Responsive Healthcare Services

HealthNow plays a key role in the establishment of responsive healthcare services

Private healthcare organisations are required to meet their organisational financial needs to sustain their businesses and ensure that they are able to continue operations and provide Healthcare to their respective communities. At the same time, healthcare providers and businesses want to ensure that they are able to facilitate the care when it is needed leading to situations of conflict where medical companies have traditionally attempted to act as both banks and medical companies providing facilities and care to their clients. This has exposed the medical businesses to risk and discomfort as they are unable to meet the cost needs of their businesses and inevitably lose the ability to best serve their clients.

HealthNow resolves this concern for both doctors and patients. Providing doctors with the ability to provide responsive healthcare at the time it is needed and patients the ability to access the service they need as it is needed and before they potentially have the capacity to afford or facilitate payment. Essentially providing a cheaper upfront cost service that is paid overtime.

A responsive healthcare environment leads to patients accessing care at the time it is needed, by a provider that is able to facilitate the treatment, in an environment that suits the patient. Responsive healthcare leads to better health outcomes for patients and reduces the long term cost of healthcare, which, if not managed acutely can become extensive with time.

Responsible Spending

Being healthy, well and feeling good is essential to living a fulfilling life. With HealthNow, you are able to get the healthcare you need when you need it without worrying about confusing contracts, upfront costs and interest. HealthNow will also help you build up a strong credit history!

HealthNow enables our customers to spread the cost of their healthcare over a term of their choice ensuring our customers are able to access the care they need, when they need it, preventing cost from being a limiting factor. Below we have outlined a few important points to ensure that you use HealthNow responsibly and are able to continue to feel well with HealthNow.

Choose your debit route

While you’re welcome to link payments to your credit card, using a debit card for your HealthNow payments means you’re paying for purchases with money you have. If you use a credit card, there is a risk it simply delays payment and you could end up paying interest.

Boost your credit rating

Unlike some traditional credit providers, HealthNow makes it easy to pay and doesn’t want customers defaulting on payments. It’s important to know that missing payments can also negatively affect your credit score which can impact your short and long-term life goals. It really is in your best interest (and ours) for you to pay on time, every time. Plus, if you establish a successful payment history, we may revise your limit over time.

Plan ahead

Choose your payment day carefully. Choosing a day when you know you’ll have money available will offset the chance of being caught out with insufficient funds and incurring late payment fees.

Keep track of your spend

The more purchases you make, the more payments you’ll need to manage. Happily, it’s easy to stay on top of things with the help of your HealthNow dashboard which enables you to view multiple payments at once, among other helpful features.

Create a simple budget

This should cover all your basic day to day expenses such as rent, food, any student loan costs, transport and a portion for savings. Google ‘budget template’ to get you started. Once completed, you should have a good idea of what you can afford to spend on additional costs that life might throw your way, this includes health and wellness costs and other want to have items.

Worried about missing a payment?

While it’s great to be able to acquire the health you need when you need it, we know that sometimes a situation might come up which might cause a payment to be missed. If you think this is going to happen, please get in touch with us before that happens here, before your payment due date and we’ll see if it’s possible to work something out. See our Help page which includes information about late fees for a missed payment.

If you feel like your payment problems go beyond a one-off missed payment and would like to talk to someone regarding a money problem, you can get free, confidential financial advice from Fin Cap or Citizens Advice Bureau.

Unforeseen Financial Hardship

If you find yourself unable to reasonably keep up your HealthNow repayments, we have a dedicated Customer Support team who are on hand to help provide options.

Unforeseen financial hardship is more common than people might think, and many people will find themselves in some level of financial hardship at some point in their life. A period of financial hardship is often temporary and, given time, most customers will overcome their financial difficulties.

What is unforseen financial hardship?
Unforeseen financial hardship is when you find yourself unable to reasonably keep up your HealthNow repayments due to an unexpected life event. This may be due to personal hardship (e.g. illness or injury), a major life event (e.g. death of a loved one, loss of employment), or another reasonable cause. However, with our assistance and support, the expectation is that your financial situation can be restored.

We understand that situations may arise from time to time that will impact your ability to pay your ongoing obligation to HealthNow. Common events contributing to financial hardship may include:

• Injury or illness;
• Emergency events or natural disasters;
• Personal changes in income or expenditure;
• Changes in employment status, or
• Significant life events such as a relationship breakdown or death in the family.

When you are in genuine financial hardship, our goal is to help you to get through this period. Our team is committed to working with you to find an appropriate solution that is effective, sustainable and helps you get back on track.

We also acknowledge that ongoing access to HealthNow is dependent on customers remaining committed to the repayment program and its policies and communicate with our Hardship team.

Our hardship team is available to discuss individual circumstances, answer any questions you might have and will work out a solution that is suitable for everyone. We understand everyone’s needs are different, so we assess each application on a case-by-case basis.

Information we will need:

• The circumstances surrounding your situation:
• What amounts you can repay in the meantime and
• When can you commence making these payments; and how long do you foresee the situation lasting?

Due to the nature of HealthNow being generally small repayments, the most common interim solution will be:

• A temporary postponement of payments while you get back on your feet; or
• In special circumstances, we will support you in repaying the outstanding principal.

HealthNow will always overlay a common sense and supportive approach to our customers' needs as a trusted payment solution.

All requests for hardship assistance will be treated in the strictest confidence as we work together to find a solution.