Leveraging Lending for Affordable Healthcare
The cost of healthcare in the United States has skyrocketed in the recent years. In the last decade alone, healthcare costs have gone up by 180%. For cash-strapped people requiring to go under a medical procedure, many are likely to miss a procedure, follow-up with a doctor or adhering to their subscriptions instead of paying more money. The behaviour is backed by stats; Healthcare costs for a family have risen faster than income per annum.
With the healthcare costs increasing faster than the annual income, patients with health conditions are getting behind on their medical bills. It is approximated that 68% of patients with medical bills of $500 or less did not pay off their balance in full last year.
This trend is more worrisome if you scale it: out of hospital bills greater than or equal to $3,000, 99% were not paid in full, just last year alone. The problem is further compounded that the partly paid portion of the bill was mostly the insurance portion. Only 30% of the patient-owned portion had been paid in full.
Virtual Force has extensive experience in Healthcare applications. Want a preview? Click here.
This leaves for a huge gap in the market for financing solutions catering to people behind their bills. For people who have a low credit score or have maxed out on their insurance plans, banks and health insurance are also not a viable option.
The solution lies in alternate funding for medical billing. And this is what a healthtech startup, Crediyo, aims to solve.
Branding itself as a alternate lending platform for patient care, Crediyo provides intervention at clinical point of sale. When a consumer is billed and is in need of alternate ways of funding their clinical bills instead of using their insurance Crediyo provides the breathing space.
Medical bill and debt problems have long-term financial consequences https://t.co/6n4C8wbkuN pic.twitter.com/BkNrSv9lmG
— Commonwealth Fund (@commonwealthfnd) January 5, 2016
To launch its product, however, Crediyo needed to come up with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), that would settle debt for patients. It had to do so by offering easy-to-pay loans that had less likelihood of default, using their proprietary datasets.
Crediyo partnered up with Virtual Force as its technology partner, where after analysis a final product design was devised.The design was the result of insightful information and suggestions provided by client and the innovative approach of VF technical team. Here is what the product had to offer:
Personalized Payment Plans
Customers are offered payment scheduling according to their own budget and buying power.
Proprietary Credit Data
Crediyo owns a proprietary credit database to come up with debt and credit assessment for customers.
CEO Leonard Hinton explaining how we increase access to healthcare @villagecapital venture forum #fintechus15 #impact pic.twitter.com/0OzasuULDA
— Crediyo (@crediyo_) July 24, 2015
Point of Service Technology
Crediyo’s point of service, HIPAA-compliant registration tool surveys patient medical history electronically, verifies insurance, calculates how much patients owe, and informs patients of their out-of-pocket responsibility.
Payment via Mobile/ Web
Crediyo payments can be made via mobile and web portal, making it easier for customers to access payment portals.
Data Security
Patient data, history and credit database is kept secure using a variety of methods, including encryption.
Crediyo, since it’s launch with a MVP, has progressed to further refinement in the previous years. The project has helped meet our clients’ annual profits targets and debt settlement accuracy.
As per latest statistics, 80% of medical bills contain errors. Crediyo’s patient advocates detect and remove these errors so patients are never overcharged. Crediyo has also reported higher collections for providers by up to 20%.
READ MORE:
http://www.virtual-force.org/blog/white-coat-healthcare/