Have you ever wondered when cash will completely disappear in our economy? Or in healthcare specifically? If you missed it, we covered the Federal Reserve’s latest diary study of U.S. consumer payment preferences in a newsletter earlier this year. The point was clear that cash isn’t going anywhere in the U.S. anytime soon. Despite that fact, it is difficult if not impossible for many patients to pay their medical bills using cash. We delve into that topic in this issue, including data from a recent consumer study. This issue also covers Oracle’s recent payments announcement, and information about a new patient payments solution we hadn’t previously seen. As usual, if there are any topics you would like to see us cover in future issues, please drop us a note at info@finmedpartners.com.
DEAL NEWS
AI documentation company Suki raises $70M equity round
Redwood City, CA-based Suki announced that it has raised $70 million in a Series D equity investment. The company is participating in the red hot space to help providers better document patient encounters using AI tools. Suki’s solution can suggest billing codes and pull in relevant clinical details from the patient’s medical record to help improve insurance claim rates. The company touts integrations with Epic, Oracle Health and Meditech, and large health system partnerships including Maryland/ Washington, DC’s MedStar Health.
The funding round was led by London-based Hedosophia with participation from Venrock, March Capital, Flare Capital, Breyer Capital and inHealth Ventures.
San Francisco-based software developer Parakeet Health announced it has finalized a $3 million seed round to continue investing in AI patient communications. Specifically, Parakeet is focusing on expanding its AI-based call center platform to help healthcare providers improve patient outreach, manage staffing shortages, and reduce operational costs while refocusing front desk staff on higher value patient interactions. The investment was led by Canvas Ventures, and also included CoFound Partners, and StoryHouse Ventures.
The Fed recently published data showing that a considerable slice of the U.S. population is still using cash as their primary form of payment. Overall, cash remained the third most-used payment instrument behind credit and debit cards, at 16% of total consumer payments. It’s not hard for patients to pay medical bills with credit or debit cards. But what about with cash? If you’re a healthcare provider, or RCM/ medical billing company, how can you best accommodate cash-preferred patients?
For a recent client project, we couldn’t find any data on this. So we fielded our own study. We just finished analyzing the results of our new Consumer Payment Preferences survey focused on understanding:
the extent to which consumers use cash for healthcare expenses
demand for a convenient, retail “cash-in” solution for medical bill payments
features that could increase cash payment of medical bills at retail locations.
We surveyed 2,000 consumers between 18-75 years old. 19% of our pre-screened participants reported “near daily” use of cash, which is identical to the Fed study’s 19% of consumers preferring to use cash at retail locations. Respondents were then screened to identify cash preferred shoppers. In our sample, 75% of participants reported spending at least $20 in one single cash transaction at least once a week. The sample also skewed to lower income levels (44% had household incomes below $50,000 compared to expected average of 33%) and a younger population (79% were between 18-54 years old compared to expected average of 68%).
Key Findings
The survey reveals an attractive opportunity for payment innovation to improve the medical bill payment experience for U.S. consumers who prefer to pay with cash. More specifically, consumers are looking for a no-fee, convenient cash option for paying their medical bills that also leverages the same retail stores they frequent in their everyday lives.
Source: FinMed Partners - Consumer Payment Preferences, October 2024 (n=2,000)
9% of the respondents indicated that they did not have a U.S. bank account, and 24% shared that they did not have a credit card. For many of these consumers, this leaves fewer payment options for paying their medical bills. Today, alternatives include money orders and non-bank debit or prepaid cards that often have expensive load fees associated with them. Patients can also bring cash to their provider’s offices to pay for current charges and outstanding balances, but this is often a poor experience for both patient and provider. The patient may not be returning to the practice before the bill is due, and providers would often prefer not to handle cash in their office.
A better option may already exist. So-called “retail cash-in” payment solutions leverage existing barcode technology for prepaid/ stored value cards. The barcode is printed on a paper statement, delivered digitally on an e-statement or via text message, or generated as part of a mobile app on the user’s smartphone. Current cash-in networks transacted more than $30 billion across tens of thousands of participating retailers in 2023.
