402    Trends and Technology in E-Payment Alexander N. Chen, University of Central Arkansas Steven M. Zeltmann, University of Central Arkansas Ken Griffin, University of Central Arkansas Michael Rubach, University of Central Arkansas Michael E. Ellis, University of Central Arkansas EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This research examines the forms of e-payments used in the global economy today. The Internet is a critical component of the business landscape, lowering the cost of communication, helping meet customer needs, making supply chains more efficient, and improving business practice integration. Smart devices are leading the charge for new methods of payment, especially in regions lacking the legacy infrastructure to facilitate traditional payments. E-payment use is also on the rise in developed countries because of the benefits they afford to all parties. E-payment is also becoming a competitive necessity for entities wishing to remain relevant in online markets. Keywords: E-payments, Online commerce, Smartphone, Social media, Internet security, Global markets INTRODUCTION The Internet has been recognized as a user-friendly medium of communication and a good tool to get information and process financial transactions (Hashim, Hameed, Ayyub, Ali, & Raza, 2016). For people who are used to living in this wired world, the use of the Internet has become a necessity not only for work but also for academics, communication, entertainment, and business transactions (Kelleci & Inal, 2010). The Internet is now impacting almost every aspect of our lives from influencing how we interact, the way we do business, and the way we learn. The digital world is becoming immensely crowded. Internet use has grown exponentially with the majority of users being young people and adolescents (Younes, Halawi, Jabbo, El Osta, Karam, Hajj, & Rabbaa Khabbaz, 2016). Since the Internet is now a part of our daily lives, it is not a surprise that the number of active users and Internet penetration as a percentage of population continue to grow globally. Based on data collected from the Global Digital Statshot of 2018 on www.slideshare.net, Table 1 provides a summary of the distribution of Internet users by world region. From Table 1, it is observed that the Internet is used worldwide, and significant disparities exist between developed and developing regions. Specifically, developed regions have higher internet penetration. For instance, in North America, 88% of the population has Internet access, as does 90% of the population of Western Europe. East Europe and South America have relatively high penetration rates of 74% and 68%, respectively. Africa and South Asia have the lowest rates, both coming below 35%. These two regions, with their combined populations of over 3 billion, have the most potential to develop and expand Internet usage. 403    TABLE 1 Regional Population, Internet Users, and Internet.

1. 402
Trends and Technology in E-Payment
Alexander N. Chen, University of Central Arkansas
Steven M. Zeltmann, University of Central Arkansas
Ken Griffin, University of Central Arkansas
Michael Rubach, University of Central Arkansas
Michael E. Ellis, University of Central Arkansas
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This research examines the forms of e-payments used in the
global economy today. The Internet is a critical component of
the
business landscape, lowering the cost of communication,
helping meet customer needs, making supply chains more
efficient,
and improving business practice integration. Smart devices are
leading the charge for new methods of payment, especially in
regions lacking the legacy infrastructure to facilitate traditional
payments. E-payment use is also on the rise in developed
countries because of the benefits they afford to all parties. E-
payment is also becoming a competitive necessity for entities

2. wishing to remain relevant in online markets.
Keywords: E-payments, Online commerce, Smartphone, Social
media, Internet security, Global markets
INTRODUCTION
The Internet has been recognized as a user-friendly medium of
communication and a good tool to get information and process
financial transactions (Hashim, Hameed, Ayyub, Ali, & Raza,
2016). For people who are used to living in this wired world,
the use of the Internet has become a necessity not only for work
but also for academics, communication, entertainment, and
business transactions (Kelleci & Inal, 2010). The Internet is
now impacting almost every aspect of our lives from
influencing
how we interact, the way we do business, and the way we learn.
The digital world is becoming immensely crowded. Internet
use has grown exponentially with the majority of users being
young people and adolescents (Younes, Halawi, Jabbo, El Osta,
Karam, Hajj, & Rabbaa Khabbaz, 2016). Since the Internet is
now a part of our daily lives, it is not a surprise that the number
of active users and Internet penetration as a percentage of
population continue to grow globally. Based on data collected
from the Global Digital Statshot of 2018 on www.slideshare.net,
Table 1 provides a summary of the distribution of Internet users
by world region.
From Table 1, it is observed that the Internet is used
worldwide, and significant disparities exist between developed
and

