In the field of patient payments, as in health information technology in general, change is occurring at an accelerated pace.
Across the healthcare industry, we are witnessing a rapid shift to digital transformation to improve patient care, operational efficiency, and data management. Trends we see in 2024 include an increased focus on security and compliance, the continued retailization of healthcare, and a growing recognition of the need for healthcare providers to address generational differences among patients. Masu.
One thing that never seems to change in the healthcare industry is patients' concerns about healthcare affordability. For example, PhRMA and Ipsos found that nearly half of Americans, including those with health insurance, report being concerned about their ability to pay out-of-pocket medical expenses in addition to monthly groceries. This was revealed in a recent survey.
The survey also found that one-third of people with insurance said their out-of-pocket costs for medical services increased from the previous year, and 18% reported having unpaid medical debt.
While concerns about health care affordability will certainly continue for many Americans next year, here are some other patient payment trends health care providers should keep an eye on in 2025.
Increased use of alternative payment methods: Digital wallets such as PayPal, Venmo, Google Pay, and Apple Pay are easily accessible from computers and smartphones, eliminating the need for consumers to carry traditional wallets and credit and debit cards. Masu. For healthcare providers and patients, digital wallets offer greater convenience, ease of use, and efficiency than traditional healthcare payment methods. Additionally, digital wallets offer multi-layered security.
The need to proactively manage cards on file: The amount of cards on file will increase as healthcare providers offer payment plans to help patients manage medical costs. To keep up with this pace, providers must manage their card-on-file by identifying, updating and/or unsaving outdated or inactive account information. Patient concerns about financial security are making payment card tokenization technology increasingly important to providers. Tokenization is the process of replacing sensitive information, such as a card account number, with a harmless value called a token. This allows healthcare providers to securely store patient payment data for future use without having to capture, store, or transmit sensitive payment data themselves. Managing these tokens can improve your collection and reduce risk.
Moving payment infrastructure to the cloud: Most providers have already moved their electronic health records to the cloud. Payments infrastructure must do the same to increase flexibility, scalability, and efficiency with a focus on security and compliance. Cloud-based payment solutions are easy to deploy, troubleshoot, and manage, and offer support for all major digital payment types.
Emergence and Applications of AI: Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is showing promise in medical operations, care delivery, and more. GenAI’s recent innovations could be an antidote to the troubling levels of burnout that affect so many healthcare workers. Using AI in healthcare can not only automate tasks that previously required human resources, but also make better use of existing staff and distribute the workload more equitably.
Focus on data security: While there is no doubt that generative AI has positive potential to provide new tools to simplify back-office operations, reporting, customer service, etc., it also has the potential to It also provides new ways to access data illegally. Using AI to improve automated attacks is one way malicious parties can exploit AI to steal data. Consistent and timely security awareness training is certainly one way to increase security awareness among your employees. Providers can also reduce the potential for data theft through data minimization. In other words, don't store anything you don't need.
Patient payment technology that protects sensitive patient data through tokenization and verified point-to-point encryption (vP2PE) while promoting PCI DSS compliance is one way to reduce data storage. Tokenization replaces your primary account number (PAN) with a secure token. If intercepted, the data does not contain cardholder information, making it useless to hackers. With vP2PE transactions, data is fully encrypted from the time the patient enters their payment information until the time it is received by the payment processor. vP2PE not only reduces a provider's risk of falling victim to a payment data breach, it also reduces the number of resources required for PCI DSS compliance.
As we look to 2025, technology and evolving consumer needs and preferences will be the primary drivers of change in healthcare. And, no doubt, more exciting changes are on the horizon.
Photo: Sorbetto, Getty Images

Johnathan (John) Welch is Sphere's Chief Product Officer, leading the product organization and driving the roadmap for Sphere's payments and healthcare-focused product suite. Originally from London, UK, John is an internationally oriented payments executive with over 15 years' experience working for some of the world's largest payment providers and banks, including leadership roles at Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Worldpay and Mastercard. I'm an expert.
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