Skaggs simplifies care payments for employees

A new employee benefit at Skaggs Community Health Center in Branson is aimed at making it easier for staff members to pay for health care.

Skaggs employees can now pay co-payments, a portion of their medical bills or the entire medical bills simply by swiping their employee badges.

Skaggs Chief Financial Officer Robert Tyk said the new payment option resulted from a quarterly employee forum where administrators discuss the hospital's future.

Employees already were able to swipe their badges and use payroll deductions for cafeteria and gift shop purchases. And like all Skaggs patients, they are expected to pay their co-payments at the time of service.

"It was in one of those forums when (CEO Stephen) Erixon was talking about that (and) somebody said, 'Would it be possible for us to just swipe our badge and have that payment come out of our paycheck?'" Tyk said.

After investigating, in late July, a total of 24 employee badge swipe machines were installed in Skaggs' clinics, emergency room, and inpatient and outpatient registration areas, with each machine costing $55. Because similar systems already were online for cafeteria and gift purchases, Skaggs had the necessary software.

How the system works

Once a badge is swiped, two receipts are printed - one for Skaggs and one for the employee - to show how much money will be taken out of the employee's net paycheck.

"We encourage this for co-pays because that's only $30," Tyk said. "We've had right around 90 employees utilize the service."

Tyk added that within the next month, Skaggs will expand the badge-swipe system in the independent, retail pharmacy located in the outpatient building, so that employees can pay for medication with payroll deductions.

The new option also simplifies the accounting process for Skaggs.

"When people pay their co-pay, then (we) don't have to send the bill for that part of the bill. Then we will bill the insurance company and they will pay for their portion," Tyk said. "... So it does cut down on the number of bills we have to send out and on the follow-up we have to do on people who have not paid their bills."

Employees also may use the system to pay co-payments for family members, though the employee must be present to swipe the badge. No additional paperwork is required to take advantage of the program; line item deductions appear on participants' pay stubs.

"We're responding to requests that we get from the employees as to other ways ... to make their lives easier," Tyk said. "So I think this is another method that they can use to take care of their bills, as opposed to carrying cash or a check with them. I look at it as a very positive thing."

Cashless options

Skaggs isn't the only area health system allowing employees to use payroll deductions as payment, but other health systems have not yet expanded the option to cover medical care costs.

St. John's Health System in Springfield implemented a name-badge payment program in April 2004 so workers can swipe their badges as payment in any of five cafeterias, two coffee bars, the co-worker shop, gift shop and pharmacies.

"It's a photo ID, so that eliminates fraud," said Donna Medlin, St. John's director of food and nutrition services.

St. John's Financial Systems Analyst Chuck Moore said there has been some discussion about expanding the badge-swipe payments to include medical bills, but no decisions have been made.

"That could come into play in the future," Moore said.

CoxHealth formed a committee about six months ago to discuss the implementation of an employee debit card system using employee badges. Committee member Dan Richardson, administrative director of food and nutrition services, said CoxHealth has looked into the process for several years.

Richardson said the system would be used for purchases in the cafeteria, gift shop, fitness center and volunteer services' fundraisers.

"Our goal is to get this basic system up and running in our cafeteria and gift shops. Then in the future, maybe (we'll be) able to complement it with other programs developed at a later date," he said.

The committee has set a goal to give the system proposal to administration by the end of the budget year in September 2009. Final approval would be based on budgetary constraints.

"A program like this with the hardware, the cash registers and the scales is probably going to run over $100,000," Richardson said. "We want this system to have the ability to do automatic withdrawals from an individual's paycheck. So those transactions need to be tied electronically to our payroll system."[[In-content Ad]]