As the COVID-19 static clears and the new year brings new developments, video is increasingly becoming a key element of healthcare delivery for patients, providers and insurers alike.
As a result, telehealth now sits at the intersection of patient experience and provider efficiency, making digital and mobile payments integrations vital to its adoption. And a Senate bill introduced on Feb. 7 that seeks to extend telehealth payments by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to providers is seen as more concrete proof that video visits are becoming a valued model at all levels.
See also: Senators Push Bill to Keep Telehealth Medicare Coverage as Private Insurers Lean Into Virtual
Primary among reasons telehealth is gaining such traction are cost advantages that resonate at a time of high inflation, given that healthcare pricing is already a barrier for millions.
In the Telehealth Digital Payments Report, produced in collaboration with American Express, PYMNTS noted that “the average visit for a non-urgent health issue cost $93 less when conducted virtually, while a specialist cost $120 less and urgent care cost up to $141 less per visit. Telehealth visits also reduced the frequency of lab tests, which are often unnecessary, leading to an average of $118 in savings.”
As American Express Director of U.S. partner acquisition Bhavna Sharma stated in the report, telehealth’s prominent new role “opens up the need for healthcare providers to offer a digital — mobile — payments solution in a contactless environment. It will also be imperative that [providers] allow their patients to pay with their preferred payment method to remain competitive amongst their peers and meet patient demand.”
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Absent new telehealth options, millions go without needed care, per the report.
Get the report: The Telehealth Digital Payments Report
Out-of-pocket costs — from deductibles to co-pays to uncovered portions of treatment invoices — are all adding to consumers’ medical payment burdens, which is forcing tough choices.
PYMNTS research throughout the pandemic confirms that a patient-as-consumer mindset is taking hold where people are judging doctors — and switching them — if issues around cost and payment can’t be easily managed with estimates and healthcare financing options.
Wellness And Affordability: How Payments Practices Create Positive Patient Experiences, a PYMNTS report with research sponsored by CareCredit, found that “being able to pay easily with a preferred payment method was very or extremely important to having an overall positive healthcare experience for 57% of respondents.”
Moreover, PYMNTS found that installment plans and third-party financing are “very or extremely important to having an overall positive healthcare experience to 55% of consumers.”
Get the study: Wellness And Affordability: How Payments Practices Create Positive Patient Experiences
Rising demand for telehealth and the expectation that paying for it will be a seamless digital process is pervading consumer perceptions of what telemedicine is and should be.
For example, PYMNTS’ study The Connected Consumer In The Digital Economy: Who Wants To Live In A Digital Connected Economy — And Why? found that as consumer bring digital and mobile deeper into their lives, it’s having transformative impact on healthcare experience.
“Research shows that 40% of consumers now use websites or apps to access their personal health information, for example, and 37% use wearable technology,” per the study.
“Telehealth appointments are also common, with 29% and 26% of consumers having had at least one telehealth appointment for either their physical or mental health, respectively, since the pandemic began.”
Some 23% of consumers now use only online-only healthcare services, PYMNTS found.
Get the study: The Connected Consumer In The Digital Economy: Who Wants To Live In A Digital Connected Economy — And Why?
