SIU Medicine Revamps Patient Payment Collection with athenaEDI™ Text to Pay

Southern Illinois University (SIU) Medicine, a leader in medical education and community outreach, faced challenges in their payment collection process. The cost of producing paper statements was skyrocketing, and the paper statement cycle lacked the necessary flexibility. They needed a solution that could adapt to changing patient needs and streamline payment plans.

With athenaEDI’s Text to Pay application, SIU implemented a cost-effective, secure, and patient-friendly solution that revolutionized their payment collection process. Patients can now pay their balances with ease, directly from their cell phones. “We are thrilled with the strong response received from our patient population regarding Text-to-Pay. Patients have commented that it is easy to use and welcome a reminder to pay. They prefer paying via text rather than logging into a portal or physically sending out a payment,” said Jacklyn Disney, Deputy Director at SIU.

Targeted dunning text messages have increased patient payments for overdue balances while reducing days in accounts receivable (AR). Payment plans are now initiated by the patient and managed through Text to Pay, further streamlining the process. Finally, the solution allows patients to provide feedback, enabling SIU Medicine to improve their services.

Adopting athenahealth’s Text to Pay product has proved to be a game-changer for SIU Medicine, diversifying their remittance options, optimizing payment collection efforts, and improving patient engagement.

Adopting Text-to-Pay has helped accelerate payments and reduce costs. It is less expensive and more secure than mailing a paper statement. As an added benefit, mobile Text-to-Pay diversifies our payment options reducing the impact of a cyberattack or other outage affecting our other payment platforms.

Jacklyn Disney, Deputy Director, PBS Southern Illinois University