Interestingly, 69% of our survey respondents said that they have previously funded an account (e.g., sports betting), used a cash payment app such as CashApp or PayNearMe, made a deposit (e.g., bank such as CapitalOne), or paid a bill using cash at a retail location. These respondents turn out to also be receptive to better cash options for paying medical bills:
89% of respondents indicated they would use a convenient, no-fee cash option at retail locations to pay some or all of their medical bills
57% of respondents chose cash discounts on the amount due as the most compelling incentive for using a retail cash-in option
National pharmacies (57%) and national retailers (55%) topped the preferred locations for cash-in services
Importantly for healthcare organizations, 64% of consumers said that they would be more likely to get medical care at a provider offering more convenient payment options, particularly for those patients who prefer cash.
The FinMed Partners Consumer Payment Preference study reveals a significant opportunity for healthcare providers and their revenue cycle partners to improve payment options for cash-preferred customers. To receive an executive summary of the survey or to learn more about emerging solutions to address this unmet need, email us at info@finmedpartners.com.
PATIENT PAYMENTS
Oracle introduces new end-to-end payment solution
One of the best capitalized healthcare IT players has decided that there is a need for a new patient payments solution. Introducing Oracle Health Payments in advance of its Oracle Health Summit in Nashville Oct. 29-30, the company looks to offer a more integrated solution bringing “gateway, routing, processing, and acquiring under a single agreement”. Oracle’s goal is to increase budget certainty and lower costs by minimizing “unnecessary expenses” and reduce friction in “patient settlement and payment reconciliation”. All of this is built on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and integrated with Oracle’s point-of-sale hardware and Oracle Health Patient Accounting.
It isn’t clear the extent to which Oracle is actually creating a true competitor to other established acquirers, processors or gateways that have large positions in healthcare (e.g., Chase/ InstaMed, Sphere/ TrustCommerce) versus renting the parts and reselling to health systems already or potentially using Oracle’s other solutions. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more…
Fort Lauderdale-based LQpay launched as an independent company in November 2023. It appears to be keeping a low profile while it continues to build its presence in patient payments with medical and dental practices. In introducing its new LPA Synapse product for dentists in May 2024, the company described its advantage as “delivering solutions that streamline billing and payment processes by utilizing the latest cutting-edge AI and RPA technology”. The company does not appear to have raised outside capital, and has an offshore development center in India.
Click here to read our latest CEO Chat with Tom Policelli, CEO of Milwaukee-based PayMedix.
AI IN HEALTHCARE
Luma Health Announces Spark, Multi-Model Generative AI. Spark uses multi-model generative AI to address some of the most common operational challenges for health systems, including high call volume and manual fax processing (Luma Health)
WHAT WE'RE READING
What the election means for the future of the CFPB. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau once again faces an uncertain future, with the outcome of the presidential election potentially taking the agency in radically divergent directions. (American Banker)
Q3 2024 Quarterly Fintech Insights. Includes data showing healthcare fintech deals increased 2.7x in transactions YoY to 60, and increased 4.5x in dollar volume to $1.024 billion. (FT Partners)
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Deal Tracker. Regularly updated list of healthcare payments related transactions since November 2023.
Conference List. Rolling twelve month look ahead at conferences and other events covering healthcare payments, revenue cycle, fintech and related areas. Updated through September 2025.
CEO Chat. Thoughts from healthcare payments CEOs on the problem their company was founded to solve, their right to win, and plans for the next 12 months.
Newsletter Archive. News, trends, and insights from the healthcare payments industry compiled in our bi-weekly newsletter. Last six months of newsletters.
Epic MyChart. Excel sheet with full listing of all Epic MyChart instances as of May 2024, categorized by state, provider type and specialty.
All of these resources can also be accessed at the FinMed Partners Insights page.
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FinMed Partners is a management consulting and advisory business focusing at the intersection of payments/ fintech and healthcare. Our founders have developed deep expertise from decades of experience with health IT companies, healthcare providers and many players within the payments ecosystem. Investors, boards and executive teams work with us to maximize business value through strategic input and tactical execution.
FinMed Partners LLC, 34 Long Avenue, Belmont, MA 02478, United States
