In both the brick-and-mortar and ecommerce spaces, payment tokenization has been used for quite some time to enhance the security of customer purchases. Now, as we move slowly into the post-pandemic era, this technology is also proving to be transformative for the healthcare industry. If you are a provider who wants to serve patients with maximum safety, flexibility, and efficiency, it is in your best interests to learn about this technology, as well as the benefits of tokenization in telemedicine before you fall behind the times.

What is tokenization?

In simple terms, payment tokenization involves replacing the patient’s primary account information with an unusable, surrogate string of characters. Meanwhile, the original data is stored off-site by a third-party provider in a secure vault that is inaccessible to hackers even if they manage to intercept details during the payment transaction.

Telemedicine, defined.

Increasingly, patients are being required to bear more of the payment burden for their medical visits and procedures. At the same time, the use of cash and checks is at an all-time low. In virtually every other aspect of their consumer dealings, people have become accustomed to resolving their charges through the use of credit and debit cards, as well as recurring billing.

For these reasons, the time has come for medical practices and other providers to offer their patients the same amenities they have become accustomed to elsewhere. That being said, billing in the medical field can lead to added challenges. For instance, the claim adjudication process with insurance companies can mean that patients are not made aware of the exact amount of their bill until weeks or months after the visit or procedure has been completed. Fortunately, tokenization, as well as other payment technologies, have been specifically developed for this industry, which makes the entire process more transparent and streamlined.

Patient tokenization and telemedicine.

Before we dive deeper into the benefits of tokenization in telemedicine, it is important to understand the definition of telemedicine itself. In general, it involves using innovative technologies, devices, and methods to provide medical care and advice to patients located remotely. These days, the most frequently seen forms of telemedicine include video conferencing and audio calls.

There are three basic categories of telemedicine.

• Store-and-forward. In this type, the patient never actually meets the practitioner face-to-face. Instead, all data, including images and records, is transferred directly to the specialist.
• Real-time interactive service. Usually in the form of video conferencing or an audio telephone call, this involves the practitioner giving medical advice and care from a distance using technology.
• Remote patient monitoring. Also known as remote physiologic monitoring, this type of telemedicine uses digital technologies to transmit medical data to healthcare providers. This allows home-bound patients, as well as those in remote areas, to get access to a wider pool of providers and specialists. 

As a result of these services, more patients than ever now have access to available, reliable, high-quality healthcare, even if they are unable to meet face-to-face with the practitioner.

Why is tokenization becoming so important to the healthcare industry?

In order to answer this question, it is helpful to compare today’s telemedicine to the dawn of ecommerce that came about several years ago. When payments for purchases were made physically using cash or check at a brick-and-mortar store, it was easier to establish a relationship between buyer and seller. Merchants with concerns about a shopper’s identity could ask for identification or additional proof to authenticate a payment. However, once online stores came to the fore, it became crucial to invent and implement additional security safeguards and features to keep both consumers and merchants safe from fraud.

Now that telemedicine is taking its permanent place in modern care, the same fortresses that work so well for retailers need to be erected around the bill-paying systems of medical practices and other healthcare providers. Once a facility or practice has implemented telemedicine and secure payment tokenization, they can provide the following services to remote patients.

• Providing urgent care advice, evaluation. and care management for patients who need transfers of care, fast responses, and decisions.
• Dispensing prescriptions and ongoing care to remote patients.
• Promoting wellness via “accountability televisits.”
• Tracking the success and efficacy of treatments and patient symptoms and responses over time.
• Doing regular follow-up and status tracking after in-office procedures or surgeries.
• Offering fast appointments that are easy for patients to schedule and keep.

When the advantages of telemedicine are combined with the security, flexibility, and ease of use of tokenized payments, patients can enjoy medical care that is customizable, predictable, and secure. Safe, tokenized payments can be collected before a telemedicine session, or can be authorized to be withdrawn once the exact cause is known post-adjudication — all with the patient’s permission and approval.

How to set up your practice with telemedicine and tokenized payments.

Your first step is to talk with your payment services provider, preferably one that is well-versed in the intricacies of medical billing. They should be as invested as you are in doing everything possible to make your patients’ payments easy, safe, and timely. You want a payments technology partner who can provide you with checkout options for multiple channels, including via a mobile app for their phone, online, or in-office. In discussing your various options with your potential partners, make certain that tokenization is being used to protect your patients’ sensitive payment data.

Once you have settled on a payment system that offers the level of data security you want and have integrated it into your other business systems, it’s time to spread the word to your patients. Although they may be used to paying electronically and even via recurring billing when doing their regular shopping, this may be the first time they have seen it in a medical setting. Transparency and a willingness to answer any and all questions are vital, particularly because some patients will also be potentially encountering telemedicine for the first time as well.

Helping your patients to navigate through often complex medical situations has already shown you the importance of rock-solid communication and transparency. Employing these same techniques as you launch your telemedicine and tokenized payments ecosystems will make the transition much easier and eliminate a great deal of frustration and confusion on your patients’ part. With time and your continued patient-first focus, you will find that you can provide better and more comprehensive treatment to more people. Equally important, the process by which patients contribute their share of the payments will be simpler to understand, easier, and more secure than ever before.