3. developing regions. Specifically, developed regions have
higher internet penetration. For instance, in North America,
88% of
the population has Internet access, as does 90% of the
population of Western Europe. East Europe and South America
have
relatively high penetration rates of 74% and 68%, respectively.
Africa and South Asia have the lowest rates, both coming
below 35%. These two regions, with their combined
populations of over 3 billion, have the most potential to develop
and
expand Internet usage.
403
TABLE 1
Regional Population, Internet Users, and Internet Penetration in
2018 (Kemp, 2018)
Region
Population (in
millions)
Internet users (in
millions)
Internet Penetration

4. Africa 1,272 435 34%
Central America 180 110 61%
Central Asia 72 36 50%
East Asia 1,661 947 57%
East Europe 291 215 74%
Middle East 252 164 65%
North America 364 320 88%
Northern Europe 104 98 94%
Oceania 41 28 69%
South America 426 290 68%
South Asia 1,869 673 36%
Southeast Asia 655 380 58%
Southern Europe 153 118 77%
West Europe 194 175 90%
The emerging role of the mobile phone in commerce appears
unavoidable when one considers the ubiquity of the mobile
phone
across the globe. As a communication device, the mobile phone
is associated with increased satisfaction with people’s lives
and relationships when compared to less personal
communication methods (Goodman-Deane, Mieczakowski,

5. Johnson,
Goldhaber, & Clarkson, 2016). It provides its user with the
capability to have a voice or video conversation, exchange
email
or text messages, or participate in social media or other online
activities (Goodman-Deane et al., 2016). This wide variety of
tasks for which it can be used has led to the high level of global
mobile phone penetration. In Table 2, we summarize mobile
phone connections and penetration by region.
East Europe, West Europe, Middle East, South America,
Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Oceania, and North America all
have
penetration rates higher than 100%. Africa and South Asia are
behind the other regions, but still have relatively high mobile
penetrations rates of 82% and 91% respectively. This high rate
of mobile penetration globally implies that people are better
connected than ever. The increasing computational power of
mobile devices has led to the smartphone. A typical smartphone
is capable of running several applications concurrently (e.g.,
navigation, email, browser, communication), in addition to
other
built-in functionalities such as music player, cameras, and
sensors (Rahman, Prima, Razzaque, Hassan, Alelaiwi,
Alrubaian, &
Choo, 2016). Among all the types of mobile phones,
smartphones are the new trend.
404

6. TABLE 2
Regional Population, Mobile Connections, and Mobile
Penetration, 2018 (Kemp, 2018)
Region
Population
(in millions)
Mobile Connections
(in millions)
Mobile
Penetration
Africa 1,272 1043 82%
Central America 180 173 96%
Central Asia 72 71 98%
East Asia 1,661 1700 103%
East Europe 291 457 157%
Middle East 252 323 128%
North America 364 375 103%
Northern Europe 104 128 123%
Oceania 41 45 110%
South America 426 490 115%

7. South Asia 1,869 1710 91%
Southeast Asia 655 924 141%
Southern Europe 153 193 126%
West Europe 194 231 119%
TABLE 3
Mobile Connection by Device, 2018 (Kemp, 2018)
Mobile connections
by device
User Population
Percentage of
total connections
Connections originating from
smartphone devices
4.8 Billion 57%
Connections originating from
feature phones devices
3.4 Billion 40%
Others 0.3 Billion 3%
Total global connections
(all devices)

8. 8.5 Billion 100%
Globally, smart devices represented 36% of the total mobile
devices and connections, and 89 percent of the mobile data
traffic
in 2015; by 2020, more than three-fifths of all devices
connected to the mobile network will be “smart” devices.
Sixty-
seven percent of mobile devices will be smart devices by 2020,
up from 36% in 2015 (Cisco, 2015). Table 3 shows each type
of mobile connection by device worldwide.
With the large number of smartphones in use, and technological
improvements with each new release, a new type of channel
called mobile commerce is emerging (Ondrus & Pigneur, 2006).
Therefore, it is not a big surprise that phones are used as a
transactional device (van de Heijden, 2002). Smartphones are
now playing a key role in the electronic business and are used
as devices for electronic payment.
405
CURRENT TRENDS FOR E-PAYMENTS
E-payment is a type of an e-commerce transaction system for

