Revolutionizing Healthcare: How FinTech Is Transforming the Industry
Throughout the continuum of a patient’s experience, which extends from preventive strategies to palliative care, a concurrent financial path unfolds. While governments have recommitted to the pursuit of universal health coverage (UHC), patients continue to shoulder a substantial portion of healthcare expenses, especially for top-notch and timely medical services. Healthcare costs frequently reach exorbitant levels, primarily relying on individuals’ out-of-pocket contributions, compounded by elevated transaction expenses, unpredictability, and a lack of correlation with health outcomes. These financial encumbrances impede individuals’ ability to access appropriate care when necessary, in the correct manner, and at the most suitable location.
The financial journey connected to healthcare can encompass expensive short-term interventions like advanced diagnostics, chemotherapy, or surgical procedures, as well as more affordable long-term care, such as managing chronic diseases or addressing the loss of caregiver income. Additionally, preventive healthcare measures may not immediately demonstrate their return on investment to patients. The financial hurdles experienced throughout this healthcare journey not only influence the quality of care received but also have lasting repercussions on individuals’ financial stability beyond their healthcare experiences.
When healthcare costs become prohibitive, individuals are compelled to make difficult choices: they must either forgo essential medical care or explore alternative means of financing it. These alternatives could entail borrowing from friends and family, seeking loans from unofficial lenders, selling assets, or facing the challenging dilemma of prioritizing healthcare treatments over other vital daily expenses, such as food or educational fees.
To tackle these challenges, patients and their families need access to dependable, transparent digital financial solutions that are custom-tailored to address the distinct payment and access hurdles within the healthcare sector. These services should inspire confidence, provide clarity, and be explicitly tailored to meet the financial demands associated with healthcare.
What is FinTech in Healthcare?
Fintech in Healthcare denotes the app of financial technologies within the healthcare sector. Much like the broader concept of “health tech,” fintech encompasses a range of technologies originally developed for, used in, or adapted for the financial industry. These technologies encompass digital identification, mobile money, artificial intelligence, robotics, and blockchain. Fintech solutions are deployed in both the business-to-consumer (B2C) and the business-to-business (B2B) models, offering digital financial services that encompass payments, savings, lending, advisory, and insurance.
Besides, health financing faces challenges that not all fintech techs or models in the sector can directly address. To create a framework for the integration of Fintech in Healthcare, it proves advantageous to categorize it into three primary components: digital financial solutions, essential digital facilitators, and the conduit to healthcare services. This framework has evolved through a series of iterative processes and discussions involving fintech and healthcare providers, resulting in refinements that foster a common understanding.
The fintech sector has demonstrated the transformative potential of digital innovation in reaching marginalized and remote communities. By amalgamating offline services, such as financial agents, with technology like mobile wallets, digital banking has effectively provided reliable and formal financial services to individuals who previously had limited access. Beyond facilitating fund transfers and secure storage, digital banking has played a pivotal role in empowering unbanked individuals and small-to-medium enterprises to establish financial histories, build creditworthiness, and reduce or eliminate transaction fees linked to cash-based payments. These fees may encompass charges for third-party payment services, transportation expenses, lost income due to time away from work, and manpower-related costs.
Technology-driven health financing solutions can be categorized into four main archetypes designed to serve unbanked or underbanked consumers: digital health savings, digital lending, crowdfunding, and insurtech. It’s crucial to recognize that these financing models are not mutually exclusive, and the most impactful and meaningful solutions often blend two or more of these archetypes for optimal effectiveness.
What is the significance of financial inclusion in the healthcare sector?
Fintech in Healthcare suggests several compelling causes for healthcare to embrace financial inclusion:
- Targeting the same populations: Financial inclusion efforts typically concentrate on serving low-income individuals without access to formal banking services. These very individuals often encounter difficulties when seeking affordable and high-quality healthcare. By harmonizing the objectives and methodologies of financial inclusion with those of universal health coverage, it becomes possible to efficiently tackle healthcare financing obstacles.
- Leveraging existing techs: Fintech solutions can leverage technologies already established in the finance sector, which inherently possess robust privacy and security features integrated into their design and operations. Since both the finance and healthcare industries place a high premium on protecting personal data and ensuring privacy, harnessing existing technologies provides a substantial advantage.
- Overcoming traditional healthcare financing limitations: Traditional healthcare financing methods, including limited public insurance coverage and expensive private insurance, frequently fall short in adequately assisting low- and middle-income populations. Furthermore, donor funding for disadvantaged communities is on a gradual decline. To bridge this divide until public insurance can comprehensively cover the populace, innovative financing models from the finance sector can offer valuable insights and solutions.
- Leveraging financial industry expertise: The financial sector possesses vast knowledge and proficiency in general finance as well as innovative financing techniques. Regrettably, this expertise is often absent from healthcare conversations. By incorporating financial industry experts, the healthcare sector can tap into their insights and collaborate to develop innovative financing models tailored to the distinct challenges within healthcare.
Utilize Cases of FinTech in Healthcare
FinTech in Healthcare introduces innovative digital service models to elevate the industry. By harnessing the power of blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, FinTech companies are proactively addressing gaps within the existing healthcare system.
