Across the United States, a significant barrier to healthcare access is cost. According to National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data, financial concerns are the top reason Americans put off necessary care, accounting for 79% of care delays in people living with chronic disease. More than one-third (36%) of U.S. adults report skipping or postponing medical care due to its cost. 

All providers share an ethical obligation to help their patients avoid unnecessary delays in care, but for small and independent practices, the impact can be particularly significant. Proactive interventions can help prevent hospitalizations and complications, improving a practice’s population health performance. As a result, practices may see higher reimbursement rates under value-based care (VBC) arrangements. When patients delay care, practices not only risk poorer quality metrics but also lose visit volume and short-term revenue. 

Building a reputation as a practice that actively helps patients afford care—by offering transparent pricing, a variety of payment options, and financing—can set small medical practices apart from larger health systems where the experience feels more transactional. By prioritizing convenience and flexibility, practices can ease financial stress for patients and create a more supportive care experience. 

Not all stakeholders in small medical practices understand that this is possible. “There’s a common misconception that giving healthcare consumers retail-like payment experiences isn’t affordable for smaller or independent practices,” says Misty Meraz, Vice President of Healthcare and Public Sector Sales at Elavon, Inc. “Financial leaders often think that in order to accept online payments, digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, and text message-based payments, you have to be a large health system using Epic or Oracle Health.” 

In reality, that’s not the case at all. With a next-generation healthcare payment platform, even the smallest provider organizations can reduce day-to-day friction and simplify operations. The right solution streamlines the flow of payments between insurers, individual patients and the practice, improving collection rates as well as patient experience. 

Here’s what to look for in a solution: 

1. Automated reconciliation

In smaller practices, administrative teams often spend hours manually reconciling payments across electronic medical records (EMR) and practice management systems (PMS). These manual workflows are not only time-consuming, but are also prone to error. Few experiences erode patient trust more quickly than receiving a large medical bill for care they believe they already paid for. 

A solution that integrates with existing EMR and PMS platforms enables practices to track, manage, reconcile and report on patient payments within a single interface. By automatically linking insurance reimbursements and patient out-of-pocket payments at the individual level, practices can reduce billing discrepancies and improve accuracy. When unified merchant processing across banking partners is also supported, reconciliation becomes faster, simpler, and more reliable. 

2. The ability to accept payments across the entire healthcare journey and all relevant channels

By being transparent about pricing and allowing patients to pay on their own terms, practices can earn trust. These practices are also likely to see higher patient retention rates over the long term. 

Giving patients greater control over how they pay will look different across demographics and preferences. Some would rather pay online via a provider portal, while others will prefer to pay by phone or text message. Some will continue to use cash and checks, and others will choose contactless payment methods like Apple Pay, Google Pay and other mobile wallets. 

Beyond offering multiple payment methods, a payments platform should also support flexibility in when people can pay. Accepting payments prior to visits, at the point of care and after appointments allows patients to choose the timing that works best for them. Secure card-on-file capabilities further support this flexibility by enabling automatic payments, which can improve collection rates. Stored payment information also makes it easier to offer no-fee recurring payment options, reducing financial friction for patients and increasing the likelihood that balances are paid in full. 

3. Healthcare-specific experience and strong customer support

Healthcare organizations have unique payment needs. Aside from the regulatory complexity, they must navigate (all systems processing payment card data need to be PCI DSS compliant, while those handling protected health information (PHI) must meet HIPAA standards), stakeholders are aware that billing and medical coding errors can have legal consequences. 

Healthcare organizations face payment requirements that are distinct from other industries. In addition to managing regulatory complexity–ensuring PCI DSS compliance for payment card processing and HIPAA compliance for systems handling protected health information (PHI)–they must also contend with the legal risk associated with billing and medical coding errors. 

In addition, healthcare payments often come from multiple sources: financial responsibility for a single patient encounter may be shared across public payers, commercial insurers, and the patient themself. Each funding source has different rules and requirements, and each will pay on a different schedule, creating highly variable revenue cycles. With rising enrollment in high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) and growing self-pay revenues, practices need to balance their need for timely collections with patients’ need for empathy, support, and understanding. 

Look for a healthcare payments partner who understands all of these industry-specific complexities. Ideally, each practice will receive support from a dedicated team specializing in healthcare payments. This team should be available whenever you need it and should have deep knowledge of the ins and outs of this highly regulated industry.

In a world where patients are responsible for an ever-greater percentage of healthcare costs, keeping care accessible means making it as simple and easy as possible to pay medical bills. A next-generation payments solution can also alleviate administrative burden, freeing clinicians’ time and energy so that they can focus on what they do best—delivering top-of-license care. 

“Having more ways of collecting payments has been proven to speed up collections for practices,” says Meraz. “This makes revenues more predictable, but it also encourages patient loyalty, which is even more important. Surveys have shown that patients will leave one practice for another that delivers a better financial experience. You can’t think about payment in isolation—it’s part of the overall experience of care.” 

How would a next-generation payments platform transform your practice? See how Elavon works with medical and specialty practices to discover what’s possible.