sending a check in the mail. As Elavon’s 2020 Healthcare Payments Insight Survey Report finds, “consumers use a variety of ways to pay their healthcare bills, with 64% reporting they made a payment at their provider’s office and 36% indicating they mailed a check”.
For FirsTech clients supporting customers who prefer a more traditional approach to submitting a payment, we actually offer a robust remittance manager service. With this solution, your incoming check receivables are sent directly to a unique post office box used solely to collect payments. However, you don’t have to take time out of your day to handle pickup and processing. Our specialists retrieve, open and promptly deposit the checks into your business account. This allows you to spend more time helping your patients and less time worrying about processing paper checks. In addition, whatever your unique requirements are for remittance, we have the tools you need for streamlining the process— increasing productivity and saving valuable time.
3. Have a Consistent Record of Both Physical and Digital Payments
When your patients pay in different ways— from mobile to telephone, physical check to online check, to debit card payment, it’s important to have a system that records it all. At FirsTech, one of our unique offerings in our remittance manager is our Remote Image Archival System. With this service, you can quickly respond to customer inquiries by researching payment activity and viewing clear stub images online in seconds. All images are stored online for up to 12 months prior to being archived for an agreed upon period of time. Because we have so much experience in remittance processing, our exception processing accurately handles items such as customer correspondence, NSF checks, and unidentified checks.
In addition, our e-box solution combines payments from multiple locations into one central account while streamlining your finances and increasing your cash pool for investments. This streamlines your processes by concentrating your funds and eliminating the need for multiple accounts and transfers. You can also expand your resources with our robust online reporting options, including source, date and dollar amount of each deposit, while also identifying deposits from each location—all at an agreed upon time each processing day.
All of these features in our remittance processing means that you have all the records you need and can spend more time focusing on your patients and not chasing down invoices.
4. Utilize an Easy-to-Add Payment System on Your Website
By having a payment system easily accessible on your website, you can also make payment that much easier on each of your clients. With this service, you can allow your customers to view their account conveniently through your website.Payments can also be customized to your business and customer needs by providing the ability to make one time, recurring and scheduled payments.
Because we know our customers are busy, our system is built to be easily integrated into websites of all sizes and complexity. With a couple of lines of code, your business partners and clients can easily submit payments to a secure, trackable, and always accessible location. This makes it that much more convenient for your patients, which will help you remain their preferred provider.
5. Partner with a Banking Solution Experienced in the Industry
Healthcare organizations, on top of providing the best possible care, have to make sure they’re compliant with a variety of regulations. Out-of-date technology or systems that aren’t set up for the latest healthcare regulations can end up being costly. In fact, according to a study by the Ponemon institute, on average non-compliance costs 2.65 times as much as what it takes to maintain compliance. That’s why it’s important to partner with a financial institution that has experience handling these kinds of matters.
At Firstech, with over 35 years of experience, we offer the latest in retail and wholesale lockbox payments and have the tools to provide operational compliance, streamlining of processes, and increased productivity. When organizations in the healthcare space work with us, we can ensure that processing meets all regulations and can be managed with ease. That way you can worry less about fees and regulators and focus on providing the best possible care.
Ready to Upgrade Your Remittance Manager?
Of course, this is just a quick overview of the reasons healthcare organizations should consider upgrading their remittance manager. If you’re interested in remittance services at Firstech, we’d be happy to help. At Firstech, we offer a variety of remittance processing solutions and online payment options to help streamline the payments throughout your enterprise. No matter what unique needs you have to properly serve your patients, we’re ready to build a solution that works for you.
At FirsTech, our mission is to provide our customers with innovative systems, processes and services of the highest quality in the customer payment processing industry. For decades, FirsTech has served as a partner to our client’s success by excelling in the rapid collection of payments through a robust set of service offerings. With the most comprehensive capabilities suite specifically designed to satisfy the core hierarchy of business needs, FirsTech is the payment industry’s Partner for Business Success. Contact us or request a demo and our team can be sure to walk you through each of our services.