TrustCommerce Blog

With patients bearing more of the responsibility for healthcare payments, healthcare organizations are looking for ways to make it easier for patients to pay, thereby improving collections and decreasing the time and resources it takes to collect payments.

Healthcare payments landscape

More than $2.7 trillion of healthcare payments are made in the U.S. annually, which represents one sixth of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). Direct patient-to-provider payments represent $326 billion.¹  According to a McKinsey & Co. report, about 35 percent of a provider's total revenue will come from patients.

Collecting payment for healthcare services is a labor-intensive process and timing is critical. The healthcare payment process typically involves interactions between multiple parties, often after the service has been provided. As the time from the patient visit grows, patients become hard to contact and harder to collect from.

In traditional methods of payment acceptance, the healthcare worker takes a co-payment onsite prior to the doctor visit. The patient is billed for the remainder of the payment. A healthcare worker will phone and mail statements regularly to try to collect payment from the patient. Types of payment include co-pay, deductible, pre-and post-service expenses, and prescriptions to name a few. For the most part, patients pay by cash or check. Electronic payments, such as credit card, debit card, and ACH, offer patients greater convenience and providers benefit as well. Accepting electronic payments can increase accuracy and shorten the payment cycle.

Patient-focused payment technologies

In conjunction with accepting electronic payments, practices can adopt new “patient-initiated” payment technologies that help capture more revenue and collect payments more efficiently. These technologies include:

Patient payment portals allow patients to securely log in to a web site to manage their accounts. They have immediate access to their account information and can self-manage their own bill payment. Patients can initiate real time payments or easily setup a recurring payment cycle using credit cards, online debit cards, and ACH.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) facilitates text to speech, speech recognition and speech enabled actions. IVR systems can automate many of the routine and repetitive calls made by a provider, such as balance due reminders.

Kiosks serve a variety of purposes and streamline administrative tasks. Using a touch screen, patients can self check in, update personal information, make co-payment and deductible payments, and more.

Emerging Technologies:

• Mobile phone payment processing provides a simple way for patient payment scenarios that are needed outside of a standard healthcare check in environment such as bedside and emergency room payments.
• Tablet-based healthcare payment solutions are moving towards combining collecting patient healthcare information and a simplified co-payment.

When looking at new technologies, providers should consider the following:

• How the solution integrates into existing infrastructure and workflow
• Is it easy to use, thereby increasing the probability of adoption
• Does it comply with regulation and securely protect patient privacy

New Technologies – One Solution

The ability to embrace change and adopt new payment technologies becomes more manageable with a comprehensive and flexible payment acceptance solution as the foundation. TrustCommerce's integrated suite of offerings helps healthcare organizations accommodate their disparate payment sources. With an emphasis on customer service and the ability to customize solutions, TrustCommerce open-source payment solutions provide the assistance organizations need to manage complex legacy systems and explore emerging payments. TrustCommerce is integrated with leading patient management systems such as GE and Epic.

TrustCommerce payment solutions allow providers to not only process standard credit card transactions but pass IIAS transactional data in order to accept flexible spending account (FSA) and health savings account (HSA) cards, while maintaining the highest level of compliancy and security.

To be successful, providers and health systems must evolve to keep pace with the rapid changes in healthcare. By implementing new technologies that include patient-initiated payment methods, healthcare organizations can speed the patient payment cycle and use human resources more efficiently.

¹Aite Group

As 2012 approaches, and companies continue to pursue compliance with the PCI DSS, the threat of data theft still looms large for merchants. On December 12, 2011, CNN, and other news organizations, ran a story announcing that US authorities arrested four Romanian Nationals in connection with a data theft scheme that had been active since 2008. The four individuals would hack into Point of Sale (POS) systems and install Trojans and key-stroke loggers to capture payment card data. This data was then used to make fraudulent purchases, primarily in Europe. 150 Subway restaurants, as well as over 50 other retailers, were victimized and an estimated 80,000 cards were compromised.
 
While a tragic story, the interesting part of this is the acknowledgment that the attacks had been ongoing since 2008--nearly four years before detection. This story is yet another example of how difficult it can be for retailers to protect data from theft and highlights the need for constant vigilance. PCI DSS compliance is simply not enough any longer to prevent data thieves from stealing data. TrustCommerce TC SMART products are designed to provide security for retailers and online merchants. By removing the data from merchant environments, there is nothing for the data thieves to steal. To learn more about TC SMART Products, please contact us at: 800.915.1680.
 