9. buying and selling products that are offered through the
Internet.
Shon and Swatman (1998) define e-payment as any exchange of
funds initiated via an electronic communication channel.
According to Wester’s New World Dictionary, electronic
payment refers to making any payment that is made
electronically
rather than in person.
An electronic payment is a financial exchange between buyers
and sellers that takes place online. The content of this
exchange
is usually some form of digital financial instrument (such as
encrypted credit card numbers, electronic checks or digital
cash)
that is backed by a bank or an intermediary, or by legal tender
(E-Payment Systems, n.d.).
The growth of e-services has created the need for using an
electronic payment system. Electronic payment systems are
conducted in different e-commerce categories such as Business-
to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Consumer (B2C), and
Consumer-to-Business (C2B). The electronic payment systems
are summoned to facilitate the most important action after the
customer’s decision to pay for a product or service, which is to
deliver payments from customers to vendors in a more effective
and efficient way (Abrazhevich, 2004). Previous studies have
shown that younger and more educated consumers, with higher
incomes, were more likely to use an electronic payment system
(Stavins, 2001).
Traditional payment systems typically rely on the physical
proximity of the parties to a transaction or the physical
exchange
of transaction media. The new model of e-commerce eliminates

10. this proximity requirement by addressing some of the following
problems with traditional payment systems.
Traditional payment systems require the consumer to either
send paper checks by mail or a physical presence to sign papers
before performing a transaction. This may lead to inconvenient
circumstances (E-Payment Systems, n.d.). It is also time-
consuming in the way that it can take many days or weeks to
process the payment. Since we are living in a world where time
is a valuable asset, people are now trying to save as much time
as they can. Therefore, they are looking for flexible payment
methods that are available to them anytime.
This happens as the consumer is required to send all
confidential data on paper by mail, which is not encrypted, and
it may be
read by anyone (E-Payment Systems, n.d.). Security is one of
the main concerns of customers. They all want to protect their
personal information to prevent fraud. Also, when using the
traditional payment system, customers have to carry cash on
them
in order to process transactions. This creates an enormous
security issue because they are more exposed to thefts.
When we talk in terms of current businesses, it is global.
Financial institutions need faster transactions everywhere. This
cannot be possible without the bank having a branch near all of
the company’s offices (E-Payment Systems, n.d.). In this
globalized world, you should be able to complete an instant
payment from any single point on the globe to the opposite side
without difficulties. We are now living in a globalized business
world where it is possible to buy or sell items to people all
around the world. The traditional payment method cannot meet
these requirements.
Not all potential buyers may have a bank account (E-Payment

11. Systems, n.d.). In some countries, it can be difficult to open a
bank account. There are now different customers and buyers
profiles that older payment systems do not take into account.
We
have the example of people who use credits cards and prepaid
cards.
The parties to an e-commerce transaction are not the only ones
interested in electronic payments. Financial institutions are
incentivized to adopt e-payment systems by the following
commercial environmental factors.
The cost of technology used for current activities is decreasing
day by day, which is evident from the fact that computing
devices are now cheap. People can now purchase powerful
smart devices at a relatively low price. As a result, a vast
majority
of people own a device which can at least connect to the
Internet. As the cost of technology decreases, more people get
and
use the devices such that they become dependent on them. The
higher the percentage of the population that is technology-
dependent, the bigger the incentive for financial institutions to
be part of the electronic payment system market.
406
Due to reduced technology costs to process various commercial
activities, electronic transactions allow us to save both paper
and time. Now with the increase in online commerce, financial
institutions have to adopt an e-payment system or get left

12. behind.
For the customer, e-payments are more convenient than
traditional payment methods; users can use their smartphones to
make
payments, or they can be at home and shop online (Hayashi,
2012). Also, customers have more flexibility since the
electronic
payment system offers multiple payment methods. Another
important convenience is the ability to keep track of their
purchases. Since all the transactions are made over electronic
devices, it will be easier for customers to have a history of their
past purchases and/or schedule upcoming ones. The e-payment
also reduces the inconvenience of carrying multiple plastic
cards or cash in a physical wallet.
For the merchants, e-payments will be more convenient in the
way that it can provide them good customer data control in
order to have a more efficient marketing strategy. The e-
payment system provides a positive customer experience, so an
effective payment system can drive sales up. Merchants
respond to an excellent platform that meets their customers’
expectations.
For the customer, the cost of using e-payment includes two
components: the cost of equipment and materials needed to use
the method and the fees paid to payments providers, for using
the method (Hayashi, 2012).
Reducing the payment processing cost is one of the major
incentives for merchants to accept e-payment (Mobile Payments
Today, 2011). All merchants want their processing payments
fees to be as low as possible. The use of the electronic payment
can be cost-saving for merchants in the way that it may reduce
their labor cost. Since many customers will not need to go to a
physical store to purchase their items, companies can reduce the

