Digital payment systems are attracting a wealth of interest in the technology news sphere these days, and for good reason. So-called “eWallets” may be the future of financial transactions.
Sure, mobile payment systems have been around for a little while. Starbucks has actually been a major leader in this sector since early 2011; its iPhone and Android app enables users to have a barcode on their phones’ screens scanned to complete a transaction. The simple system was used for over 42 million payments in its first 15 months on the app market.
Another eWallet presence is Square, launched in 2009. Square offers a card reader, which uses an actual (square) scanning device that attaches to smartphones to execute credit card swipes. The company also has electronic payment and point-of-sale management apps.
The systems of Starbucks and Square have proven exceptionally popular, largely due to their simplicity. Their mobile functionalities – barcodes and credit card scanning – aren’t much different than that of the payment systems that preceded them, but they rose to prominence thanks to convenience and ease of use.
But continuing innovation in mobile payments is making that simplicity look passé.
Some big-name players in the virtual wallet space are looking to make it possible for people to pay for goods and services – or get paid for them – without so much as a scan or swipe, using only their smartphones.
The emerging technology enabling that functionality is known as NFC: near-field communication, sometimes called “contactless technology.” Google Wallet, Isis, Visa and MasterCard are all working on NFC-enabled payment services, which will execute transactions wirelessly based on proximity.
Near-field communication is an exciting industry in which the sky seems to be the limit. Unfortunately though, in that metaphor the “sky” is “healthcare.” And right now, it really is a limit.
Grocery stores, gas stations, and other retail locations are just an upgrade away from NFC-receptive capability – all it will take to incorporate mobile payments into their existing POS systems is a new credit card machine with updated NFC capabilities.
Healthcare’s another story. Sure, you could swap out your existing credit card scanner for an NFC-compatible device, but what good would that do?
Most providers, after accepting an NFC payment, would still have to go into their client-server systems and manually post a monetary amount to the patient’s balance, since the practice’s software lacks interoperability with its payment system. Once the payment is reflected in the patient’s account, the practice can generate the usual paper statement to send to the patient via snail mail.
Might as well still take a check, since NFC payments would ease little of the administrative burden of current healthcare billing processes.
The tech world at large is innovating every day to make life easier for businesses in a wealth of industries. They’re taking existing systems (barcodes, card scanning) and making them easier and better (contactless payment technology).
Innovations like these will spread rapidly in tech-friendly sectors. Retail and finance serve to benefit immediately from increased transaction speed and lessened reliance on signatures and receipts.
But so long as healthcare continues to rely on yesterday’s processes and systems – paper statements, physical files, noninteroperable client-server databases – innovations like mobile payment will never enter the doctor’s office or hospital.
eWallets won’t make it to healthcare until the industry adapts to streamline administrative and financial management through connected, web-based technology. Once healthcare’s on board with an electronic, cloud-enabled future, there’s the potential for a much simpler, more cost-effective healthcare payment system to emerge.
Could paying your medical bills be as easy as buying your coffee? Maybe someday… but that’s a long way off.
