Patient Payments at St. Charles Medical Center: Reducing the Hospital Receivables

This Financial Insights report profiles a solution developed by Aequitas Capital Management that has been implemented at the St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, Oregon and is achieving significant increases in collections. Leading financial institutions are moving beyond support for health savings accounts (HSAs) to directly address the difficulty that hospitals and other healthcare providers have with collecting directly from consumers rather than health insurance providers. As usage of HSAs continues to rise and as employers increasingly push consumer-directed healthcare strategies (in the form of corporate-subsidized plans), the demand for such collection systems will increase.

According to Dana Gould, senior research analyst, Payments, "New opportunities are developing and new systems are being created to effectively cope with changes in the healthcare payments arena. Those that are among the first to take advantage of the changes and develop the required solutions stand to gain the most in the marketplace."