Modernizing Healthcare Payments with Katie Whalen, Head of Strategic Partnerships for Merchant Solutions at Fiserv

[00:00:10] Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Outcomes Rocket recorded here at Vive in Los Angeles. Today, I have the privilege of hosting Katie Whalen. Katie serves as the Head of Strategic Partnerships for Merchant Solutions at Fiserv. Katie, welcome to the podcast. Katie Whalen, Ph.D.: Great. Thanks, Saul. So happy to be here. Yeah. How's the meeting going for you so far?

[00:00:31] It's been so great. You know, this is kind of really our first step into the healthcare space. And so it's just been great connecting with providers and payers and the technology companies that support the healthcare industry. And we're just so excited to be here this week. That's awesome. So for our audience to learn a little bit more, tell them about Fiserv and the role that you guys are playing in healthcare. Great. So Fiserv is actually probably one of the largest companies that few people have really heard of. We're a Fortune 150 company that supports the payments industry.

[00:01:01] And really is the backend technology behind the banks, payments, and transactions that run across the United States. So we support within our business 40% of the transactions and card swipes that occur at the point of sale. And we're stepping into the healthcare space because we have a firm belief that there really is no one supporting effectively small providers and medium-sized providers with payments and really kind of making sure that there's efficiency related to their payments as well.

[00:01:29] So we feel like it's a very underserved space that is our right to be able to step into and help support the industry. That's great. And I appreciate that, Katie. The product is called Clover Practice Pay. Yes. Tell us a little bit more about it and the segments within healthcare that you guys are going to be approaching with it. We're so excited about this. So we're currently in pilot. We're officially launching in market March 2nd for small providers. The feedback we've gotten so far in our pilot has been phenomenal from the small practices that have been using us.

[00:01:58] We've been live with dentists and urgent care clinics, local family doctors. It supports veterinarian clinics as well. So we cover a wide range of the sub-verticals within the healthcare space. And Clover Practice Pay really is a point-of-sale terminal that is patient-facing. So at the point of care and even pre-care, we have capabilities to facilitate payments for the provider. It has a screen associated with it facing kind of the patient.

[00:02:28] And then that is also linked to kind of our merchant gateway, which kind of processes the payment back into the networks. And then a software package and dashboard for providers to manage those payments. And the software package, which is what's so exciting about it, is it captures those patient payments that are coming through the terminal, which make about 20% of the payments that a provider would receive. And it also supports the 80% of payments that come from the payers for claims reconciliation.

[00:02:56] And oftentimes when those payments come down from the payer, they come in a packed file. They come with the data associated with the service for the patient separate from the actual dollar amount. And then oftentimes that creates manual back office work for the provider to kind of reconcile all those payments together to kind of have a full picture of the patient and the service and how much they're being paid. Do they need to go collect more funds from the patient? Do they need to rebate the patient? I don't know how many people actually really end up rebating them.

[00:03:25] And so the software kind of really provides an ability to kind of reconcile all those together. And then in addition, it gives the provider the ability to kind of have a card on file, make sure that there's an updated card in the case that a patient has a change in their card number, and then also integrates back into over 500 patient management software systems to make sure that there's data reconciliation back to the patient management software system. So we're super excited about it. It's just the beginning.

[00:03:54] And there's a lot more we have on the roadmap to kind of support providers to kind of bridge some of those gaps and both from an information standpoint and payment flow standpoint with the software. Now, that's really great, Katie. And, you know, this area of patient payments is certainly a huge pain point for a lot of practices. As you uncover the pain points that you feel the Clover product you're offering here addresses, what are they?

[00:04:22] You know, it really is about reducing inefficiency for a provider with regards to kind of the manual effort in the back office for those claims reconciliation. But it also is about the patient experience. And everything kind of like all those kind of flows and workflows start with the point of care and the collection of that first payment from the patient. And we want to solve for kind of the information disparity that occurs when that swipe occurs.

[00:04:48] And so on our roadmap going into later this year, because our devices have a screen and intelligence software behind it, it's not just a dumb terminal that kind of, you know, you're just swiping your card and the screen calculates what you're swiping. We have screen real estate to present information to the patient to make sure that they have the appropriate information to make decisions about how they want to pay. And so what that means is that we could kind of facilitate a view of their HSA balances,

[00:05:18] their FSA balances, to know how much they have remaining. They can select how much of those balances they want to use for that service. They can then supplement with other patient options in terms of using a credit card, maybe patient financing, maybe pay by bank, which is kind of new to the industry. We could, you know, prompt for kind of bill pay ahead of them, even showing up in the doctor's office. So there's a lot to be had about kind of that moment for kind of how you pay up front and the transparency of how much that service costs up front

[00:05:48] that then will reduce then the processes kind of going thereafter. So we're really excited about it. We feel as though we're, we have the point of service or kind of the point of sale will help give us an advantage to help reduce some of the friction that occurs between all those different flows. Wow. Yeah. You know, and we all deal with it. Premiums are so much higher.

[00:06:12] Out of pocket is so much higher for all of us that to be able to have everything as a patient, right? Synchronized in one screen. Yes. That's huge. And also for the provider, you know, helping with their cashflow management. And for the provider. And for the provider, both sides of it. Both sides. I was thinking as a patient. Yeah, as a patient. It's so funny. It's so funny. They say that's both of us all because, um, so I had a moment or like last July, whereas we were kind of formulating the product.

