Meet Paytient

We provide instant access to no-cost financing for health care and veterinary services. In short, “Cash for Care”

What is the problem we’re solving? What is our vision?

We see unequal opportunity in two timeframes: Present and Future

Today: If you’re under 65, it is likely you are one of the 156M Americans whose health care costs are mostly paid by their employer.

Less able to actively manage external health care pricing versus other operating costs, employers will continue to externalize this burden to employees via benefit plan design (networks, higher deductibles, copays, and coinsurance). Effectively, slow stepping employer-sponsored health care from largely a defined-benefit to a defined-contribution.

As a hospital administrator for the last 11 years, I can assure you that healthcare prices, for various reasons, will continue to rise without regard to affordability. Unfortunately, the average US consumer can only absorb so much, and with record levels of non-mortgage consumer debt, financial harm looms on the horizon when illness strikes. Paytient gives the consumer a new source of no-cost funds to pay for $300B of out-of-pocket healthcare expenses.

Future: In societal terms, perhaps somewhat counterintuitively, we believe the transition from defined benefit to defined contribution is a good thing and will inevitably result in a cash market for sub-catastrophic healthcare. For a historical analogy, we believe the future will resemble retirement savings. Before 1978, the unquestioned status quo was the pension plan. 12 years after the advent of the 401k, there were 20 million 401k accounts. Today, there are 55M accounts with $5.3T under management.

Interestingly, 12 years after the HSA was created out of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, there are 20 million health savings accounts.

It is our belief, that the arc naturally bends, over time, to defined contribution and away from defined benefit.

In that future, most health care transactions will be financed on-demand rather than pre-paid and managed via a third party (aka insurance).

What does Paytient make?

In the simplest terms, Paytient is an app to pay medical bills.

Most hospitals allow their own employees to pay their medical bills over time via payroll deduct. This was a popular way to pay at my hospital of 2,000 employees. Paytient enables all employers to offer that unique benefit to their own employees.

Sold to employers, Paytient is a digital payment method that replaces cash, credit cards, loans, or negotiating/setting up payment plans with healthcare providers.

Employees tap the app when they get any healthcare or veterinary bill. We give them access to a line of credit on a virtual payment card based on their employment history and historical net paycheck amount. After use, the app prompts them to pick the number of paychecks to pay that transaction back to us — at no cost to them. We communicate the request to the employer’s payroll team (or contracted payroll service provider) and they send us the scheduled payments.

Healthcare providers benefit from upfront payment, reduced risk of nonpayment, and incremental patient volume.

Employers benefit from a 30% increase in retention among employees with a payment schedule as well as from cost reductions achieved by the paired offering of Paytient in a strategic manner. Examples: 1) we have an employer that seeks to offer Paytient only to employees enrolled in their high deductible health plan as a means of increasing plan adoption, 2) another large employer seeks to increase FSA participation — currently 18% of their workforce contribute to an FSA. They seek to make Paytient available to employees who contribute to an FSA in 2019.

Why did you start this company or project?

a) To help people access healthcare when they need it as opposed to when they are able to afford a visit.

b) Help health care providers get paid (this is a real pain point with hospitals collecting 30–40 cents on the dollar from patients).

c) Give employers a new, non-insurance tool to reduce cost as well as attract and retain employees.

d) It is our long-term view, a cash market for sub-catastrophic healthcare will arise as employer sponsored healthcare continues to bend from defined benefit to defined contribution. We seek to establish Paytient as new category of payer and work-place benefit in this future state.

Paytient Technologies

Written by

Improving access to affordable health care at www.paytient.co

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade