ZirMed is celebrating Earth Day with a new product designed to reduce paper billing costs for providers – and make the process easier for patients.
The company’s Patient Notebook Web site is a free, secure portal designed to provide consumers with an electronic statement of their bill, from which they can arrange payment. The provider can post the so-called e-statement on the portal along with statement delivery information, including payment transaction details.
If the statement isn’t viewed by the patient within a specified period of time, an electronic reminder is sent out. A paper statement can also be sent if the provider or patient so choose.
“Restricting care is not the only way to cut healthcare costs,” said Jim Lacy, chief financial officer of the Louisville, Ky.-based company, who estimates U.S. healthcare providers spend more than $4.8 billion a year to mail patient statements. “Our approach targets an easily avoidable expense. The 44 cents spent to mail each healthcare statement is simply unnecessary.”
“I am excited that during the Patient Notebook pilot program virtually every patient viewed their eStatement and roughly half of those patients immediately paid the balance due,” he added. “Our pilot customers were able to send eStatements and have those statements read and paid in less time than it takes for a mailed statement to reach its destination.”
Company officials expect the Patient Notebook will save more than 3,000 trees each year, and they’ve launched another initiative designed to plant new trees at the same rate that Patient Notebook saves them.