13. number of employees.
The security issues that consumers are concerned about before
using an e-payment system include the likelihood of fraudulent
transactions and the extent to which laws and regulations
protect them from financial loss when unauthorized transactions
occur
(Hayashi, 2012). They are also concerned about the security of
customer data and payment security (Hayashi & Bradford,
2014). Merchants are obliged to protect their customers’
information, so they need to rely on high-security technologies
to
obtain customers’ trust. Payment security is a major concern
because merchants want to reduce fraudulent transactions as
much as possible.
E-PAYMENT TYPES
E-commerce sites use e-payment because it is a paperless
transaction that gives them the advantages of saving time,
controlling
expenses, reducing the risk of theft and loss, and convenience.
In Table 4, a classification of e-payment systems is provided
with the different systems types along with the technologies
they use.
Card-based system: used to transfer data through cards by a
secured protocol SSL (Secure Socket Layer), where customer
can
even have the advantage of making a transaction by
communicating its card number and expiration date directly to
the merchant
or using a reader machine (Sahut & Galuszewska, 2004). The

14. different types of cards are:
a unique set of numbers and a magnetic chip embedded in it,
which is used to read a credit card via credit card reader (E-
Commerce Payment Systems, n.d.),
407
TABLE 4
E-payment Systems Classification
Systems Types Technologies
Card-based Systems Credit Card
Debit Card
Magnetic Stripe Card
Smart Card
Contactless Card
RFID
Card Reader (Chip, Magnetic, Stripe…)
Contactless Card Reader
Mobile Payments Smartphones
Tablets
Laptops
RFID
NFC

15. Code-Based
Cloud-Based
Electronic Fund Transfer
and E-Checks
E-mail
Internet interface
ATM
Point of Sale (POS)
Facsimile Draft
Electronic Money Virtual Wallet
Electronic Wallet
RFID
Software
Card Reader (Chip, Magnetic, Stripe…)
Contactless Card Reader
to have a bank account, before getting it from their bank, and
the amount is automatically deducted from the card’s bank
account when making a transaction,
changing the magnetism of the iron-based magnetic particles
on a band of magnetic material on the card, in order to store
data (Magnetic Stripe Card Definition, 2014),
with a unique set of numbers and a magnetic chip embedded
in it, which is used to read the credit card via a card reader,

16. debit, credit,
charge or pre-paid card where there is no need for PIN or
signature, and payment is made by touching the contactless card
reader.
Mobile payment systems can be defined as payments where a
mobile device such as PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and
wireless phones are used to initiate, authorize, and confirm the
exchange of currency in return for goods and services through
the Internet, face to face shopping, vending machines, event,
and public transport ticketing (Sahut & Galuszewska, 2004).
The
technologies associated with mobile payments, such as Near
Field Communication (NFC), Code-Based and Cloud-Based,
will
be further discussed in this paper.
Electronic check: A transposition of traditional checks into a
dematerialized environment where the merchant presents it to an
e-check issuing institution for authentication and payment.
They are similar to card-based systems but with a low
transaction
cost (Sahut & Galuszewska, 2004).
Electronic money: According to the European Central Bank
(n.d.), it can be defined as an electronic store of monetary value
on a technical device for payments. It can be hardware-based or
software-based. It is composed of the electronic wallet, which
is based on the technology of cards that store customer’s fund
data and the virtual wallet. It is rather similar to the electronic
wallet, but instead of using a smart card, the money is stocked
on software managed by a bank or bank card issuer (Sahut &
Galuszewska, 2004).
Electronic fund transfer: An electronic method to transfer

