Dive Brief:

• Oracle has introduced Oracle Health Payments, its payments system for medical facilities so they can streamline settlement and reconciliation of payments, the tech company said last week.
• For patients, the system allows patients to make their co-pays and pay for elective surgeries or other bills via card methods as well as smartphone tap options with Google Pay, Samsung Pay and/or Apple Pay, Oracle said in an Oct. 16 press release. For healthcare facilities, the end-to-end system includes gateway routing, processing and acquisition in one contract, Oracle said. 
• The system bundles Oracles point-of-sale hardware, accounting software and payments processing with tokenization or encryption so as to collect payments securely, automate revenue posting and minimize fraud and collection costs, per the press release. 

Dive Insight:

Oracle is extending its payment service to the healthcare industry, but already offers its payment technology to other sectors such as retail, dining and hospitality, the release said. The payment card industry compliant system offers services at a flat rate, without additional fees, per the announcement.  

“Healthcare providers are looking to minimize unnecessary expenses and enhance security and efficiency in all aspects of their business,” Oracle Executive Vice President Seema Verma said in the company’s statement. Oracle’s system is aimed at helping healthcare facilities reduce their time and money spent on payments processing and tracking so those facilities can focus on providing patient care, said Verma, who is also the general manager of Oracle’s health and life sciences unit.

Oracle’s move comes as the healthcare system struggles to modernize its payments infrastructure. JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank, reported earlier this year that 85% of healthcare providers receive their payments via electronic funds transfers, while 70% are sent paper checks and half receive them via virtual cards (the bank asked providers to select all the categories that applied).

Meanwhile, 64% of consumers said they receive refunds from their providers through paper checks, with about a third saying their accounts are directly credited, per JPMorgan’s report.

Still, there are signs that digital healthcare payments are on the rise. Nacha, the entity that oversees the ACH Network, reported this month that same-day ACH payment volume for healthcare claim payments rose 7.8%, year-over-year, to 132 million transactions for the third quarter, according to an Oct. 17 press release.