As a clinic owner or business partner, there’s one strategy that is instrumental when it comes to supporting your clinic’s booking rates, new patient acquisition and overall patient satisfaction: making your clinic as accessible as possible, in the simplest way possible – like employer aid and buy now pay later options.

One way that allied health clinic owners are achieving this is by tackling the cost barrier to attending appointments and seeking treatments, especially when they require multiple visits. And it has nothing to do with lowering prices or offering discounts – because in today’s financial climates – it’s important for many clinics to raise their prices accordingly to meet the rising cost of wages, consumables, and general inflation.

One avenue clinics have been choosing to take over the past few years is via the introduction of two aspects: a Buy Now Pay Later payment option to reduce the upfront appointment cost and allow the patient to spread it over several weeks depending on their financial capacity, and two, adapting their technology to accept Employer Aid payments, the new-age alternative to restrictive and limiting private health insurance payments.

The Value Of Buy Now Pay Later In Healthcare

Buy Now Pay Later has transformed how nearly one-third (31%) of kiwis purchase and pay for a range of items and services. After experiencing rapid growth and uptake in 2020, it hasn’t lost momentum – with the Buy Now Pay Later market in NZ expected this year to creep up by over 28% to reach NZ$1.7 billion dollars. This means it’s a comfortable payment avenue for many kiwis already – and something that is now being actively searched for, or even expected, among providers of a wide range of services including healthcare.

HealthNow was the world’s first health-specific Buy Now Pay Later platform. Health consumers choose how many instalments they’d like to spread their payment over at the time of purchase, up to a total of 12 weeks. This service is absolutely free to use for health consumers with no fees or interest, when their repayments are made on time. If repayments are not made, then HealthNow offers the lowest penalty fee of any other Buy Now Pay Later provider in NZ. Specifically, only $7.00 per late payment is charged, and that is after allowing for an extra 24-hour penalty-free grace period after the payment was due. HealthNow also accepts requests to waive these fees under certain circumstances, as their mission is to support the health of New Zealanders and make healthcare more affordable, as opposed to focusing on profit.

Employer Aid Payments Offer Maximum Benefits

Employer aid payments are those made by companies, often as part of their corporate wellness programmes. This involves a monthly, quarterly or annual cash contribution that is placed inside an employee’s digital health savers wallet. The accrued funds can be used to maintain the well-being of employees as well as their families (with the latter being a key feature), understanding that each person has varying health needs, and giving them the freedom to choose how best to care for their health without limiting their staff to basic levels of health cover or other exclusions imposed by insurance companies.

When funds are placed in the health saver’s wallet, the recipient can then use it much like an EFTPOS account via the HealthNow app when it comes time to pay for their appointment, activating their app with the clinic’s HealthNow digital terminal. As these funds can only be used for health-related services and products that are affiliated with HealthNow, employers get full confidence in the funds being used to support health and well-being, while allowing their team members full control in terms of what they need to thrive right now.

For the recipient employees, using HealthNow is a free service, and none of the money provided by the employer is taken as fees or interest for using the service. Once employer aid funds have run out, a person then has the option of using HealthNow’s free Buy Now Pay Later service to spread the cost of their appointment over up to twelve weeks – with no fees or interest. This means they can continue to access a clinic’s services at only a fraction of the cost on the day, while the clinic gets paid in full on the same day by HealthNow.

Is HealthNow Beneficial And Sustainable?

With both Buy Now Pay Later and Employer Aid (and health wallet) services all offered through HealthNow, clinics are gaining massive benefits from their partnership with HealthNow – especially given the very minimal costs involved for each participating clinic for a large potential return. HealthNow has an ethical mission – making healthcare accessible for all – which means addressing important statistics like how up to 39% of New Zealanders were found to avoid visiting their GP despite having a genuine medical need due to the upfront cost. This is where the Buy Now Pay Later model stands strong – allowing patients that access, without charging them any fees or interest to use the standard service.

By accepting Employer Aid payments, clinics also stand to benefit from a new market – those that have been provided health wallet funds from their employees, and must find a local HealthNow partner to meet their service needs – as well as allowing the employees to freely explore new health services that they may not have otherwise attended due to the cost.

Being built and designed in collaboration with health practitioners that understand the needs of a clinic as well as the needs and health accessibility barriers of their patients, HealthNow truly is both a beneficial and sustainable service for clinics. Plus, it acts with more ethical integrity than other Buy Now Pay Later providers by meeting higher standards of regulatory compliance to best protect the interest of its clients.

Get Your Clinic Started For Free Today

There is no cost for a clinic to sign up or integrate with HealthNow, and all training and support are free of charge with no ongoing subscription or monthly charges. HealthNow also offers a free trial period on transactions so you can ensure it’s easy and simple to use, and right for your team. HealthNow is also offering a free $10.00 credit to every new user, helping all New Zealanders on their journey towards better health.