In preparation for Celent's upcoming Innovation & Insight Day (June 3 in NYC -- see the previous blog post), fellow analyst Jacob Jegher asked me to think about the key technological components of Healthcare Banking. I was able to very quickly come up with a list of the goals that any such technology will need to support and which we will be watching closely:

• The ability to move patient collections forward in the care delivery process
• Seamless enrollment and ease-of-funding to scale out for the growing HSA market
• Conversion from paper-based to electronic transaction data in the healthcare B2B (payer-to-healthcare provider) space
• The tying together disparate financial and healthcare data, including account balances, transaction history, EOBs, PFM (personal financial management)-like expense tracking and projection, wellness program completion levels and personal health records (PHRs)
• Integration with healthcare providers' incumbent systems and hardware

During the week of May 11, I will be on the road, speaking with quite a number of banks involved in the healthcare banking space -- I find that part of being an analyst is being a good listener, and I'm sure I will hear about some things that I will add to this list. And of course, I would welcome any additions contributed by the readers of this blog!