B2B healthcare payments have been fraught with pain points for insurance companies and hospitals. Payment delays, working capital issues, lack of claim payment visibility and manual reconciliation have long been the norm.
These bottlenecks are amplified by the legacy systems that many insurance companies still rely on to manually process claims.
These are some of the pain points that Mastercard is seeking to address.
Progress has been made towards improving connectivity across insurance companies and healthcare providers. Health tech platforms have emerged as vital intermediaries. Specifically, they are disrupting the way claim settlement information is exchanged. And they are removing the arduous paper trail that once slowed down claim processing. Yet, up until now, there has been a critical gap in the system. Payments have remained disjointed from these health tech platforms.
” The healthcare industry is at an inflection point. Evolving digital-first expectations are challenging industry norms,” said Raja Rajamannar, chief marketing and communications officer and president, healthcare, Mastercard. “Around the world, we’ve been working closely with healthcare organisations to better serve their partners and patients with a range of products and services well-tuned to drive simplicity, convenience and efficiency in payments and beyond.”
Supporting B2B healthcare claim settlements with virtual cards
Mastercard is pioneering a first of its kind medical claim payment solution with key partners using its virtual card technology.
It is introducing this solution with one of the leading financial institutions in India and Remedinet, a cloud-based health tech platform that aims to simplify the back-end of cashless claims by connecting hospitals, insurers and third-party administrators in India.
The healthcare sector in India is rapidly growing, yet considerable challenges still exist. These include fragmentation and lack of digitisation, making the country’s healthcare system ripe for innovation. The solution is available to all insurance-network hospitals in India on the Remedinet platform. It aims to bring relief to healthcare providers and insurance companies strained by the current cashless claim settlement process.
Making B2B healthcare payments fast, easy and secure
The end-to-end solution embeds virtual cards within the health tech platforms that connect payers and healthcare providers using API connectivity. Integrating Mastercard’s innovative virtual card platform makes complex B2B payments fast, easy and secure, holds promise for the healthcare industry.
The moment the authorised claim is submitted to the insurance company, a virtual card is generated by Mastercard. It is then issued by a financial institution to the healthcare provider. For hospitals or other specialty healthcare centres that previously spent months waiting to receive claim payments, virtual cards provide a critical working capital solution by making the payout process nearly immediate.
“We’re on a mission to integrate our technology into platform providers to drive seamless B2B payment experiences at greater scale,” said Chad Wallace, global head of Commercial Solutions, Mastercard, “As we assessed industries where we can contribute with impact, healthcare emerged as a critical industry to unlock payment efficiencies.”
“This strategic partnership complements our vision of reshaping healthcare payments and realising a future where claim settlements can be truly seamless,” added Munish Daga, Director-CEO of Remedinet. “Embedding Mastercard’s technology and network capabilities into our platform presents an opportunity to further simplify claim processing for both hospitals, insurers, corporates & governments.”