[00:06:37] Um, I, I live in New York city and I, um, my doctors is with the Cornell wall network, a very well-funded network, um, out of New York. And I walked into the doctor's office in Tribeca and, um, you know, on the door, they had like a piece of eight by 11, eight and a half by 11 piece of paper that said, check in at kiosk printed out and taped to the door. And I go into the doctor's office and to the left is, is, is, is a, um, iPad that's been affixed on an IV like trolley, you know, with a little like pin pad.

[00:07:07] And it's just like, okay, so you check in there. I don't even know why the device was there. And that device is different from what the admin at the desk has from the service that she's using. She has something behind the screen that she's looking at. And then in the back, there's a backend reconciliation and they're all disconnected from one another. And so bringing those things together will really help to kind of unlock information exchange and then kind of reduce kind of the inefficiencies in the data that occurs within an office, within a black desk. And what you pointed is really something that we see across the country.

[00:07:35] And it points to people actually want this change and they're trying, you know, they're, they're trying to insert technology in ways that make sense, but it's not connecting. So as, as practices face increased demands and pressures, uh, what opportunities do you see to digitally transform practices in a way that doesn't overwhelm them? Because they're tired of, of all the tech. It's really integrating into their existing business, um, practices and business operations.

[00:08:04] And so by having a single dashboard where you can see your payments, see the claims you're getting from, um, the payers, the payments from the patients and having it all in one that then is synchronized back to their patient software systems really embeds ourselves into their existing kind of business operations. So that you're not creating additional overhead or kind of additional kind of like training. It just kind of builds itself into the admins flow. Um, and that's really important for us, um, just HR integration.

[00:08:32] And the other aspect of this is that the practice will oftentimes have multiple different systems they use for their business operations. As part of, um, Clover Practice Pay, we're also taking the best of what we provide to restaurants and retails, um, uh, and personal service providers today, where we serve, um, you know, over 5 million small businesses in the United States in those sectors and applying them for, um, doctor's offices and practices. And what that includes is payroll capabilities, employee management capabilities, inventory management.

[00:09:00] If they have that, for example, a dentist might have, you know, teeth whitening that they're selling in addition to their services that requires inventory management and capture of transaction that's associated with that patient. Um, so there's a lot of other things that are solved in other sectors that can apply to healthcare providers that really isn't offered today in a kind of single solution to help run their business. Well, that's exciting. Uh, I think it's something that we can all look forward to on the consumer sides.

[00:09:27] You know, consumers are expecting more of that consumer experience, the Amazon, the Starbucks experience. How do you see modern payment experiences changing that relationship between patients and providers? I honestly think it's, it's really about the kind of presentment of information and transparency at the point of care or even before the point of care. So if you know, it was great. I was talking yesterday with, um, a provider that was a home services, um, model in the New York city area.

[00:09:54] And he has 80 practitioners, um, between nurses and doctors that kind of go out to homes and he, and he wants to make sure that his payment is captured before he sends a nurse or a doctor out into the field, um, to make sure that he's covered for their time and the service that they're going to provide. And one of the biggest gaps of information he has is he doesn't have visibility into the HSA or FSA balances to provide that information to the kind of patient before he sends them out in the market. And if he had that at his fingertips, it would help to facilitate the conversation because

[00:10:24] oftentimes the patient doesn't even know how much they have as balances. So really kind of providing kind of transparency in the data, transparency about what funding is available to the patient, um, augmentation of those kind of funding options, um, to make sure that the pay, the provider gets paid. They have kind of, um, transparency of what their cashflow is going to be. The patient has transparency and information about what it is that they're getting paid up front, um, and what that looks like. And then all that kind of reconciled back to the claims, um, from the pay for the payers as well.

[00:10:54] Music to my ears. Fantastic. Good, good. Okay, good. All right, good. So we're onto something. You are, you definitely are. And, and experiences like these is, is what we're seeing here at VIVE is how do we make that experience seamless for consumers, for the physicians and for the overall process, everybody involved. Katie, take us home with this, you know, what closing thought would you leave us with and where can people reach out to you and the team to learn more about the product and the company? Great.

[00:11:24] I just am, I'm so excited about this because I, I feel as though kind of, if we can solve the payment flows, the data associated with those payments will also follow. And we have a very real opportunity to kind of close those information gaps that exist that creates so much friction in the industry. And, um, I'm really excited to kind of start tackling this with really great partners from the healthcare space. The best way to kind of get a hold of me is, is the LinkedIn it's Katie Whalen at Fiserv. And, um, I'm so excited about what, what's to come and I'm looking forward to seeing you

[00:11:52] again next year and we'll give you an update as well. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. So you guys heard it, Katie Whalen, a head of strategic partnerships for merchant solutions at Fiserv in the show notes. You're going to see all the ways to get in touch with her and the team at Fiserv. Make sure you do that and make sure you stay in touch. Now's the time to make a difference. Thanks for tuning into the beat and Katie. Thanks for being with us. Awesome. Thank you so much, Saul. It was great meeting you.