Chase Card Services has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Unicorn Financial Services and is launching an expanded set of patient financing products as ChaseHealthAdvance financing options.   » Continue Reading

TSYS Healthcare has announced "the successful market launch of the industry’s most advanced benefits payments system. Fringe Benefits Management Company (FBMC), the first third-party administrator to use this innovative solution, offers its subscribers the ability to pay from multiple healthcare tax-advantaged accounts, credit accounts and cash accounts through a single card."   » Continue Reading

Availity, an e-health information exchange, and TRANSFIRST have announced the general availability of the Availity CareCollect solution for all physicians and health care providers nationwide. According to the two companies, the CareCollect solution is being offered through a partnership with TRANSFIRST, and will provide Availity customers fully integrated payment processing capabilities.   » Continue Reading

Metavante has announced it plans to acquire BenSoft Incorporated and its product, RepayMe. Metavante will integrate RepayMe into its existing Healthcare Payment Solutions suite of products. According to Metavante, "RepayMe software provides a Web-based tool for individuals who participate in various benefit programs to easily obtain reimbursement for eligible expenses that are covered by their benefit plans."   » Continue Reading

Chase Paymentech and Preferred Health Technology have announced A-Claim - calling it "the first fully-integrated healthcare payment solution designed to reduce accounts receivables for physicians and simplify claims payments for patients."   » Continue Reading

In a move designed to enable the company to be "completely focused on expanding its technology leadership position across the financial services landscape," Fiserv has announced a definitive agreement to sell substantially all of its Health businesses to UnitedHealthcare for $775 million in cash.   » Continue Reading

Highmark has launched the Healthcare Visa Gift Card - saying "the card provides an easy way for consumers and recipients to cover out-of-pocket expenses related to maintaining personal health and wellness."   » Continue Reading

Metavante has announced the availability of its Healthcare Gateway - calling it "a single online portal through which most eligibility inquiries, claims submissions and status checks, and payments activities can flow and be monitored on-demand electronically."   » Continue Reading

Metavante has announced results from its Metavante Payment Progress Index program managed by Celent finding that "healthcare industry e-payments will transition from minority to majority status in the next two years, yet much room for process improvement remains as healthcare payers (insurers) and providers eye overall cost reductions."   » Continue Reading

According to the Smart Card Alliance, "the vigorous take up of contactless payment in the United States and its future in mobile phones, plus a Mount Sinai Medical Center initiative to give patients control of their own health and hospital registration information, highlighted the Alliance's annual conference."   » Continue Reading

Wachovia has announced expansion of its treasury solutions for the healthcare industry with the addition of PatientPOS, calling it "an innovative solution proven to improve revenue cycle management for healthcare providers."   » Continue Reading

Payformance Corporation has released the results of a survey showing that healthcare providers want to transition to electronic claim settlement.   » Continue Reading

Celent has announced a new Healthcare Banking research service and an inaugural report titled "Healthcare Transactions: What’s in the Forecast for Financial Institutions". The report addresses the complexities of healthcare transaction processing as well as the opportunities the market presents to financial institutions.   » Continue Reading

The Healthcare Solutions business of JPMorgan Chase and RelayHealth, the connectivity services company of McKesson Corporation, have announced a strategic relationship to offer an integrated set of claim and payment processing solutions. The two companies say "this relationship will transform the way that insurers, healthcare providers and consumers interact to settle claim payments, moving to a fully electronic model."   » Continue Reading

The McKinsey Quarterly has a new article titled "Overhauling the US Health Care Payment System" (registration required). From the abstract: "Over the next five years, rapid innovation may lead to a restructuring of the value chain of health care payments and to a shift in the sector’s balance of power. Financial institutions have an opportunity to take on a more prominent role, while payers risk losing influence to new entrants. Providers stand to benefit as fewer dollars are wasted on transaction-processing inefficiencies."

Aetna has announced it is "working with Medical Funding Services (MFS) to introduce expanded electronic options to simplify billing and reimbursement. MFS will offer its financial services and related electronic payment solutions to network health care providers in select markets. These include an online solution that combines the health plan and patient portions of a medical bill into a single payment to health care providers."   » Continue Reading

U.S. Bank has announced it has made an equity investment in InstaMed, a real-time gateway and processor of healthcare and payment transactions. The two companies say they have been working together in a strategic partnership for nearly a year, and have already processed tens of millions of dollars on the InstaMed Platform for various hospitals, healthcare providers, billing services, vendors and payers.   » Continue Reading

Cerner Corp. has announced the launch of combined health plan ID and payment cards that include a fully integrated line of credit for healthcare consumers. Cerner has selected First Data Healthcare Services, part of First Data Corp., and UMB Healthcare Services, a division of UMB Financial Corporation to provide support for the program.   » Continue Reading

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Smart Cards and Healthcare: An Opportunity For Payments".   » Continue Reading

Fifth Third Bank's Treasury Management division has announced a strategic relationship with Revenue Management Solutions (RMS), a medical payment and remittance system provider.   » Continue Reading

The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association has announced results from a recent survey about paying for health care finding that consumers with prepaid health care cards, as part of their flexible spending account (FSA), were far more satisfied with being able to easily and efficiently pay for eligible health care expenses.*   » Continue Reading

Medical banking sounds like a bit of an oxymoron - but it's being using by the Medical Banking Project to describe "the convergence of banking and healthcare to dramatically reduce healthcare costs." The Project has announced its 5th National Medical Banking Institute to be held March 5-7, 2007 in Marietta, GA.   » Continue Reading

JPMorgan Chase has announced it has acquired all of the assets of FisaCure, a provider of electronic remittance services for Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) compliant transaction sets. The acquired FisaCure technology will become part of the Healthcare Solutions business of JPMorgan Chase's Treasury Services unit.   » Continue Reading

CIGNA HealthCare has announced HealthePass, "a comprehensive new solution designed to simplify and improve payment processes to help patients anticipate and manage their health care costs, shorten provider revenue cycle and help address patient bad debt."   » Continue Reading