SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MedCom USA, Inc. , a leading provider of HIPAA-compliant healthcare and financial transaction solutions, today announced it has finalized testing with HBNet Inc., a subsidiary of Hypercom Corporation and will now offer an enhanced version of its MedCom Terminal System, based on Hypercom’s versatile T7Plus payment device, that clarifies patients’ maximum financial responsibility for an office visit and facilitates payments to doctors and dentists for those charges.
Consumers are shouldering more of their healthcare bills than ever before. Unfortunately, most patients leave a doctor’s office not knowing exactly what they owe for their visit since costs vary widely for the same service based on a patient’s health coverage and health plan. The MedCom Terminal System seeks to address this problem while helping doctors get paid in a timely manner for the patient’s portion of the charges. It is estimated that $60 billion dollars in doctors’ bills go unpaid each year by patients.
The enhanced MedCom Terminal System is comprised of the MedCom System terminal and the HBNet(TM) transaction transport network, which enables processing of eligibility and healthcare verification transactions in 30 seconds or less. The System quickly verifies a patient’s insurance coverage and estimates the maximum amount that a patient could owe for a doctor’s office visit based on his co-pay or deductible requirements. The System also enables a patient to pre-approve payment for an office visit and keep an electronic signature on file at the office so that weeks later -- when the final charges are verified by the patient’s health plan -- the doctor can quickly process payment.
“There is an increased interest among patients to know right away how much a visit will cost and what benefits are covered by their health insurance. Equally, doctors have expressed the need to get paid by patients in a timely manner for services provided,” said Bill Williams, CEO of MedCom USA. “The MedCom system addresses both of these considerations by providing doctors with a low-cost, easy-to-use technology to verify patients’ health insurance coverage with a wide variety of payers in real-time, estimate patients’ costs for a visit, and allow for pre-approval of payments via in-office credit/debit card processing terminals.”
With the MedCom Terminal System connection to the HBNet network, doctors simply attach to a standard phone line and can immediately obtain patient benefit eligibility and verification of health insurance and accept credit and/or debit card payments in the office, including the new health spending account (HSA) debit cards. HBNet’s back-end technology, built on Hypercom’s robust, ultra high-density MegaNAC(R)180 Network Access Controllers (NACs), enables these lengthy transactions to take place in less than 30 seconds. The MedCom System works with more than 400 public and private payers including Aetna, United and regional health plans nationwide. MedCom also works with Bank of America Merchant Services to provide credit and debit card processing.
“Healthcare and dental providers are demanding speed, service and security from their transaction services, and the combination of our HBNet high performance transaction transport service with the MedCom Terminal System delivers all three of these benefits in a complete package that can turn around the average transaction in a matter of seconds,” said Sharon Cline, Senior Vice President and General Manager, HBNet, Inc.
Williams added, “Patients have been frustrated getting bills months late, not understanding what they are being charged and not having the ability to plan ahead for what they need to pay their doctor. Meanwhile, doctors can spend $40,000 a year by relying on paper and telephone calls for insurance administration, which is a money losing proposition for them. With the MedCom System we’re making things easier for patients and doctors. As an added bonus, we’ve found the system also streamlines work and costs for health plans. Everybody wins.”
MedCom and Hypercom first announced their partnership in April 2004. Since then, the companies have been completing gateway access testing and certification of MedCom medical and dental point-of-sale solutions to ensure seamless and secure interaction between many of the nation’s major insurance, medical provider systems and merchant processing banks.
About the HBNet System
Hypercom’s HBNet network speeds the authorization and processing of electronic transactions for retail point-of-sale, financial, government, healthcare and other customers in both the dial and IP point-of-sale (POS) markets. The service has a growing presence in the US and Canada, with plans to expand globally.
HBNet is strategically positioned within the North American Public Switching Telephone Network (PSTN) and at processor data centers. It supports all POS terminal protocols at any modem speed up to V.92 and provides uninterrupted service with no single point of failure, seamless load balancing, state-of-the-art Web-based reporting, and simple all-inclusive pricing.
About Hypercom (www.hypercom.com)
Widely recognized as the global payment technology innovator, Hypercom delivers complete card payment terminal, network access device, server and transaction networking solutions that help merchants and financial institutions generate revenues and increase profits. Hypercom’s card payment terminal, network and server solutions are leading the transformation of electronic payments in more than 100 countries. The company is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
About MedCom USA, Inc.
MedCom USA, Inc. provides innovative solutions for electronically processing HIPAA-compliant transactions within the healthcare industry. MedCom USA provides a point of service terminal-based transaction package and compatible Web Portal add-on for medical and dental professionals as well as healthcare institutions. MedCom USA offers its clientele the ability to facilitate the following transactions: Real-time Patient Eligibility, Real-time Referral Certification, Real-time Claim Status, Real-time Pre authorization, 100% Paperless Claims Processing and Submission to all United States based health plans and insurance carriers, Patient Easy Pay, Merchant Processing, Electronic Check Guarantee Service, and Accounts Receivable Financing. For more information, visit www.medcomusa.com.
Certain matters discussed within this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although MedCom USA, Inc. management believes the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions; it can give no assurance that its expectations will be attained. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include industry, competitive and technological changes; risks associated with international operations and foreign currency fluctuations; the composition, timing and size of orders from and shipments to major customers; inventory obsolescence; market acceptance of new products and other risks detailed from time to time in MedCom USA, Inc.'s SEC reports, including the company’s most recent 10-K and subsequent 10Q-s.
Hypercom and MegaNAC are registered trademarks of Hypercom Corporation. HBNet is a trademark of Hypercom Corporation. All other products or services mentioned in this document are trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks or registered service marks of their respective owners.
MedCom USA, Inc.
CONTACT: Media, Courtney Walker of Edelman, +1-212-704-8102,courtney.walker@edelman.com, for MedCom USA; or Investors, Kent Barghols ofMedCom USA, +1-515-276-1180, bargholsb@msn.com; or Peter Schuddekopf ofHypercom Corporation, +1-602-504-5383, pschuddekopf@hypercom.com
