The digital era has come a long way in helping both medical practices and solo practitioners work smarter, not harder. Practice management systems are seamlessly automating historically time-consuming manual tasks like taking patient bookings, managing appointment reminders and recall lists, and record keeping. The result is that clinics have improved their process consistency, streamlined their administrative tasks to save time and money, and enhanced their patient’s healthcare experience and satisfaction rates. When it comes to paying for services, however, HealthNow executive Steven Zinsli and Susan Buckingham, PBA and Associates state it feels like the healthcare industry had fallen far behind and it was costing both consumers and practitioners.

The standard requirement for full upfront health service payments is currently forcing between 24% and 39% of New Zealanders to neglect or delay accessing the medical care they need at least once within a twelve-month period. While community services cards help reduce the rate for low-income families, the $19.50 fee still leaves many struggling to afford the upfront expense, or falling into the 5% to 25% that fail to subsequently collect their prescription medication due to the copayment fee.

The outcome is detrimental to the wellbeing of patients while posing a challenge to medical practices who are left with the burden of debt management by those who attend appointments but cannot pay their bills on the day. The administrative time involved in chasing payments, processing reconciliations, or trying to manually manage installment payment plans is tedious and undesirable, adding up to negate the value of the original debt.

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