Commerce Bank's Patient Financing Solution Experiences Momentous Growth

Portfolio expands by 500% in 3 years

Commerce Bank, a regional bank with $25.1 billion in assets¹, announced it has reached $500 million in committed credit lines for its patient financing solution in three years. Called Health Services Financing (HSF®), the program provides patients with a 0% or low-interest line of credit for paying for healthcare. Over 200 hospitals have signed on to make HSF® available to their patients.

HSF® allows patients to make monthly payments over time. This helps ease the burden of rising deductibles and out of pocket expenses, as well as the financial strain on health systems. "Healthcare providers are realizing they need a strong, reputable partner that understands their challenges. Patient satisfaction is paramount, but so is the provider's staff and workflow," said Mark Huebner, director of HSF® at Commerce Bank. "HSF® is designed with those challenges in mind, and is backed by a 150-year-old financial institution."

The HSF® credit line is directly administered by Commerce Bank. It is fast and easy for healthcare providers to enroll patients and requires no paperwork, credit check, manual cash posting or other qualifying steps. The fully automated solution can work with any billing system, such as EPIC, McKesson, Cerner and others. Commerce provides customer service and several options for repayment through a service line dedicated to HSF® customers.

"We spent many years and many millions of dollars designing our program to be unique within the industry with the help of several large health systems," said Huebner. "We're thrilled to see HSF® not only adding value, but also giving providers a competitive advantage."

Valley Health System is one of the providers using Commerce Bank's HSF® program. The six-hospital health system located in Virginia and West Virginia wanted to increase access and affordability for its patients. "Out-of-pocket patient responsibility is growing, and we needed a partner that could deliver a patient-friendly solution that is easy to use for both the patient and our staff," said Matthew Toomey, Vice President of Patient Financial Services. "Commerce delivered quickly, and we are now enrolling several hundred patients each month with ease for both the patient and our staff due to the automation."

Similarly, Hospital Sisters Health System was looking for a solution that would fit their brand and organization while enhancing patient satisfaction. "We needed a banking partner we could trust who understands the culture of our faith-based health system," said Monica Malin, Treasury Manager for Hospital Sisters Health System. The 15-hospital health system located in Illinois and Wisconsin challenged Commerce to design a program that would work for multiple locations and billing systems as well as internal workflows and patients. "Commerce's HSF® provided the flexibility we needed. We are receiving amazing feedback from patients who appreciate the relief and generosity."

About Commerce Bank

Commerce Bank is a subsidiary of Commerce Bancshares, Inc. CBSH, a $25.1 billion regional bank holding company, as of June 30, 2017. For more than 150 years, Commerce has been meeting the financial services needs of individuals and businesses. Commerce provides a full range of financial products to consumer and commercial customers, including personal banking, lending, mortgage banking, wealth management, brokerage and capital markets services. Commerce operates in more than 330 locations in the central United States and has a nationwide presence in the commercial payments industry.

For additional information, please visit www.commercebank.com.

1. As of 6/30/17

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