17. money from one bank account to another and it can be a similar
or
different banking institution. It can be done by using an ATM
(Automated Teller Machine), computer, or smartphone.
Cryptocurrencies: A cryptocurrency is a digital asset which is
“designed to work as a medium of exchange that is created and
managed through the use of advanced encryption techniques
known as cryptography” (Osterrieder, Lorenz, & Strika, 2017).
408
Due to the use of the blockchain transaction database and
distributed ledgers, decentralized controls, as opposed to
centralized
banking systems, are used by cryptocurrencies (Osterrieder,
Lorenz, & Strika, 2017).
E-PAYMENT TECHNOLOGIES
Various technologies can be used to make an electronic payment
such as RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag, NFC
(Near-Field Communication), Code-based and Cloud-Based,
Bluetooth, and Infrared. Three major technologies currently
used
are the NFC, Code-Based, and Cloud-Based. Table 5 below
describes the major technologies mentioned above with their
features.

18. TABLE 5
Major E-payment Technologies and Features
Technology Types Examples Features
Code-based CurrentC,
Starbucks,
LevelUp,
MCX
Application scans a code to process the
transaction
Cloud-Based PayPal
Square Wallet
Need to install the correct software and interface
to use Cloud-Based systems
Near-Field
Communication
Apple Pay
Google Wallet
Require compatible device and reader
First, the code-based system requires barcodes and quick
response (QR) codes that are machine-readable from which
information is pulled. Linear barcodes consist of a series of
vertical black lines and white spaces of variable width that
represent

19. numbers read by a barcode reader extracting the information
that they represent. QR codes are formed by a matrix of black
and white squares containing data that can be read and
displayed by a mobile device (Hayashi & Bradford, 2014). For
an
electronic payment, those codes can be displayed, for instance,
by a smartphone screen and scanned at a point of sale. Such
technology is quick and inexpensive for the merchants to
implement a mobile wallet solution based on it. This type of
solution
is relatively easy to use, although it is important to properly
align the QR code or barcode with the scanner or the camera.
The
market for this technology interface is quite large.
On the other hand, users need to have a smartphone compatible
with an application reading those codes and not everyone has
a smartphone. Some malicious codes contain malware or
Trojans. Using a QR code at a point of sale is not easy because
consumers and merchants are both required to perform more
work in order to complete a transaction (Arjunwadka, 2015).
Second, the cloud-based system enables the industry to deploy
innovative payment solutions efficiently. It is a convenient and
secure way for a customer to pay with mobile devices. The
technology uses remote servers where data can be stored, and it
leverages encryption, tokenization, and the mobile device’s
connection to the Internet to obtain credentials to enable
payment.
Consumers only need an account, and merchants only need to
install the correct software and interface to use cloud-based
systems (Hayashi & Bradford, 2014). With the service of a
payment service provider (PSP), such as PayPal, merchants
become
less dependent on financial institutions to manage transactions
(Payment Service Provider, n.d.). When you have created your

20. PayPal account and want to make a payment, you choose from
funding sources such as debit and credit card, Bank account or
PayPal balance. First, you give PayPal the authorization to
withdraw the amount you want to pay from your funding
sources.
Then PayPal sends the money without sharing your financial
information to the merchant. Finally, the merchant receives the
money via the third party, which in this case is PayPal. But a
PSP such as PayPal make profits by charging fees either to the
payer or the payee depending on their agreement (Kumar,
2014). With such technology, cardholders, as well as financial
institutions, can find it easy to put their cards’ information into
a wallet, which is considered to be a Secured Element (SE)
409
deployed in the cloud (Johnson, 2014). This leads to lower
costs as well, and its computing power is higher than on a
mobile
device. The storage capacity is unlimited and credentials in the
cloud can be available to any device if the user is authenticated.
The risk of a security breach is also present since sensitive
information is provided, and a wireless connection is required
to
deliver credentials from the cloud to the phone (Arjunwadka,
2015).
Third, the adoption of mobile payment methods such as near-
field communication (NFC), has been perceived by merchants
as an opportunity to improve a payment environment which has
been long dominated by cards. The NFC can be easily defined
as a short distance identification system using proximity or

