Aetna To Enable Faster Payments Between Members And Health Care Providers

Company to introduce payment options, including Easy Pay, to speed members’ payments for medical services

HARTFORD, Conn.,— Aetna (NYSE: ΑET) is building on its transparency initiatives and existing payment solutions with new programs to facilitate members’ payments for out-of-pocket costs to health care providers. The company is working with Medical Funding Services (MFS) to introduce expanded electronic options to simplify billing and reimbursement.

MFS will offer its financial services and related electronic payment solutions to network health care providers in select markets. These include an online solution that combines the health plan and patient portions of a medical bill into a single payment to health care providers. Members may see reduced paperwork; health care providers also can benefit from reduced paperwork and faster reimbursement. MFS also offers programs and services to health care providers including patient volume guarantees, prepayments to health care providers of projected claims, and electronic solutions to improve the timeliness of payments.

Over the next year, Aetna will work with employers to give members the choice to participate in its Easy Pay program, in which members can automatically pay health care providers though a credit or debit card. The program offers members an electronic option to make it easier to pay for out-of-pocket health care costs.

“Aetna recognizes that as consumer responsibility for health care costs increases, so do health care professionals’ concerns about payment from members. We believe there are solutions that benefit everyone,” said Allen Karp, Aetna vice president for Health Care Delivery. “We are developing programs that make it easier for health care professionals to receive payment, while helping consumers stretch their health care dollars and simplify how they pay their out-of-pocket costs to hospitals and physicians.”

In the Easy Pay program, members can register their credit or debit card information with MFS, which will handle the transaction on behalf of the member. Aetna members who participate in the Easy Pay automatic payment program may see reduced medical charges.

“We are pleased to be working with Aetna toward improving cash flow for health care providers and modernizing the claims payment process for the benefit of health care providers, health plans, and their members,” said MFS’s Chief Operating Officer Tom Morey. “Our goal is to deliver measurable value across all of Aetna’s relationships through each MFS program.”

The more informed members are about the true cost of health care and their responsibilities, the better they can anticipate and be prepared to reimburse health care providers for their portion of out-of-pocket costs. Aetna has one of the strongest suites of consumer tools and information in the industry to help its members understand and anticipate the true cost of health care. The company was the first health plan to make physician-specific rates transparent and available to members before they receive care.