21% of Consumers Find Making Healthcare Payments Difficult

The possibilities for managing aspects of our healthcare via digital means are resonating more across the demographic spectrum as platforms and portals increase in popularity after much of the population underwent an immersion in these tools during the pandemic.

“The Digital Platform Promise: How Patients Want to Streamline Healthcare Payments,” a PYMNTS and Lynx collaboration based on a survey of more than 2,500 U.S. consumers, showed the uptake of digital payments and other tasks in the past year.

Innovations like unified healthcare platforms are helping cure some of the problems consumers said they frequently encounter, from understanding insurance coverages to paying deductibles.

“Zooming in on the data, we learned that 21% of consumers found the actual process of paying difficult,” the study stated. “Another 18% said that medical bills were confusing in ways that hampered efficient payment, with 13% unable to decipher the costs for specific services and 9% finding inconsistencies between the costs outlined on medical bill statements and those detailed within the online patient portal.”

Contrast that with findings from the study that among consumers who held an online account with a digital healthcare or wellness-related portal, 48% reported that online channels improve at least one part of the overall payments and billing management experience. Notably, 29% said that digital portals make their experience more convenient, and 25% said that digital platforms make it easier to access account information.

Going deeper into the data, the study noted that “we observed high levels of satisfaction among consumers who use digital portals for a variety of purposes related to their healthcare spending,” as 70% of those who paid outstanding balances through an online platform reported being highly satisfied with the experience, and 64% of those who viewed medical invoices and insurance payments through a digital portal said the same.

Most consumers who used digital platforms to set up payment plans, get cost estimates or obtain billing information also reported high levels of satisfaction.