21. touch that enables the user to make contactless payment (Profis,
2014), which requires a compatible device and reader. It works
by enabling two devices to communicate wirelessly when they
are close together. It is a substitute for RFID (radio-frequency
identification), a technology that allows us to identify things
through radio waves. Apple Pay is an example of a near-field
communication system (Square, n.d.) that requires a compatible
device and reader. The system utilizes the wireless data
interchange that NFC provides to transmit payment data and
complete
transactions without the involvement of a third-party. It started
with the iPhone 6 and iWatch. The payment process is pretty
simple. The customer at a sales terminal, equipped with NFC
technology, has the option to pay via magnetic-strip credit card,
a smart card, or by using Apple Pay. When the device is held
over the terminal, it receives the information, and the customer
can simply scan their thumbprint using the Touch-ID without
opening the Passbook app or unlocking the phone
(NearFieldCommunication.org, 2014). NFC is easy to use, and
customers have all their information on their phone necessary
to make a payment. Also, it is safer than using credit cards.
However, there are some issues associated with NFC. For
instance,
for merchants, it is expensive to afford this technology, and
especially if they have multiple locations. For the customers,
the
risk of their mobile device being hacked is present because all
of their data is stored there and not all the phones are NFC
enabled. Debit cards clear money immediately, however, NFC
requires an overnight update to actually clear the funds, which
can occur with a risk of fraud (Arjunwadka, 2015).
Today it is clearly difficult to say that one of these
technologies is above the others. Instead of proposing
improved security
options to protect payment data, they are more focused on their

22. technological features. However, a study revealed that NFC
usage should increase by 38%, and it should be worth $10
billion by the end of 2016. This shows how the technology is
improving. From 2011 to 2014, QR code users increased, and
the number of mobile barcode users went up from 21.2 million
to 38.5 million. To the contrary, despite the fact that the
number of people using barcodes has increased, the number of
smartphone owners using this technology to make financial
transactions is declining (Cayan, 2013). The cloud-based
technology used by a payment service provider such as PayPal
remains the favorite payment method for customers.
THE FUTURE OF E-PAYMENTS
Facebook is one of the most used social networks worldwide.
Actually, Facebook is a true revolution. Facebook Messenger
is an instant messaging service that lets users chat with friends
on their mobile device and/or the website. While using
messenger to chat with friends about settling debts or splitting
bills, Facebook does not want its users to use others’
applications,
so they introduced the payment feature on messenger.
Basically, it is a person to person payment for free. Users just
need to
link their debit cards on the platform to be able to use it.
Customers can also receive money on messenger but it takes up
to 3
days to be posted on their bank account.
Created in 2009, Venmo started as a payment system through
text message. It now includes social network features on its
platform. Venmo facilitates money transactions among
individuals. Users need to link their credit card, debit card or

23. checking
account to be able to use the service. Other than making
payments, customers have an option of receiving money that can
be
stored as a Venmo balance for later use, or it can be cashed out
immediately to a bank account. Sending money using your
balance, bank account or debit card, is free with Venmo, but if
you use a credit card, a standard 3% fee applies.
Snapcash is a feature of Snapchat that allows its users to send
or receive money to one another through the chat portion of the
application. All the payments made through Snapcash are
processed by Square. In order to use Snapcash, users should
link
only their debit card information. Unlike regular messages that
disappear after the recipient has seen it while using Snapchat,
money transactions will not disappear from the chat history.
When someone sends money, the recipient has 24 hours to link
410
its debit card; otherwise, the money is refunded to the sender.
Snapcash is available to people who are older than 18 years old
and only in the United States at the time of this writing.
Bitcoin is an online communication process that enables the
use of virtual currency. It is built upon a transaction log
(blockchain) distributed across a network of participating
computers (Bohme, Christin, Edelman, & Moore, 2015).
Bitcoin
(https://bitcoin.org) is the largest cryptocurrency representing
over 80% of the total market for such currencies (Osterrieder,
Lorenz, & Strika, 2017). It has been the most successful of the

24. cryptocurrencies (Bonneau, Miller, Clark, Narayanan, Kroll, &
Felten, 2015). Bitcoin attempts to address the issues of current
transaction systems which we already addressed. Unlike
currencies issued by central banks, it is a decentralized currency
that no one controls (Gupta, 2017). It utilizes person-to-
person/peer-to-peer network technology to allow all functions,
including currency issuance, transaction processing, and
verification to be carried out by the network (Osterrieder,
Lorenz, & Strika, 2017). Table 6 is a summary of social network
applications using an e-payment system.
TABLE 6
Social Network Applications Using an E-payment System
Social Tool Payment type Availability
Facebook Person-to-person transfer Users with a debit card
Venmo Person-to-person transfer US users
Snapcash
Person-to-person transfer US users over 18 years old with
a debit card
Bitcoin Peer-to-peer transfer Global
CONCLUSION
The continuing growth in Internet use has made it a crucial part
of the worlds’ economic infrastructure. Mobile smart devices
are leading the charge for new methods of payment, especially
in regions lacking the legacy infrastructure to facilitate

