What Are the Best Patient Payment Solutions for Hospitals?

The best patient payment solutions offer tools and services that assist hospitals with managing and fulfilling payment collection. These processes improve the provider’s revenue management and enhance the patient’s financial experience with the institution. 

Typically, the solution offers secure online payment options with user-friendly interfaces, automated reminders and personalized communication methods. By increasing efficiency, these solutions reduce the administrative burden on hospitals through seamless HIPAA-compliant integration with practice management systems and electronic health records (EHR).

The State of Medical Debt in the United States

Health care debt is an increasing social problem. Over 100 million U.S. residents have experienced medical debt, amounting to more than $220 billion in the last half-decade, with one in four unable to afford settlement. Most unpaid bills stem from single- or short-term events like hospital stays from accidents, although disability and chronic illness also contribute.

Hospitals can minimize their debt by adopting patient-friendly payment solutions and encouraging earlier settlements. By promoting communication, efficient problem-solving and multiple easy payment methods, facilities can buck the trend and keep their revenue losses to a minimum. What are the best patient payment solutions for hospitals? 

1. Millennia

Millennia affords users an unmatched experience through seamless integration, encouraging increased hospital revenue. Millennia’s health care revenue cycle solution is designed specifically for patient payment optimization, enhancing a patient’s journey and increasing a facility’s revenue. Features include an integrated payment portal featuring digitized technology and a specialized concierge support service with patient payment and support specialists. This service means patients can receive answers to all their questions live, via email or chat. 

By solving issues that conventional revenue cycle software fails to address, Millennia’s payment solution improves patients’ experience and empowers greater efficiency through increased collections. People expect and appreciate technologically advanced payment options, and Millennia’s software delivers with a people-focused, centralized patient revenue cycle solution that benefits hospitals and their visitors. 

When you add Millennia’s real-time revenue cycle analytics, reports and dashboards, the hospital can also educate itself on patient payment behaviors while identifying improvement areas to increase cash flow and enhance patient experiences. 

Because of its technology, Millennia offers more than an early-out vendor. The solution boosts average collections for customers by 100%, taking them from a 20-30% average payment capture rate to 40-60%. Millennia users enjoy a 50% patient revenue collection rate in the first 30 days of billing compared to a 28% industry average.

Key Features

• Multiple payment options, including photo-capture 
• QR-coded statements
• Flexible payment plans
• User-friendly payment portal
• Integrates with existing systems to enhance HIPAA compliance
• AI-powered patient engagement and dedicated payment specialists

2. Inovalon

Inovalon’s patient payment management solution prioritizes simplifying a hospital’s patients’ payments from the point of service to the administrative back end. Its mobile-friendly software authorizes bank accounts and cards for 24-hour online bill payments with credit, debit and HSA cards, Apple Pay, text-to-pay, checks, or cash. Patients can set up plans for regular payments through white-labeled links from hospital websites, meaning higher revenue capture. 

Inovalon makes hospital administrative staff jobs easier by eliminating manual work, with batch uploads of variable transactions. Hospital management can set varying user permissions and access levels for staff to auto-post to accounting software, generate custom reports, and search and archive transactions. Doing so enables data-driven decisions that save time and allow staff to focus on other tasks. The Inovalon solution reduces payment-related administrative hours by up to one-third.

Inovalon’s patient payment management software optimizes revenue cycle and workforce management through its single sign-on, user-friendly portal. It improves outcomes using dynamic business intelligence, incorporating sophisticated data analytics.

Key Features

• Streamlined payment options, with a text-to-pay alternative
• 24/7 online payment acceptance
• Real-time access to centralized payment data
• Secure PCI-validated point-to-point encryption for cardholder data 
• Automated, scheduled and recurring payment facility
• HIPAA-compliant to secure protected health information 

3. Phreesia

Phreesia patient payment software offers hospitals a revenue cycle management solution that automates vital steps in the payment process, saving patients and hospitals time and enabling prompt and easy collections. Options include credit, debit, FSA and HSA transactions and payments via cash, check, Apple Pay, Google Pay and online. The solution increases time-of-service payments by half, with most patients paying their copays immediately after consultation.

