Payments for health care related services in the United States are estimated to total nearly $3 trillion annually, or 17.9 percent of gross domestic product. As costs continue to rise and employers look to provide meaningful health care benefits while complying with regulatory requirements, there has been a dramatic shift in consumers’ share of the costs. Consumers now pay not just their share of monthly insurance premiums but also co-pays and co-insurance expenses they owe directly to their health care providers. For the payments industry, payments has shifted from a business-to-business (B2B) environment, in which payers—the insurance companies and government entities—settled with the health care providers, to a consumer-to-business (C2B) relationship, in which doctors seek to collect payment in part directly from their patients. This shift represents an opportunity, according to Mercator Advisory Group’s latest research, Health Care Sector Opportunities for Acquirers.

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2. 2015 Mercator Advisory Group
Payments for health care related services in the United States are
estimated to total nearly $3 trillion annually, or 17.9 percent of gross
domestic product. As costs continue to rise and employers look to provide
meaningful health care benefits while complying with regulatory
requirements, there has been a dramatic shift in consumers’ share of the
costs. Consumers now pay not just their share of monthly insurance
premiums but also co-pays and co-insurance expenses they owe directly
to their health care providers. For the payments industry, payments has
shifted from a business-to-business (B2B) environment, in which
payers—the insurance companies and government entities—settled with
the health care providers, to a consumer-to-business (C2B) relationship,
in which doctors seek to collect payment in part directly from their
patients. This shift represents an opportunity, according to Mercator
Advisory Group’s latest research, Health Care Sector Opportunities for
Acquirers.
Health Care Sector Opportunities for Acquirers

3. 2015 Mercator Advisory Group
The maze and fragmentation of stakeholders in creation and settlement
of a health care payment transaction have made it difficult for merchant
payment solution providers to know how best to meet the needs of this
market and capture its business. Nonetheless, the trillions of dollars in
consumer-based payments and transactions make this an attractive
market for acquirers to enter. This Mercator Advisory Group research
note explores the complexities and some promising approaches for
easing the pain for health care providers who must collect payments from
patients.
Health Care Sector Opportunities for Acquirers

4. 2015 Mercator Advisory Group
“Until the market has fully digested the impact of the Affordable
Care Act and regulatory activity dealing with health care and
health care payments, it is impossible to pinpoint exactly where
the best opportunities lie. For processors, software integration
and marketing partnership may prove to be a good way to stay
in the mix, understand the shifts in this market, and be in a
position to forge more comprehensive solutions when the
uncertainties are cleared away,” commented Ken Paterson, V.P.
Research Operations, and Director, Credit Advisory Service.
Ken Paterson
VP Research Operations / Director
Credit Advisory Service
Mercator Advisory Group

5. 2015 Mercator Advisory Group
• The impact on U.S. consumers of the shift from
business-to-business insurer payment of medical costs
to more direct consumer-to-business payment
• The impact on health care providers
• The payments industry’s reaction
• Sample partnerships of payment industry players to
provide acquiring solutions
• Description of a sample of innovative health care
payment solutions
Highlights of this research note:

6. About the research note:
2015 Mercator Advisory Group
This research note contains 11 pages and 6 exhibits.
Companies mentioned in this note include: A-Claim, Chase Paymentech,
eClinicalWorks, Elavon, Global Payments, InstaMed, mPay Gateway,
Navicure, Patientco, Phreesia, Pokitdok, RevPoint Healthcare Technologies,
Royal Solutions Group, TransEngen, TransFirst, and Vantiv.
Members of Mercator Advisory Group’s Credit Advisory Service have
access to this note as well as the upcoming research for the year ahead,
presentations, analyst access, and other membership benefits.
For free industry news, opinions, research, company information and more
visit us at www.PaymentsJournal.com.
Follow us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/MercatorAdvisor.

7. About Mercator Advisory Group
Mercator Advisory Group is the leading independent research and
advisory services firm exclusively focused on the payments and
banking industries. We deliver pragmatic and timely research and
advice designed to help our clients uncover the most lucrative
opportunities to maximize revenue growth and contain costs.
Our clients range from the world's largest payment issuers, acquirers,
processors, merchants and associations to leading technology
providers and investors. Mercator Advisory Group is also the publisher
of the online payments and banking news and information portal
PaymentsJournal.com.
2015 Mercator Advisory Group