ETA Expert Insights: Sales Education Guide for the Healthcare Vertical

Andrew Cohen, Chief Administrative Officer, Esquire Bank
David Karcher, VP, Partner Sales, and Development, Till Payments
George Smith, Sales & Marketing Manager, Payscout
ETA Payment Sales & Strategy Committee

Now more than ever, providing convenient and flexible ways for patients to pay is critical to business. The dynamics for payers are changing, especially as more consumers enroll in health plans as individuals and more employers turn to self-funded plans to manage healthcare costs better. Patients are experiencing hikes in average out-of-pocket costs, which means patients are becoming the “principal payers” — and therefore, a shift in thinking about payments in the medical office is paramount.

Technology
One of the primary drivers for technology solutions within a healthcare ecosystem is the merchant’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

• An ERP system is business management software often comprised of integrated applications for core business processes.
• These include asset management, accounting, customer services (CRM), procurement, human resources, corporate governance, and multi-channel commerce.

A payment strategy for healthcare must reflect an understanding and awareness of ERP systems (market leaders, integration requirements, etc.). It starts with first discerning how the ERP supports multi-channel commerce and at what points in the patient experience payments are occurring.

• A sound strategy will accommodate the complexities of the ERP system and add additional value, including opening better, more modern channels [mobile app, kiosk, IVR, self-service web portals, etc.] for patient engagement and payments, reducing the scope of PCI compliance within the system, and ensuring standard operating procedures for payment and PII data across the entire ecosystem.

Risk and Underwriting
In the Healthcare vertical, reputational risk issues are less prevalent than what you would expect in managed or high-risk verticals. The critical issues related to Underwriting and Risk for Healthcare companies are more financial and hinge upon average ticket/transaction amounts and overall monthly volumes.

• For these issues, simple financial analysis of bank statements and prior processing statements can help the salesperson expedite and advance the Underwriting review process for the account.
• Other considerations include the channels and methods for payment acceptance within the healthcare ecosystems.

Sales agents will want to ensure they’ve submitted accounts for Underwriting to review all channels and means of processing payments.

Sales Strategy
The key to selling payments in the healthcare industry is to:

• Ensure the solution/platform/offering is HIPAA compliant, has cost transparency, excellent customer service, a solid reputation, and the ability to seamlessly integrate into the office’s practice management system (PMS).
• Additionally, Electronic Health Record (EHR) integration eliminates double entry, allows for real-time data exchange, improves staff productivity, and improves the patient experience.

The right merchant account platform can provide both credit card processing and solid payment security, industrious software integrations, and brand-friendly customer-facing communications. Practices should not have to piecemeal solutions together, and utilizing a cohesive healthcare payments solution will take a massive load off of the practice’s administration team.

Revenue cycle management in the healthcare industry is broken. Most practices utilize an inefficient patchwork of manual processes, software solutions, and expensive third-party vendors. The key sales differentiator is to provide healthcare providers with a single solution that effectively manages their revenue while seamlessly integrating into their practice management system by automating their payment workflow, customizing their payment plans, and providing them with a centralized dashboard and secure online patient portal.

Here is how each can be achieved:

Automated Workflow

• Digital invoices for recurring payments with automated email & text reminders for patients
• Securely accept payments online or directly in-office
• PMS integrations that make searching for patients easy

Customized Payment Plans

• Flexible payment plans allow practices to retain more patients and avoid the high fees of third-party lenders.
• Customize affordable down payments and schedule automatic monthly installments

Centralized Dashboard

• Live view of practice cash flow in real-time
• Secure user accounts with permissions to keep finances private
• Triage accounts receivable to strengthen collections

Online Patient Portal

• Patients must be able to manage their payments from anywhere and track their payment information and transactions.

This article is part of a series by the ETA Payment Sales & Strategy Committee
Sales Education Guide for B2B/G
Sales Education Guide for High-Risk Verticals
Sales Education Guide for Nonprofits