Epic River has introduced a new platform designed to connect credit unions with healthcare providers, opening up new avenues for financing in the healthcare sector. This innovative approach aims to benefit both credit unions and healthcare providers by offering a simplified and streamlined lending process. For healthcare providers, this platform can provide a much-needed source of reliable cash flow through patient loans. This can be particularly beneficial for smaller practices or those facing financial challenges. On the other hand, credit unions can tap into a new source of high-quality loans, potentially expanding their portfolio and increasing interest income opportunities. Epic River's solution focuses on making the lending process more accessible and efficient. By facilitating loans between credit unions and healthcare providers, the platform indirectly supports patients by offering them more manageable payment options for medical bills. This new platform could mark a significant shift in healthcare financing, demonstrating the potential of collaboration between financial institutions and healthcare providers. As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, innovative solutions like this could play a crucial role in ensuring financial sustainability and accessibility for all stakeholders.

The U.S. is facing a medical debt crisis, with 41% of adults owing money for healthcare. Many feel hopeless about ever paying it off. However, a Colorado-based company, Epic River, has an innovative solution. Epic River partners with credit unions to take on unpaid medical bills from hospitals. Surprisingly, the credit union takes on zero risk, even without checking borrowers' credit scores. If a debt seems unlikely to be repaid, it's returned to the hospital. This model seems too good to be true, but it works. The credit union's default rate is only 7%, meaning 93% of debtors are making payments. This success is partly because many debtors have good credit scores and want to avoid damaging their financial standing. This unique approach to medical debt relief offers hope for both healthcare providers and patients. To learn more, listen to the CU 2.0 podcast episode featuring Epic River's CEO and the Chief Lending Officer of Clarity Credit Union. It's a financial innovation you won't want to miss!

No-interest patient payment plans have long been thought of as great solutions for patients who can’t afford immediate payment. On paper at least, these types of plans seem legitimately beneficial, and healthcare providers and medical billing staff across the country truly believe that these plans are helping patients absorb the potentially disastrous financial impact of high-cost treatments. They believe it, or else they wouldn’t be offering them.

It’s no secret that U.S. healthcare is tremendously expensive from every angle — and for every participant. But the reasons behind these expense may be more complex than initially thought.

Consumers with little or poor credit, poor repayment histories, and longstanding negative account balances are, understandably, not typically thought of as “ideal customers” for banks and other financial institutions. Indeed, these profiles, along with consumers with low or volatile incomes, have long been flagged as too risky to fully serve.

Healthcare price transparency laws have become increasingly popular in the U.S. Indeed, 29 states currently have at least one law on the books related to healthcare providers detailing costs. There is also a growing surge of bipartisan support for more, and better, details to help patients determine value, not to mention the fact that CMS requirement for hospitals to publish a list of charges online will go live on January 1.

Whether patients have health insurance or not, medical care can be expensive. From daunting upfront costs to high deductibles and copayments, many Americans simply don’t have what they need on hand to cover healthcare costs. Medical loans can close the gap, which is why helping patients connect with a fair and competitive lending program has become important to providers who want to make sure the people they care for stay healthy, both physically and financially.

Healthcare providers are increasingly being called upon to help patients navigate complicated insurance terms and service costs, especially those who work in independent practices. The difficulty of handling these aspects of health insurance – or the difficulty of pursuing medical care without it – are among the reasons why many patients avoid paying their bills. To help you and your patients better navigate the labyrinth of insurance terms, today’s blog is dedicated to the explanation of a few common health insurance terms.

As a healthcare professional, you’ve made a commitment to do no harm. The expectations that come with that promise are clear when it comes to helping a patient’s physical well-being, but what about their financial well-being? Paying medical bills is a challenge for many patients, and collecting on those payments is a challenge for many hospitals and healthcare centers as well. With the Epic River Patient Lending solution, you can ease the process for everyone. Read on to learn the two biggest reasons why your hospital should choose the Epic River Patient Lending solution and contact our team today to get started!

Does your medical office struggle with finding the right balance between providing patients the affordable care they need and maintaining efficient healthcare billing and revenue cycle management? If so, you aren’t alone. The American Hospital Association reports that community hospitals provided more than $38 billion in uncompensated care to patients in 2016, undoubtedly leaving many medical professionals unpaid for their services. Finding a solution to this problem is challenging, but finding and implementing the right healthcare billing platform can help.