Capio Announces New Strategic Focus on Financial Wellness

Long-time healthcare revenue cycle leader is driving the collections industry toward patient-centered resolution and long-term financial health

ATLANTA, Aug. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Capio, one of the country's largest acquirers of non-performing healthcare accounts receivable, today announced a series of organizational changes to support its new mission: to help people burdened with medical debt achieve long-term financial wellness.

As experts specializing in patient medical debt resolution and cash funding for care providers, Capio's executive team saw an opportunity to use their decades of experience to further address the medical debt crisis through three strategic initiatives: engaging with legislative, regulatory and business leaders on medical debt solutions, deepening Capio's compassionate, patient-centered collections experience, and investing in technologies to help patients achieve long-term financial wellness.

1. Greater engagement with legislative, regulatory and business leadership
   The first initiative will be spearheaded by Capio CEO Mark Detrick, who is advocating for common sense solutions like capping payments for medical debt in collections to a percentage of verified household income and expanding access to payment plans to make medical debt resolution more affordable.
   
   "We've worked with millions of patients to resolve their medical debt, and through those conversations we've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't," said Detrick. "Capping payments and extending payment terms are practical ways we've been able to help patients balance their medical debt obligations with other household expenses, and we believe the adoption of these changes across the industry can transform the collections experience for patients and provide a more scalable and sustainable solution than access to charitable care and debt forgiveness alone."
   
   Detrick will remain involved with the day-to-day operations of the company and continue his focus on managing Capio's strong financial performance while working more closely with consumer advocacy groups, exploring strategic partnerships, and sharing his knowledge of medical debt challenges with other executives and industry leaders. Detrick will join a panel of experts on medical debt on September 8, 2022 for a summit hosted by Georgetown's McDonough School of Business to discuss a Capio-funded white paper on the growing challenge of medical debt and how care providers, collections organizations and government can help.
    
2. Deepening Capio's compassionate, patient-centered collections experience
   Capio announced the promotion of Dan Kutchel to President of Capio to extend the company's patient-centered experience. Kutchel is tasked with continuing to evolve Capio's mission to deliver a best-in-class consumer experience rooted in compassion, flexibility and fairness.
   
   Kutchel helped shape a new Patient Bill of Rights governing the patient experience at Capio and codifying existing policies such as not charging fees or interest on debt balances, capping payments to an affordable percentage of verified income, and forgiving debt customers cannot pay. Capio has forgiven more than $500 million in patient debt while delivering more than $275 million directly to hospitals and other healthcare providers in essential cash to help deliver quality care.
   
   
3. A deeper investment in long-term financial wellness.
   To support Capio's focus on long-term financial health for care providers and patients, Capio is announcing Steve Wright as President of its newly-formed and independent financial wellness technology company, BuoyFi.
   
   Available free of charge, online and as a smartphone app, BuoyFi will launch late in the third-quarter with free tools to help patients calculate and negotiate affordable settlement and payment plans. The platform also will roll out tools that make saving for future medical expenses, managing and paying bills online, and rebuilding credit easier.
   
   Capio collections agencies will accept settlement solutions calculated through BuoyFi, and the BuoyFi team is building relationships with care providers and collections organizations looking to simplify debt resolution by accepting settlement and payment plan recommendations based on verified income.

"Capio has grown our business by 400% over the past four years by listening to our partners and delivering practical solutions for their patients," said Detrick. "But given the growing crisis of medical debt across the country, we have a unique opportunity and a shared responsibility to do even more."

Capio helps healthcare providers and physician organizations increase cashflow while lowering their bad debt expense and delivering compassionate, flexible resolution solutions to millions of patients burdened by medical debt. To date, Capio has acquired and provided consumer services with over $41B in patient accounts receivable via partnerships alongside more than 900 provider clients across the United States. Capio is an advocate for patient-centric collections and offers tools to help patients pay what they can afford and achieve long-term financial wellness. To learn more about Capio, please visit our website.

SOURCE Capio