Healthcare is complicated enough without adding friction at the point of payment. Yet for millions of health plan members, reconciling and then paying their medical bills presents two key challenges. These friction points can carry real, measurable costs for members, providers and payers alike.
Friction can occur anytime a member struggles to understand, predict or pay their medical bills. The healthcare payments process can feel like navigating a maze; it often starts post-adjudication, with final bills showing statements that don’t match up with the insurer’s Explanation of Benefits (EOB). What the provider charged, what the insurer paid and what the member owes often don’t align clearly. On top of seemingly contradictory billing, how to make payments can often be unclear and the available payment channels may feel outdated to members expecting a modern consumer payment experience.
For members, the result is often frustration and confusion; for providers, delayed payments and increased bad debt; and for payers, a poor member experience can lead to eroded trust and reduced loyalty.
The consequences of complexity
Unnecessary friction can drive costly behaviors. Confused members may delay payment, pay only part of a bill or ignore it altogether. Some patients may postpone appointments, tests or medications to avoid additional costs, leading to critical gaps in care. For providers, administrative teams spend significant time fielding calls, clarifying statements and managing refunds or reimbursements. Payers devote time and money administering payments and following up with members on claims questions to support payments completion. Every step in a broken process can consume valuable resources, increase risk and add operational cost.
Payment friction can also affect outbound payer transactions, including refunds, incentives and premium adjustments. Complex rules, outdated paper processes and slow communication channels can prolong transactions and add to confusion. Checks are used by 68% of payers to reimburse providers,¹ and this payment form continues to carry a disproportionate administrative burden across the healthcare ecosystem. Staff must open mail, reconcile remittances and key payment data manually, which can slow cash flow and introduce opportunities for errors. Surprise bills, unclear instructions and slow disputed claims may lead members to question whether their plan is truly committed to providing a good member experience. Poorly explained refund processes can leave members worried about exposure to phishing attacks looking to capture personal data.
Making a positive impact on trust and member experience
Accurate, transparent and easy-to-navigate payments experiences can help strengthen stakeholder confidence across the healthcare continuum while reducing complaints and enhancing member loyalty. Providers can benefit from improved cash flow and reduced collection costs, while payers gain operational efficiency and higher satisfaction scores.
Modernizing payments: Efficiency through digitization
Visa can help healthcare organizations bridge the gap by digitizing claim payments and reimbursements — turning slow, paper-based processes into fast, secure and transparent experiences. Payments can move quickly to existing cards, helping to provide clarity and reduce uncertainty for members. Visa can also empower providers to streamline payment acceptance and related workflows.
Broadly speaking, automation can also play a critical role in improving revenue cycle operations. From payment execution and reconciliation to data-driven insights and AI-driven workflow enhancement, payers and providers can use a wide range of Visa solutions to help automate workflows, helping to reduce manual work, mitigate errors and free finance teams to focus on high-value tasks. Visa also provides tokenized solutions for payments to help ensure sensitive data remains protected across every transaction.
Payment friction as a strategic differentiator
Removing payment friction is not just a back-office fix. It is central to building trust, improving cash flow and enhancing the member experience. Plans that make payments simple, accurate and understandable can transform a major pain point into a competitive differentiator. In a healthcare landscape where consumers expect fast, mobile-friendly experiences, modernizing payments can be essential to retaining members, reducing administrative costs and demonstrating the organization’s commitment to clear, fair and predictable financial interactions.
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- J.P. Morgan, 2025. “Trends in Healthcare Payments report reveals patient collections are primary revenue concern for providers”. Research based on quantitative data and qualitative data. Quantitative payments data was derived from the InstaMed Network (a J.P. Morgan solution); the data was processed between 2019 and 2024. Qualitative data derived from three online surveys commissioned by InstaMed and conducted by Qualtrics, LLC, in 2024. https://www.jpmorgan.com/payments/newsroom/healthcare-payments-trends-report-2025
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