25. traditional payments. E-payment use is also on the rise in
developed countries because of the benefits they afford to
parties on
both sides of transactions. For consumers, they can be more …
Assignment 2: Week 6 Practicum Journal: Reimbursement Rates
Reimbursement rates and medical coding can be almost as
complicated as treating some mental illnesses. As a PMHNP,
you will be faced with varying rates that may be different than
other health care providers you may work with.
In this Practicum Journal Assignment, you will analyze
reimbursement rates for mental health treatments you will likely
use in your practice and compare those rates to other provider
rates.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
· Analyze reimbursement rates for mental health treatments
To prepare for this Practicum Journal:
· Research reimbursement rates for various treatment
modalities.
· Compare NP rates to other provider rates.
For this Practicum Journal:
Complete the Reimbursement Rate Template in your Learning
Resources using the five types of services you are likely to use
in your practice.
NURS 6670
Reimbursement Rate Template
Type of Service
eg. -New office visit

26. -Established office visit
-Inpatient hospital
-individual psychotherapy
-group psychotherapy (see examples below)
CPT code
Private insurer reimbursement rate for PMHNP
Private insurer reimbursement rate for physicians
Medicare
reimbursement rate for PMHNP
Medicare
reimbursement rate for physician

27. As the PMHNP becomes proficient in diagnosing and treating, it
is also important to learn how to bill for your time. The CMS
sets up codes to identify the type of service you are providing.
You will generally complete this task at the end of the visit as
you are documenting the visit with the client. Here are examples
of the codes to know: CPT Codes for Psychiatric and
Psychological Procedures
HMSA recognizes the following service codes for the reporting
of psychiatric and psychological services. (See Code Books for
information on how to obtain the books.)
CPT Code
Footnote(s)
Description
90791
1
Psychiatric diagnostic evaluation
90792
1,3
Psychiatric diagnostic evaluation with medical services
90832
2
Psychotherapy, 30 minutes with patient and/or family member
90833

28. 2,3
Psychotherapy, 30 minutes with patient and/or family member
when performed with an evaluation and management service
90834
4
Psychotherapy, 45 minutes with patient and/or family member
90836
3,4
Psychotherapy, 45 minutes with patient and/or family member
when performed with an evaluation and management service
90837
6
Psychotherapy, 60 minutes with patient and/or family member
90838
3,6
Psychotherapy, 60 minutes with patient and/or family member
when performed with an evaluation and management service
90839
6
Psychotherapy for crisis; first 60 minutes
90840
2
each additional 30 minutes
90846
4
Family psychotherapy (without the patient present)
90847
4
Family psychotherapy (conjoint psychotherapy) (with patient
present)
90849
4
Multiple-family group psychotherapy
90853
4
Group psychotherapy (other than of a multiple-family group)

29. 90870
1, 5
Electroconvulsive therapy (includes necessary monitoring)
96101
1
Psychological testing (includes psychodiagnostic assessment of
personality, psychopathology, emotionality, intellectual
abilities, e.g., WAIS-R, Rorschach, MMPI) with interpretation
and report, per hour.
Note: All hours of psychological testing done on a single day
will be counted as one visit (either inpatient or outpatient as
appropriate) toward the patient's inpatient or outpatient visit
maximum. However, payment will be made to the participating
provider on a per-hour basis.
96118
1
Neuropsychological testing battery (e.g., Halstead-Reitan,
Luria, WAIS-R) with interpretation and report, per hour
Note: All hours of psychological testing done on a single day
will be counted as one visit (either inpatient or outpatient as
appropriate) toward the patient's inpatient or outpatient visit
maximum. However, payment will be made to the participating
provider on a per-hour basis.
Links to websites that discuss this:
https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/practice-
management/coding-reimbursement-medicare-and-
medicaid/coding-and-reimbursement
http://www.mb-guide.org/medical-coding-guidelines.html