Total System Services Inc.'s TSYS Healthcare unit has reached an agreement with Lighthouse1 LLC that it says will let people consolidate multiple health-care payments onto a single card.
The agreement with Lighthouse1, announced May 26, will provide an online administrative system to handle live account management and claims adjudication. This will eliminate steps, including the need to reconcile payments between different systems, according to TSYS.
"Through platforms like the one we've established with Lighthouse, we're simplifying the process of using health-care payment accounts so that consumers can go to a single site to manage their accounts and make payments through one card with multiple purses for various accounts," said Mark O'Leary, TSYS' senior vice president of health care.
These technological improvements, combined with passage in March of a health-care reform bill, are expected to drive use of debit cards tied to health-care accounts, O'Leary said.
"The health-care bill cleared the air in the industry," he said. "The bill also contained some provisions that are going to encourage insurance companies and employers to use health-care payment accounts for wellness incentives, which we expect will drive further use of health-care debit cards."
