At a Glance
| Customer | Ocean Pier Medical, a family practice with clinics in Victoria and Sidney, BC |
|---|---|
| Product | Cortico Payments |
| Outcomes | • Hundreds of mailed bills a month replaced with secure payment links • Payment requests built into online booking, with payments reconciled automatically • Unpaid receivables drastically reduced • Six new doctors recruited, supported by revenue from digital payments |
Overview
Established in 2012, Ocean Pier Medical Clinic is a multi-provider family practice on Vancouver Island, where physicians work alongside nurses and clinical pharmacists. The clinic bills patients directly for non-insured services, including medical forms and work notes.
Challenge: Billing by Mail
Before Cortico, Ocean Pier faced significant administrative hurdles managing manual billing for non-insured services. The traditional process of mailing invoices was labor-intensive and unreliable.
Staff often couldn’t confirm a patient had received a bill. This led to a cycle of follow-up phone calls, creating an operational drain on the front desk and causing friction in the patient experience.
Solution: Cortico Payments.
Fig. 1. Payment reconciliation interface in the Cortico clinic dashboard.
To automate its billing workflow, the clinic implemented Cortico Payments. Staff now email secure payment links directly to patients for form fees, disability tax credits, driver’s forms, work notes, and other non-insured services.
Each payment is automatically reconciled when the patient pays, so staff no longer match payments to invoices by hand. Payment requests are also built into the clinic’s online booking workflow, so patients can pay for a service when they book it.
Impact: Less Admin Load, More Room to Grow
Several Ocean Pier providers are heavy users of Cortico Payments, and the clinic is now actively educating and encouraging all providers to start using the feature. The transition to digital payments has transformed clinic operations and financial stability in three important ways.
1. Operational Efficiency
Replacing mailed invoices with email payment links eliminated the phone tag involved in contacting patients about their accounts. Reconciliation now happens automatically, creating more front desk capacity since staff no longer spend time matching payments.
Hundreds of mailed bills a month have been replaced with secure payment links sent by email.
2. Patient Trust
Patients have embraced the secure Cortico payment links, leading to higher trust and a stronger sense of security when paying online.
3. Practice Growth
Ocean Pier reports that increased revenue from digital payments has enabled the service to recruit six new doctors, expanding access to care for patients in their communities.
Six new doctors recruited, supported by increased revenue from digital payments.
Looking Ahead
Ocean Pier is encouraging all of its providers to implement Cortico Payments. To support this goal, Cortico is developing educational resources to promote the tool among staff and clinicians.
The clinic’s feedback has actively shaped the product. Based on Ocean Pier’s input, Cortico improved the interface between Cortico Payments and the payment reconciliation page.
Getting Started with Cortico Payments
Cortico Payments lets clinics send secure payment links by email for non-insured services. Payments reconcile automatically in the clinic dashboard. Staff can easily see what’s paid and outstanding and don’t have to track down or match payments manually.
Payment requests can also be added to online booking, so patients pay for a service at the same time they book it.
