What to Look for in a Telehealth Payouts API

Telehealth Payouts API: How to Find the Right Solution

Telehealth is a massive industry with plenty of room to grow. The latest estimates indicate the global telehealth market will reach over $105 billion by the end of 2024. In the next decade, forecasts show it growing eight-fold! It's not hard to see why telehealth is quickly becoming the norm. It improves accessibility across the board, connecting providers with patients more conveniently and cost-effectively.

Telehealth organizations are transforming healthcare, but they must overcome one important hurdle: paying providers. The beauty of telehealth is its ability to tap into a national and even global talent pool. However, because organizations work with medical professionals across state and country lines, handling payouts can be a massive headache.

The best APIs can solve those hurdles, streamlining and enhancing how telehealth organizations manage payments to providers. It's always important to check with local, state, and federal regulations to find the most current information about this ever-evolving field. But this blog will help you find the right solution for your telehealth payout needs.

The Role of Payouts APIs in Telehealth

APIs play a vital role in the larger telehealth industry. In a traditional hospital setting, managing payments, transmitting data, handling remote patient monitoring, and other crucial tasks are relatively easy due to the confined nature of the care network. That's not the case with telehealth, where organizations work with providers around the country and the world.

Application programming interfaces (APIs) help bridge the gap, allowing organizations to serve their patients better while staying well-connected to providers, regardless of location. Healthcare APIs make telehealth possible. For example, organizations may integrate FHIR APIs into EHR systems to exchange patient data, use APIs to facilitate quick communication through a patient portal, etc. Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) is a standard that telehealth companies use to exchange healthcare data, and integration with FHIR APIs benefits patients and providers.

Ultimately, APIs make telehealth more efficient, allowing several systems and software applications to work together to improve patient care. A payouts API is no different. It can enable organizations to effectively manage how they compensate their network of health care professionals while streamlining all the logistics involved with sending mass payments.

Security and Compliance

Security is one of the most important considerations when choosing a telehealth payouts API. The healthcare industry takes data exchange safety very seriously. For standard data exchange of patient information, healthcare organizations must use systems that protect privacy. That's why FHIR-based APIs often prioritize HIPPA compliance to keep health information and medical records safe.

While paying providers in telemedicine is different, healthcare organizations must comply with several other laws and regulations. You must also search for APIs that help with Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Anti-money laundering (AML), and counter-terrorist funding (CT) compliance. Staying abreast of current regulations and seeking legal advice for your unique situation is always wise. However, choosing a payout API that manages security and provides advanced compliance measures makes all the difference.

In addition to using payment processing systems that protect patient data, telehealth companies like yours must ensure that you safeguard provider information and send payments securely. The best APIs for telehealth payouts have bank-level security built right in. Security protocols like end-to-end encryption tokenized identifying information, user authentication to prevent unauthorized access, and more should be standard. 

Handling those details in-house and building in-depth security and compliance measures from the ground up can be costly. A healthcare API that handles it all can streamline your business while providing the peace of mind to continue connecting patients to providers.

Ease of Integration

Another important thing to consider is integrating a telemedicine API into your current platform. Not all APIs are easy to integrate. They can take months to get up and running, costing your organization valuable time and resources. For example, FHIR APIs are notoriously difficult to incorporate into existing customer healthcare systems.

Choose a payouts API that you can easily incorporate into your system. The best options offer quick and versatile integration options, allowing you to fine-tune how you manage payouts. APIs should function well with existing practice management systems, accounting software, etc.

Payment Flexibility

Meeting the needs of all your telehealth providers can be a challenge, especially when you're working with individuals outside your state or country. Not everyone shares the same preferences in how they receive payments. Managing multiple payment rails in-house can be time-consuming and costly. A great payouts API will provide all the flexibility you need to keep your medical providers happy.

A great API will allow you to offer as many payment options as necessary without the backend work of establishing different payment processor workflows. Typically, offering options like bank transfers and payments to the many mobile apps and digital wallets requires your developers to build individual workflows. As you expand your network of providers internationally, the work involved with providing flexible payment options becomes insurmountable.

Luckily, the best APIs do the heavy lifting for you. Your developers can implement new payment processors in minutes, expanding the options available to providers.

That flexibility matters. The telehealth industry is becoming increasingly competitive, and attracting the best doctors and care providers can help your telehealth app and platform rise to the top. Caring for your providers by catering to their unique payment needs can make your organization stand out.

Scalability

The best-case scenario for any telehealth organization is growth. Unlike traditional brick-and-mortar care networks, telemedicine has exponential room for expansion. Your payout needs will change as you continue delivering a great user experience with top-notch doctors and providers.

You may start with only a handful of physicians to pay, but that may change as the demand for telehealth platforms and services grows. That raises the crucial question: Are you capable of scaling payouts?

That's a big question to answer when finding the right solution for your telehealth organization. Highly scalable APIs make growth possible, eliminating the added costs of adjusting your system. An API like Dots, for example, allows you to send individual payments or batch payouts by the thousands. Handle all your payments in one move and leave the hours of manual work behind. The best APIs also offer features like automation. Sync the API with your current accounting tools and send payouts en masse like clockwork.

Automatic reporting and payment tracking can also help you expand your network without the growing pains. Choose an API that automatically tracks and reports all payments so that they're easily accessible. Manual tracking has significant room for error. Payments can get lost as you spend excessive resources trying to get to the root of the problem and make things right with affected providers.

The right API solution manages all those details for your organization, allowing you to scale up as your needs evolve.

Customization

Finally, it's important to consider your customization needs. No two telemedicine solutions are the same. An API you can easily customize to fit your current processes and workflows makes a difference. Many software and API solutions require health care companies to make sweeping changes to how they do things. While those changes might be necessary, they also set business back and can require substantial resources to facilitate.

Customizable APIs allow you to integrate payment solutions catering to your needs. Take advantage of the features you want, integrate the API into your existing systems, and streamline your payment workflow without interrupting others.

An API like Dots can take customization even further, allowing you to create an experience for practitioners that fits your branding. A white-label API offers full flexibility, allowing you to build a better experience for your providers from start to finish.

Get Started With Dots Today

If you're searching for a telehealth payouts API that checks off all the boxes, turn to Dots. Dots is a payouts API that benefits various industries and businesses. For telehealth, Dots simplifies how you manage payments to your providers while helping you safeguard information, comply with current regulations, and more.

Offer multiple payment options and cater to the needs of your health care professionals, no matter where they are. You can offer complete payment flexibility with easy integration and the ability to establish payment rails in minutes. Send payments to hundreds or thousands of providers in minutes, take advantage of automation features, and more to improve your payment processes.

Get started with Dots today to learn more and experience firsthand how a great API solution can enhance your telemedicine platform.