Citi Announces Aetna to Be the Charter Healthcare Benefits Company for Comprehensive Digital Health Payment Platform

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Citi^® announced today that Aetna will be the charter healthcare benefits company in the development of a new mobile and web-based patient payment solution – Money²_SM for Health. The payment platform, which will bring together a network of insurance carriers and healthcare providers, will enable patients to go online or use their mobile devices to reconcile their healthcare bills, receive alerts when claims are ready to be viewed, pay amounts due and view past payments – all in one digital location. It will be offered to consumers in the U.S. by participating health insurance carriers and providers to enable mobile and online healthcare payments through the Money² for Health platform. It is expected to launch for patients in late 2013.

“It is good news for our industry that major organizations are coming together to address that problem with the needs of consumers and payers in mind.”

The healthcare industry is changing dramatically as costs are being increasingly shifted to patients to shoulder more of the expense. Patient healthcare payments will soon exceed $1 trillion annually and continue to rise significantly in a payment system that is complex. This trend is expected to accelerate with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act of 2010’s insurance expansion provisions, and bad debt is expected to reach $200 billion by 2019, according to Citi’s analysis of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services statistics. Money² for Health will be a valuable resource to help patients better manage their personal healthcare expenses, especially in an evolving healthcare environment.

“Paying healthcare bills is often confusing and time-consuming, and the disjointed and inconsistent array of payment options available today leads to delayed or missed payments and higher costs for patients, providers and insurers,” said Citi Enterprise Payments CEO Paul Galant. “Money² for Health, the latest example of Citi’s commitment to developing and providing advanced digital solutions that enhance clients’ lives, will simplify the payment process by making it easy for consumers to track and pay healthcare bills through its digital wallet while at the same time speeding up payments to providers. Given Aetna’s ongoing commitment to innovation and its ample network of members and providers that can benefit from the new platform, we are thrilled to have them as our charter health plan.”

Research from McKinsey & Company reveals that 19 percent of patients delay payments because of the limited payment options available and 17 percent delay payments due to discrepancies between billing statements from providers and Explanation of Benefits letters from insurance companies. Patients are responsible for paying all of their different providers through many different forms of payment, such as mailing checks, managing multiple provider payment portals or submitting expenses for reimbursements from tax-advantaged accounts.

“Money² for Health complements Aetna’s commitment to give our members resources that help them live healthier lives and achieve financial security,” said Rob Butler, head of Consumer Financial Solutions for Aetna. “This platform connects Aetna, patients and providers, which will improve the healthcare experience for everyone. Aetna is also excited to be the first healthcare benefits company to work with Citi to offer this service to our providers. We believe this will be a valuable service for our providers as they seek ways to manage the increase in patient payments.”

Money² for Health aims to simplify and expedite the payment process for patients in several ways, including:

One portal, one enrollment and one password
Easy reconciliation of insurance claims and healthcare bills with links to claim details
Single-click payment via mobile or web
- Patients will be able to use a single click to pay all enrolled providers using their preferred funding source (such as checking accounts, credit cards or tax-advantaged accounts) and will be open to customers of any bank
- Multi-channel alerts with the option to “Pay Now” will be available through a patients’ choice of channel (such as email or mobile alert)
User-friendly presentation of current and historical healthcare spending
- Patients will be able to view and analyze all of their healthcare spending, leading to better planning decisions
Fewer questions and calls
- Access to online information will improve patient understanding and reduce the need to reach out to call centers

“The challenges in the healthcare payment space continue to be pervasive, defining the need for a solution that connects patients, payers and providers in a comprehensive way that would alleviate much of the unnecessary burden and costs that exist today,” said Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Senior Vice President John Casillas. “It is good news for our industry that major organizations are coming together to address that problem with the needs of consumers and payers in mind.”

Citi Enterprise Payments was established in January 2011 to provide new digital payments services to Citi’s institutional and government clients to enable them to better serve their target consumers. Citi Enterprise Payments solutions gives clients access to new opportunities in growth markets across the globe, and helps them meet their existing customers’ current and future needs for convenient, quick and secure digital payment services.

About Citi

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

About Aetna

Aetna is one of the nation’s leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 37.3 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical management capabilities, Medicaid health care management services and health information technology services. Our customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com.