With Phreesia’s automated collection tools, hospitals can charge patients’ on-file cards after adjudicated insurance claims without issuing statements or making follow-up calls. These features improve collection rates, minimize hard costs and save time for hospital staff. The provider’s dashboard alerts and on-hand insurance summaries allow for seamless clarification of patient financial status and easy issue resolution. 

Online appointments and tracking are easy because of streamlined registration processes in-office and on mobile devices. Hospital staff gain patient insights through data and reporting analytics for all applications, enabling more holistic care and education.

Key Features

• Secure payments from desktops or mobile devices, including mobile wallets
• Practice management (PM) system integrations to automate end-of-day reconciliation
• Streamlined and automated insurance verification
• Card-on-file storage for payment information, simplifying return visits
• HIPAA-compliant to protect patient data
• Seamless integration with EHR and PM systems

4. PatientPay

PatientPay uses its digital-first, patient-centered approach to provide hospitals with innovative tools. With PatientPay, facilities can enhance communication and faster collection while providing a user-friendly experience for their patients. 

The solution integrates seamlessly with existing hospital systems to minimize workflow disruption. PatientPay includes a digital wallet that follows a patient across all participating providers to make the payment process familiar and fast. Touchless payment plans, text-to-pay options and insurance payments drive revenue to create a frictionless automated environment. 

Hospitals can monitor collections, workflow effectiveness and patient engagement rates to improve their systems. Multi-channel billing makes sending branded invoices, reminders and past-due notices easy via mail, text or email. PatientPay also facilitates call center and billing support, with inbound or outbound human and AI-based services to improve the patient experience and promote prompt payments.

PatientPay’s focus on patient understanding means it provides access to flexible payment alternatives — paying in full, enrolling in a payment plan or using saved payment methods. They can click, view and pay using a credit card, HSA card, Apple Pay and more without logging into a portal.

Key Features

• Instant patient access using date-of-birth without usernames and passwords
• Fast payment processing from insurance portals to provide quicker patient refunds
• Automated and accurate payment reconciliations to save time
• Full integration with most existing hospital systems
• HIPAA-compliant, encrypted information storage
• Branded communication and tailored patient messaging 

5. Inbox Health

Inbox Health allows patients to pay their hospital bills at the counter, by mail, over the phone or electronically from any device. It provides a customer-centric solution for payments. It also allows patients to settle accounts in full or to cover balances by setting up recurring payments. The hospital patient payment solution offers options from physical checks and phone payments to credit cards, digital wallet and ACH card settlements.

Using Inbox Health, hospitals can encourage timely settlements with electronically or physically generated, easily understandable statements. A statement briefly explains applied payments and outstanding charges and highlights convenient contact points for patients with further questions. The solution helps facilities reduce confusion with an AI assistant, real-time billing support chat offerings and an easily accessible patient portal.

Hospitals will benefit from the biller dashboard, automated billing cycles, and extensive reporting and analytics features. The Inbox Health solution benefits billing managers, front office staff, accounts receivable departments and patients. By pairing empathy with technology, Inbox Health encourages communicative connections and trust-building, leading to fewer outstanding invoices.

Key Features

• User-friendly 24/7-accessible portal for billing, payments and communication
• Offers several payment alternatives, including digital wallets
• Automated recurring payment plan facility
• Integration with existing hospital management systems
• HIPAA-compliant security for sensitive health information and communication channels
• Automated reporting and analytics

6. HealthAsyst

With tools for benefit verification, the HealthAsyst CheckinAsyst patient payment solution improves patient experiences and optimizes hospital staff efficiency. Its ability to verify benefits and eligibility well before an appointment or admission fine-tunes the process. 

