Technology enabled payment solutions have for the past decade revolutionized the payments and collections industry with fit for purpose functions meant to address specific needs within financial ecosystems. Institutions that collect and move bulk cash have had their fair share of these apps. Of particular notice is apps designed specifically for payments and collections in hospitals and clinics. In this article, we will discuss the benefits payment and collections apps bring using the Stanbic Health Pay App as a reference.
The Stanbic Health Pay App is an innovative mobile platform that allows hospitals to collect their bills in real time through multi-digital channel platforms that can be used by anyone irrespective of their location. The app is incorporated in the hospital management system of hospitals and bills are loaded at the backend. The benefits accrued from the usage of this app are multi-faceted for both hospital and patients or payees.
As expected, the number one criteria that many people consider when using a technology enabled payment platform is security. Both collectors and payers want a platform that guarantees the security and safety of their funds once transferred and/or received. The security features on the Stanbic Health Pay App have been fortified to the extent that billers and tellers by themselves cannot reverse transactions until the proper requests have been made and sanctioned by the approving authority. The bank has further created servers, switches, routers and computers as part of the deployment of the app. These are firmly secured installed and configured on secured ICT protocols, which as a bank, already has experience in managing.
Another critical benefit every hospital payment and collections app should have is the convenience it provides users. For the hospital, the app provides a single view of all transactions in real time. This enables hospital administrators to monitor inflows and outflows and also notice and block all revenue leakages. Also, instead of having to deal with long queues at OPDs, the ordeal of dealing with loads of people trying to settle bills and process payments is eliminated. On the part of the customer, payment can be processed from anywhere regardless of location. Patients who cannot effect payment from a single source are able to pool resources to settle bills through the app. In effect, the app facilitates e-commerce services to patients and even their relations abroad by providing a platform that can be used to effect payment any day, anytime and from anywhere.
Access to a person’s transaction history and his/her ability to track payments and receipts is critical for again, the purposes of security and monitoring of one’s cash flow. The Stanbic Health Pay App provides an incomparable benefit of tracking bills. The app gives users the opportunity to track bills using a unique reference number for every transaction made. This payment reference ID is generated for each patient/payee for subsequent validation should the need arise later. Further, a notification is shared once a transaction is completed by a patient/payee and the same is updated on the billing system of the hospital so both patient/payee and hospital can track payment of bills.
Beyond these benefits, one very important thing every hospital payment and collections app must have is the ability to block loopholes and optimize revenue collections. The app must be configured in a way that minimizes revenue loopholes by automating the billing and collections process. The effective and efficient delivery of quality public services are important to the sustenance of society and as we continue to explore ways to make life easier, we must always look out for those innovations that optimize our experience with technology.
The writer is the Head of Client Implementation & Channels Solutions, Stanbic Bank.
