By Roy Urrico
The $205.2 million Meridian, Idaho-based Clarity Credit Union is the winner of the 2024 Tekkie Award for Revenue Growth.
Clarity Credit Union implemented a technology solution from Epic River to help Valor Health, a hospital in Emmett, Idaho solve their cash flow problem, help patients afford their healthcare payment issues and create an entirely new revenue stream for the credit union.
Clarity Credit Union, like all credit unions, is closely connected to its community. In the late 1940s, a handful of railroad employees pulled together to create Idadiv Railway Credit Union — later shortened to Idadiv Credit Union. Now, as a community-chartered credit union, Clarity serves more than 18,000 members in Ada, Boise, Canyon, Gem, Owyhee, Payette, or Valley Counties.
In September 2023, Clarity Credit Union and Fort Collins, Colo.-based Epic River, which delivers innovative software and service solutions that streamline the lending process for credit unions and community banks, healthcare providers and patients, solved one of the biggest challenges facing healthcare providers today: securing compensation.
Like many medical providers, Valor Health found healthcare insurance covering less while leaving the patient to make more payments directly to the hospital or physician practice. The steady increases in premiums, deductibles, co-payments, and co-insurance left patients with more and bigger bills to pay and turned healthcare providers into consumer collections offices.
That is where Clarity and Epic River stepped in. “Since we started using the Epic River platform, we have funded 165 loans for almost $600,000, keeping these from going to collections and helping people improve their credit,” said Clarity Chief Lending Officer Dan Edgerton.
An Epic Solution to a Healthcare Problem
Clarity deployed its Patient Lending Platform, which allows providers to offload nonpayment risk by partnering with credit unions and other financial institutions to create low-interest patient loan agreements. The Epic River offering removes traditional loan barriers and seamlessly facilitates an online lending process so that every borrower gets the experience they want while keeping it all within the local community, according to
Clarity worked closely with Valor Health to design a loan program that includes a zero percent interest to the patient option if the borrower can pay back the loan amount within two years and longer terms if the patient needs a lower monthly payment. This platform allowed any patient at Valor Health to quickly, easily and discretely sign up for membership and a loan at Clarity to close out their healthcare bills and create a suitable repayment plan.
After the loan program was deployed on the Epic River platform, all patients had access to digital self-enrollment. When a patient enrolls in the program, they become a member, and the loan is onboarded.
The patient then makes payments just like they would for any loan through the credit union. If the patient has additional needs in the future, they can go back through the Epic River platform and refinance their loan to include any new balances.
Helping Clarity Credit Union Achieve Revenue Growth
Epic River's platform offered Clarity Credit Union a comprehensive solution to enter the patient lending business. “Clarity has consistently sought opportunities within the healthcare sector, and Epic River's Patient Lending presented an ideal avenue. Aside from the apparent revenue gains from the program, it also provides Clarity with an entry point within healthcare, allowing for cross-selling other products and fostering valuable relationships,” pointed out Grobaski.
“Furthermore,” Grobaski added, “borrowers are required to become members and healthcare providers are required to establish a deposit relationship with Clarity. These new relationships create a multitude of opportunities for the credit union to grow their membership, deposits, and loan volume.”
Grobaski also noted since the patient program inception, Clarity Credit Union also routinely collaborates with Epic River on efforts to add additional healthcare providers. “We’re hopeful to continue to grow this program in years to come.”
Additional Results and Reaction
“With the loans fully guaranteed by the healthcare provider, we have not taken any losses. With that, we earn 6% interest plus late fees. If a loan becomes uncollectable, we pay the loan off with the providers funds and ‘return’ the loan to them,” Edgerton continued. “We were excited to hear the news (about winning the Tekkie award). We feel the Epic River platform fits our credit union well and look forward to a long working relationship with them.”
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