Despite the best efforts of businesses to beef up their internet security, hacks, data breaches and cyber-attacks continue to be a serious threat to their customers’ sensitive and confidential information, particularly their credit card data.

What are the implications of this and what does it mean for businesses? Given the rapid growth in the acceptance of this option when it’s offered, it strongly suggests that customers want service providers to adopt communication channels that are convenient to them and make the process of bill paying easier and more fluid.

After a months-long study, Datatel can now demonstrate without a doubt that IVR Payment (Pay-By-Phone) delivers substantial cost reduction to small and medium size businesses that are currently relying on employees to handle calls from customers wishing to pay their bills over the telephone.

In a recent study (focusing on the impact of payment reminders on payments by phone only – not other payment avenues such as web payments), of one large medical practice in particular, during a normal billing cycle, automated voice reminders were delivered to all patients who had incurred charges during the most recent billing period and received their bill in the mail.

HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Passed in the U.S. in 1996 it provides data privacy and security provisions for keeping medical information safe.

Health care providers have never been more vulnerable to data breaches and cyber attacks. Healthcare is the second largest industry in the U.S. and is even more vulnerable in the sense that not only is hacker meddling costly in terms of time and money, it can threaten lives as well.

In today’s competitive and interconnected world, companies and organizations really have no choice in terms of offering ever more enhanced forms of customer service if they wish to stay ahead of the game (or just not fall too far behind...) and medical practices are no exception.

Account receivables can be a source of significant financial difficulty when not managed properly. Inefficiencies in a company’s accounts receivable practices can have a negative impact on the bottom line in the form of increased collections costs and delays in receiving monies owed.

Whether it is the anxiety that precedes a medical procedure, the uncertainty of an illness, or the physical trauma of a broken bone, dealing with a medical issue is seldom if ever anyone’s idea of relaxing.

Our tech-savvy, consumer-based culture relies heavily on flexible, simple, accessible payment options when making purchases and obtaining services. One of these solutions is payment by telephone - a process that typically involves calling a customer service department and relaying important and valuable personal information to a live agent.