You can read the full article here: http://on.msnbc.com/tOF4ef

Life was simpler way back when. Some of you may remember when televisions only had three channels. A pencil or typewriter was your primary means of written communication. When you made a purchase or paid a bill, you mailed a check or paid cash at the register. Choices were limited, but simplicity appeared to make everything a little more manageable.

Innovations have lead to more choices and greater convenience—especially in our payments world. Think of all the ways consumers pay today: cash, check, credit cards, ACH/e-check, debit cards, gift cards, etc. Merchants also have a multitude of ways to accept payments: POS, online, automated recurring billing, SMS, mail order/telephone order, kiosks, integrated voice recognition (IVR), mobile devices—you name it.

Staying on Top

To remain competitive, merchants must support the traditional methods of payment, while moving forward and accommodating early adopters of the latest technology. However, the breadth of payment acceptance options can seem like an opening for greater risk and exposure. How does a merchant make sure all of the payment data entry points are secure? How do you integrate with existing systems for ease of reporting and reconciliation? Here's how:

1. When choosing a payment acceptance solution, look for a partner who is PCI compliant. Next, find a solution that reduces your compliance burden. Merchants who do not store, process or transmit Account Data (Cardholder Data and Sensitive Authentication Data), as defined by the PCI DSS, can dramatically reduce the cost of compliance and the risk associated with accepting payments. TC SMART products accomplish that goal and provide a clear path for compliance, data security, and fraud reduction.

2. Don't get caught up in all the features and benefits and lose sight of the big question: Will this integrate with my existing systems and solutions and allow me to grow? TrustCommerce's secure API, TCLink, allows merchants to integrate multiple transaction entry points and is open source. This gives merchants more control and flexibility.

A comprehensive payment acceptance solution provider can make it easier to embrace change. The convenience that comes with offering choice makes it worthwhile.

Small businesses are the heart and soul of the U.S. economy. From local mom and pop shops to innovative web start ups, we rely on these merchants daily for goods and services. In the payments world, small businesses are referred to as Level 4 merchants, those processing less than 20,000 e-commerce transactions annually and up to 1 million transactions annually. There are more than 6 million Level 4 merchants in the U.S.
PCI compliance is a vital component of merchants overall, ongoing security program. However, Level 4 merchants have not always been well educated or encouraged by their acquiring bank to become compliant.

If your business transmits cardholder data, you must also be PCI compliant. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a security standard that includes requirements for security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, software design and other critical protective measures. This definition may sound intimidating, but the overall goal is to help organizations proactively protect customer account data.

All merchants must be PCI DSS compliant
Regardless of how small your business is, you must be compliant. PCI DSS compliance is required of all entities that store, process, or transmit cardholder data, including financial institutions, merchants and service providers. Cardholder data is any personally identifiable information associated with a cardholder, such as an account number, expiration date, name, address, social security number, etc.
Although PCI DSS is not a law, failure to meet compliance standards can result in fines from credit card companies and banks, brand and reputation damage, and even the loss of the ability to process credit cards.

What are risks of accepting card holder data?
Small businesses and home-based businesses are vulnerable to hackers simply because they are usually not well protected. Home-based businesses account for 53 percent of all small businesses. Intruders see these businesses as easy targets and exploit their broadband connections, which are always on, and programs such as online games and file-sharing applications. Other typical ways merchant environments are breached include: SQL injection attacks, malicious code attacks, insecure remote access, or insecure wireless.

Sensitive cardholder data can be stolen from many places:

• Compromised card reader
• Paper documents stored onsite
• Data in a payment system database
• Hidden camera recording entry of PIN or other authenticating data

What are the costs?
Oftentimes it takes numbers, and fear of loss, to push merchants to take the compliance leap. Merchants can expect to pay approximately $50,000 for PCI compliance violations. In addition, the bank will also most likely terminate your relationship or charge higher transaction fees. These penalties can be hard to overcome.

In addition, if cardholder data becomes exposed, be aware that more than 38 states have laws requiring data breach notifications to the affected parties resulting in incalculable losses to brand, reputation and customer base. Refer to www.privacyrights.org for detail on state laws.

Summary
PCI compliance is a must. Take advantage of the resources and reputable partners that can make the process more efficient. By creating a safe environment for processing your customer’s transactions, you will keep them coming back and ensure your business thrives. 

To learn more, read TrustCommerce's whitepaper on PCI Compliance for Small Merchants.