The challenge

Houston Methodist treats patients from 80 countries, mostly from Latin America. Many of those patients are 100 per cent self-pay, and patients often speak multiple languages and want to pay in local currencies. This all created challenges for managing collections and patient financial processes. The hospital’s billing processes were highly manual and provided a less-than friendly patient experience. Language differences created barriers to collections. Self-pay accounts were not being placed or discounted appropriately with the hospital’s early out self-pay vendor, as the vendor could not service international patient phone calls or international mailing.

The solution

Houston Methodist chose Sunbelt HP and Flywire to transform the entire international patient self-pay process and provide patients with a seamless end-to-end payment solution. Houston Methodist knew that the partnership between Sunbelt and Flywire, with their decades of global payment expertise, industry-leading payment technology, and world-class customer service, would benefit both the hospital and its patients.

The result

Flywire removes the challenges of collecting from international patients. The software automatically identifies the country where each patient resides and provides chat and phone assistance in the patient’s native language. Flywire also provides patients with an email link to a payment portal, translated into their own language. And the software creates and tracks payment and refund codes so that all accounts can be accurately identified.

In addition to Flywire’s technology, Sunbelt’s global payment solutions helped Houston Methodist create a more seamless payment experience for patients, which translated into increased payments, an enhanced patient experience, and improved patient satisfaction. Houston Methodist has achieved multiple benefits since go-live, including:

• Streamlined collection of cash deposits for surgeries pre-service and prior to patients arriving to the US, eliminating delayed or missing payments for scheduled care
• Faster collection and account resolution, achieving an increased collection ratio of 28 per cent (compared to 13 per cent pre-Flywire)
• Utilised a digital payment portal as primary method of contacting patients, increasing payments by 37 per cent
• Eliminated costly wire-transfer fees, making the transaction more affordable for both the hospital and its patients.