San Francisco, CA, USA
October 15, 2007 The
Healthcare Payment Card Ecosystem: Version 2.0
Report Published by Celent
Consumer payments in the healthcare market are on
the verge of an evolution toward more sophisticated functionality,
increased automation, and greater integration of healthcare information.
The last five years have seen the birth and
expansion of an entirely new payment card sector focusing solely on
healthcare. These flexible spending account (FSA), health savings account
(HSA), and health reimbursement account (HRA) cards offer a degree of
functionality that did not exist even 10 years ago. Healthcare payment
cards represent a major growth area for banks, card processors, health
insurance companies, and program administrators.
Despite the relative youth of the market,
however, a new generation of cards is on the horizon. In a new report, The
Healthcare Payment Card Ecosystem: Version 2.0, Celent examines the
external forces shaping this evolution and details the levels of
functionality healthcare payment cards will need to support in 2008 and
beyond.
"The healthcare payment card ecosystem
has historically placed priority on convenience," states Red
Gillen, senior analyst at Celent and author of the report.
"However, there is now a need to bundle information with payments The
next-generation, Version 2.0, card ecosystem will bring increasingly
sophisticated functionality, higher levels of automation, and most
importantly, greater integration of healthcare data. This will lead to
four important market developments: the second coming of FSA cards,
smarter multipurse cards, standardization of multifunction cards, and the
coupling of cards with real time and right time claims adjudication."
This 51-page report report has 24 figures
and six tables. A table of contents is
available online.
|