With walk-in admissions and new insurance holders, CheckinAsyst seamlessly captures co-insurance, co-pays and relevant deductibles at check-in time. The HealthAsyst solution simplifies upfront settlements via a digital interface, allowing credit and debit cards, card-on-file, and check payments. Its powerful dashboard means facilities can collect payments during service.

CheckinAsyst allows patients to pay in easy installments by conveniently defining regular payment intervals. This feature protects hospitals from larger outstanding dues and saves them on administration costs with the solution’s auto-draft payment plans. CheckinAsyst includes automated email and text reminders to promote efficient payments and enhance customer satisfaction.

The HealthAsyst software uses bidirectional integration to auto-post remuneration directly to the EHR system, regardless of how a facility’s front office collects payments. Therefore, hospitals can manage payment records efficiently by reducing their manual workload.

Key Features 

• Batch or real-time automated insurance verification and eligibility 
• Manages health care costs through several payment options, including installment and auto-draft alternatives
• Supports self-service options like POS systems, kiosks and online portals
• Dashboard includes features like patient check-in, payment processing and communication
• Automated financial transaction posting to EHR and PM systems
• ISO 27001 and SOC2 Type II compliant and HIPAA-compliant in two-way patient-provider communication

7. RevSpring

Hospitals using the RevSpring PersonaPay portal realize between 3% and 7% payment increases. The software’s tailored options suit patients’ unique situations and assist them in paying health care installments regularly and in amounts they can manage. 

PersonaPay offers patients various payment alternatives — pay in full, payment plans, financial assistance and financing — through convenient self-service. The addition of virtual assistance through RevSpring’s SeatMate solutions allows AI to infuse efficiency with human intelligence and empathy to provide a personalized patient communication experience.

RevSpring’s solutions effectively integrate with existing EHR systems to ensure a frictionless transition for hospitals and their patients. By maintaining compliance with industry standards — including HITRUST CSF, SOC2 Type II, and PCI DSS — RevSpring’s revenue cycle management, payment processing and patient communications offer unquestioned encryption and access control security standards.

Consistent updating of security and compliance certifications and ongoing streamlined testing processes ensure the health care platform complies with HIPAA regulations. With other compliant tools for reminders, patient portals and different communication channels, RevSpring offers solutions that enhance the payment process.

Key Features

• Flexible payment plans suit individual needs
• Tokenized payment information to enhance security
• Real-time reporting for payment statuses, funding and issue prevention
• Numerous payment methods, including credit cards, debit cards, e-checks, digital wallets and text-to-pay
• Self-service portal for patient account management, payments and plans
• High certification and compliance aligning with HIPAA standards

Methodology for Selecting the Best Patient Payment Solutions for Hospitals

 When looking for a patient payment solution, you should assess the vital components of the payment process. Before you even bill your patient, verifying their health insurance eligibility, co-payment status and overall ability to pay for your facility’s services helps you determine how you can best satisfy their needs. If you can offer regular terms from the outset, you are already building a connection with the patient. 

Providing secure, convenient and diverse payment methods encourages your patients further. Patient portals, efficient invoicing and statement delivery, reminders, and a well-structured and accessible support and inquiry process will aid in earlier payments.

Real-time, detailed access to payment records through data-heavy analytics and a user-friendly dashboard reduces processing times and puts less strain on staff members. Minimizing the chances of human error also alleviates delays in reconciliations and payment capturing. Choosing a solution that integrates seamlessly with your existing system will maintain your hospital’s workflow and mean fewer delays for staff training. 

HIPAA-compliant communication and record-keeping also help your patients enjoy a seamless payment experience. A complete health care revenue cycle solution that prioritizes patient well-being encourages payment optimization for your hospital.

Choose the Best Patient Payment Solution for Your Facility

The above factors are all critical in choosing a patient payment solution, but ultimately, you must define the most necessary in your hospital environment. Basing that decision primarily on customer-centric factors will encourage happier patients who are more willing and able to settle their outstanding amounts promptly.