Allscripts partners with Intuit to offer Quicken Health Bill Pay

Oct 12 2009

Allscripts (Nasdaq: MDRX) announced today an agreement with Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) to become the first to offer Quicken Health(SM) Bill Pay. The online service integrates with Allscripts' practice management and revenue cycle management solutions, used by 110,000 physicians, to help patients understand their medical bills and pay them online while helping physicians get paid faster.

A breakthrough in medical billing, Quicken Health Bill Pay alerts patients more quickly that a payment is due and helps them understand their medical bill by presenting it in common language with easily understood math. It shows how the amount due was calculated after insurance payments are posted and enables them to easily pay the bill online. Because patients finally have the confidence that what they are asked to pay is what they owe, they are making their payment an average of 18 days faster with Quicken Health Bill Pay - and feel better about the transaction.

Quicken Health Bill Pay is available to any patient, regardless of insurance carrier or coverage, and creates a seamless workflow for physician practice billing staffs. Payments are received faster while the effort and cost of the collection process are reduced and accuracy and patient satisfaction are increased.

As the U.S. healthcare payment system shifts to a consumer-driven model, patient payments are becoming the fastest growing portion of a provider's revenue stream. Direct out-of-pocket payments from patients to providers are expected to total $660 billion by 2013, more than doubling payments made in 2005. However, many practices write off as much as 50 percent of patient payments as bad debt, and research shows that 40 percent of patients don't pay their medical bills simply because they don't understand the bill or didn't think they were responsible for the amount due.

"When patients have the knowledge and confidence that a bill is correct, payments are made faster and billing managers spend less time, money, and effort repeatedly sending paper statements, answering questions, and calling patients about payments due," said Peter Karpas, president and division general manager of Intuit's Quicken Health Group. "With Quicken Health Bill Pay, Allscripts can offer its clients the unique ability to present absolutely clear online statements and the 24/7 convenience of receiving fully protected online payments."

While American households with computers increasingly are paying bills online, more than 90 percent of medical payments are still received by providers in the form of a paper check. Quicken Health Bill Pay brings the convenience of electronic payments to medical bills, enabling patients to send payments anytime, from any computer, using any debit or credit card, Flexible Spending Account or Health Savings Account. It benefits providers by improving accuracy and reducing the time and effort billing managers spend taking payments over the phone or keying in payment information sent through the mail.

Allscripts practice management solutions combine sophisticated billing, scheduling and revenue cycle management tools to help physician practices become more productive while improving service to patients. A pilot program conducted by Allscripts and Intuit in the fall of 2008 showed that patients using Quicken Health Bill Pay paid their medical bills an average of 17.8 days faster than patients using other payment methods. Every practice participating in the pilot program has continued to offer the bill-pay solution to their patients.

"Physician practices want to spend their time providing great patient care, not collecting patient bills and posting paper checks to their system," said Glen Tullman, Chief Executive Officer of Allscripts. "Allscripts has the solution to one of our clients' most pressing needs by providing clear, convenient online billing and fully secure online payments for patients via Quicken Health Bill Pay."

A 2008 Medical Group Management Association/Celent study showed that a bill sent within 30 days has a 90 percent chance of full payment. The study also showed that the longer billing is delayed, the lower the chances of full payment. Quicken Health Bill Pay helps the provider reduce the time between service and billing by alerting patients immediately after the insurance payment is posted and the balance due becomes their responsibility - no waiting for paper statements to be printed and mailed.

To sign up, practices apply for an Intuit Patient Payments(SM) account through either their Allscripts sales representative or directly at www.intuitpatientpayments.com/Allscripts. Providers that sign up for an Intuit Patient Payments account can begin offering Quicken Health Bill Pay to their patients in days.

Designed to work together, the physician's office views, tracks and posts the payments online through their Intuit Patient Payments interface, while their patients view and pay bills with Quicken Health Bill Pay. Because billing clerks now see the same view of the bill that the patient sees, it is easy to answer patient questions.