Apple Pay Moves into Health Care Payments

An Apple a day keeps the doctor away — or at least Apple Pay can now help pay for the visit.

The mobile payment service has been integrated into the health care payments network InstaMed, it was announced yesterday (April 13).

With the integration, consumers in the health care industry can use an iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus or (once it’s available) Apple Watch to pay for products and/or services at the checkout desk at a hospital or doctor’s office, or within a mobile app that medical professionals use to communicate with patients. Consumers can also use Apple Pay with their health insurance company’s mobile app to pay their health insurance premiums and/or copay.

On the merchant side, health care providers, payers and vendors within the InstaMed network can offer Apple Pay as a payment option within their consumer-facing apps. As noted in the press release announcing the InstaMed/Apple Pay integration, within apps, Apple Pay is compatible (in addition to the aforementioned iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus) with the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3.

“Approximately 20 percent of consumers have unpaid health care bills as a result of confusion in the payments process. This will only grow as more and more consumers continue to enroll in high deductible health plans,” said Chris Seib, CTO and Co-Founder of InstaMed, in the release. “To resolve consumer confusion and rising bad debt, the health care industry must deliver a simple, secure and private payment process with innovative technology, including Apple Pay. As mobile payments are expected to reach $142 billion by 2019, the health care industry must leverage solutions like Apple Pay to meet these consumer needs. We are excited to bring Apple Pay to our customers and remain the leader in innovation for health care payments.”