FinTech facilitates streamlined access to procedures that entail intricate payment processes and operations, ultimately enhancing the overall healthcare experience. This trajectory signals ongoing progress and anticipates further advancements in the future.
A prominent illustration involves FinTech employing assistive technology to enhance the accessibility of health payments for individuals with disabilities. This empowers them to more effectively navigate and manage their healthcare finances. Moreover, FinTech initiatives within the healthcare sector that target improved financial inclusion for the unbanked population contribute to nurturing a savings culture among users, particularly in the realm of preventive medicine.
Utilize Case 1: Health Lending
Healthcare lending entails acquiring credit to cover medical expenses, including services such as dental care and physician visits. The FinTech sector has experienced substantial expansion in health lending, offering a streamlined avenue for obtaining credit for healthcare requirements. With over 50% of U.S. citizens depending on healthcare loans, the significance of this technological innovation is evident. Emerging startups entering this specialized market are positioned to yield considerable profits.
Examples of Startups in Healthcare Lending:
Utilize Case 2: Health Wallet
A health wallet is a digital account established by FinTech companies to earmark funds exclusively for healthcare expenses. In the United States, health wallet savings come with tax benefits for individuals enrolled in high-deductible health plans. Although prevalent in many Western nations, health wallets remain relatively scarce in developing countries. However, they harbor immense potential in addressing healthcare challenges, as investing in preventive and curative medicine can substantially reduce child mortality rates.
Examples of Startups with Health Wallets:
Utilize Case 3: Improved Access to Healthcare
Timely access to healthcare services is imperative for attaining desired health outcomes. FinTech occupies a pivotal position in enhancing access through innovative solutions. Presently, an estimated 50% of the global population lacks access to fundamental healthcare services, but the collaboration between FinTech and the healthcare sector aspires to diminish this figure. By harnessing technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, FinTech enterprises are closing gaps within the healthcare system and facilitating simplified access to intricate payment structures and operations.
Furthermore, FinTech in healthcare enhances payment accessibility for individuals with disabilities through the utilization of assistive technologies. Additionally, it promotes financial inclusion for the unbanked population, cultivating a savings-oriented culture, particularly in the context of preventive medicine.
Examples of Startups Improving Access to Healthcare:
Our Experience
HospApp — assignment manager for hospitals
Our customer had a vision of creating a new mobile system that fosters seamless communication & collaboration among workers within specific patient classes. The objective was to facilitate streamlined communication, file sharing, task allocation, and prescription management, all focused on individual patients within the group. Emphasizing top-notch security, the system would protect all patient-related data within the hospital’s internal network, preventing any external access or data breaches.
At Stfalcon, our team designed and created a demo Android application tailored to address the fundamental requirements of hospital staff. Our comprehensive services included user interface design, Android development, manual testing, quality assurance, and implementation. Read the full case study
While our primary emphasis was on specific screens, we prioritized maximizing functionality in critical areas:
- Chat Room/Group: Establishing a collaborative environment to facilitate effective group interactions.
- Messages: Enabling smooth communication among team members.
- Tasks: Integrating crucial functionalities for both chat and task management to streamline daily operations.
Vethem — vet appointment booking application
Stfalcon.com was assigned the responsibility of crafting a robust application for scheduling veterinary appointments and conducting virtual consultations with veterinarians. Furthermore, we designed a web gallery showcasing profiles of veterinary doctors, enabling clients to initiate video calls with experts, including the capability for remote examinations as required. To keep up with contemporary standards, the Android edition of the app, known as Vethem, leverages the Kotlin programming language.
In the realm of Android development, the app’s architecture adheres to the tenets of Clean Architecture and MVVM, harnessing the power of Android Architecture Components to enhance flexibility and streamline the process of making design or business logic adjustments, ultimately saving valuable time. Read the full case study
Conversely, in the case of Vethem for iOS, it embraces the WVVM architecture, facilitating rapid design modifications without affecting the app’s fundamental business logic. When developing Vethem in Swift, we harnessed the benefits of protocol-oriented programming to optimize its capabilities and efficiency to the fullest.
In Summary
As health services continue to embrace digitization, companies can harness the power of data-driven interventions to rejuvenate and streamline our fragmented healthcare networks.
Fintech’s role in revolutionizing healthcare is pivotal, as it introduces innovative digital financial service models, harnessing the potential of cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Fintech companies are dedicated to rectifying the inefficiencies and information disparities within healthcare payment systems, all aimed at simplifying the flow of information and funds between patients and providers, ultimately resulting in time and effort savings for everyone involved.
By leveraging fintech solutions, healthcare experiences improved efficiency in the flow of information and financial transactions, benefiting both patients and healthcare providers. This transformation not only elevates the quality of healthcare but also bolsters financial management related to healthcare expenses. By leveraging tech, fintech contributes to a more seamless & influential healthcare financing ecosystem. If you’re interested in developing a FinTech solution in Healthcare, just contact us, free consultation is available.
Originally published at https://stfalcon.com.
