In 2013, Hattiesburg Clinic leadership was looking to modernize and upgrade its credit card payment processing capabilities to allow patients to pay bills online, while integrating payment functionality with its Epic electronic health records (EHR) system.
Previously, the 400-provider, 85-location multispecialty provider in Southern Mississippi had relied on time-consuming, tedious, manual processes to complete credit card transactions, with staff members required to manually enter patient payment details in Epic to generate a receipt for patients and post the transaction to patient accounts.
Hattiesburg selected Sphere to deliver its payments platform, in part due to Sphere’s seamless integration with Epic. For the initial implementation, Sphere provided gateway services (the integrated software used to send credit card details securely to the payment network for processing) for patient-facing payments through Epic MyChart and at a kiosk location.
As a result of the improved patient experience via its initial Sphere implementation, Hattiesburg expanded the relationship, eventually working with Sphere to:
- Offer the Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment method, which drove increased MyChart adoption by patients
- Add staff-facing payments via Epic Resolute, enabling the clinic to use Epic’s integrated payment functionality at its clinics and business offices to reduce manual transaction posting
- Establish recurring payment cycles within Epic for patients, which enables Hattiesburg to offer patients greater convenience and improve the likelihood of payment
- Transition to Sphere for merchant services (the portion of the payment system that processes transactions and deposits funds to bank accounts) to eliminate reconciliation challenges experienced with the clinic’s prior vendor
Due to the reduction in labor-intensive, manual processes and the overhaul of its payment processes, Hattiesburg has streamlined operations while boosting efficiency and convenience for patients and staff. Further, almost 15% of Hattiesburg Clinic’s patient payments are now recurring, automatic payments, compared with none with the clinic’s prior vendor.
To learn more about how Sphere helped Hattiesburg Clinic improve the patient experience through streamlined payments, click here.
