Consumer-directed benefits platform Elevate on Wednesday (Feb. 16) announced it has teamed up with Visa to implement Visa Direct, Visa’s real-time push-payments platform, allowing Elevate customers to offer their employees “quick and seamless access to their healthcare reimbursements.”
Elevate allows employers to offer a secure, user-friendly service to their employees, according to the company press release.
The company’s embeddable, API-driven, full benefits administration platform manages out-of-pocket costs and uses optical character recognition technology to read uploaded receipts and reimburse employees within the same day via direct deposit to their checking accounts, Venmo accounts or to their eligible debit cards and prepaid cards in real-time.
“We consistently hear from employers how frustrating it is that it takes employees so long to get their benefit reimbursement claims processed and paid,” said Brian Cosgray, Elevate’s CEO and co-founder, in the company press release.
“With rising costs of everything, getting employees money back into their hands as quickly and easily as possible is core to Elevate’s mission,” he said. “By integrating Visa Direct into Elevate’s platform, we’re enabling real-time reimbursements for employees, thus enabling a competitive edge for employers looking to improve their benefits programs.”
Related: Visa: Omicron’s Spending Impact Less Than Past Variants
Meanwhile, PYMNTS reported that Visa’s U.S. Spending Momentum Index, which tracks the health of consumer spending, was 102.4 in January, down from a revised 109.4 in December. When the SMI is above 100, it shows consumer spending momentum is strengthening; when it falls below 100, the spending momentum is weakening relative to the previous year.
Research by Visa’s Business and Economic Insights team shows that, while consumer demand has been less impacted with each successive COVID-19 wave, business disruptions have risen, which contributes to the upswing in inflation.
Figures released Feb. 10 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that consumer prices rose 7.5% since the previous January, the highest rate of inflation since 1982.
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