Durham-based startup PatientPay is utilizing patented technology in an effort to help reduce paperwork clogging up healthcare while reducing costs. It’s already attracted $2.5 million in venture capital from Silicon Valley’s Mosaik Partners.

The company is among some 90 startups and emerging companies presenting at the CED Tech Venture Conference.

These stories are being presented through a partnership between WRAL TechWire and the CED.

Here’s the PatientPay Q&A profile, led by CEO Tom Furr:

  • What is the focus of your business?

PatientPay is a paperless payments technology company focused on healthcare

  • What is the top pain point/business application you are seeking to address?

Traditional paper statements. For ambulatory healthcare providers it takes on average 3.3 paper statements and 90-120 days to collect payment from a patient. For hospital healthcare providers it can take over 6 paper statements and up to 180 days to collect payment from patient.

  • What makes it unique?

PatientPay’s system completes two critical tasks for healthcare providers and their patients.

First, it reconciles medical bills (sent by the healthcare provider to the patient) with insurance benefits statements (sent by the payor/insurer to the patient) and subsequently presents a clear bill to the patient, eliminating the confusion that prompts patients to delay paying their bills. As a result PatientPay’s customers are paid in less than 14 days and save up to $4 on every patient balance collected.

Second – and more important – it automates bill payment reconciliation for the provider through the healthcare payment protocol, otherwise known as 837/835 Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) claims infrastructure.

The healthcare payment protocol infrastructure standardizes the reconciliation of payments and receipts. 837 is the request for payment by the healthcare provider. 835 is the detailed payment receipt from the insurance company.

PatientPay’s payment software system incorporates 837/835 ERA claims infrastructure, eliminating the need for medical groups to manually reconcile payments in their billing system, further reducing time and costs. PatientPay has been issued 3 patents for this process.

  • Why should investors be interested in your firm?

Healthcare is undergoing massive change that demands new and better efficiencies and economies on the business operations side, in particular in the patient payment space which is estimated to be a $600 billion dollar opportunity by 2019.

PatientPay patented technology delivers by cutting in half the cost to issue and reconcile bills with a savings up to $4.00 per payment captured, reducing the time to pay from 120 days to 12 and more importantly providing a better patient experience.

Since patient payments now represent 30 to 50% of the financial responsibility, providers who opt for PatientPay will provide healthcare consumers with bills they understand and act on as evidenced by our experience that over 75% of our bills are paid immediately upon their being opened.

Business facts:

  • Website – http://www.patientpay.com
  • Email address for inquiries – info@patientpay.com
  • Physical address – 1005 Slater Road, Suite 214, Durham, NC 27703
  • CEO’s name – Tom Furr
  • ​Introductory video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc2C38BPJD0