Banks have an additional venue to tap the healthcare payments market via a new collaborative alliance between Online Resources and First Data’s STAR network to provide ATM and debit card payment for healthcare transactions.
Web and phone based ATM/debit payments from healthcare providers and related billers will be accepted on the STAR Network, which provides a national ATM/debit network that will compliment Online Resources’ network of financial institution and biller clients that use the tech vendor’s online bill payment and processing services.
“Banks will be able to increase transaction loyalty and service fees,” says Bob Craig, evp and general manager of Online Resource’s electronic commerce division in Princeton, NJ. “These payments can stay within the bank’s relationship.”
Craig also says the partnership will provide a readily implementable product that will streamline billing services for hospitals, physicians and other providers while providing a real-time compliment to credit card and other payment channels. The marketplace and potential for cost savings is potentially lucrative, as McKinsey & Company says the U.S. healthcare payment system processes nearly $2 trillion yearly, with processing costs consuming up to 15 percent of that amount.
