Text messaging (SMS) and premium SMS technology solutions provider mBlox announced a new offering today called Free to End User (FTEU) text messaging, that could create a clear go to market strategy for wireless healthcare companies looking to leverage text messages in their offerings. While virtually every phone has text messaging capabilities, not all end users have unlimited texting plans. Others either don't want to pay for text messaging at all or have a limited number of texts per month.

Medication adherence programs that make use of text messages can now pay for their end users' messages upfront or build it into the cost of the medical service instead of making the end user pay for it as part of their monthly wireless bill. Of course, this billing mechanism also makes it easier for health plans to pay for a text messaging-based mHealth service.

mBlox is no start-up, the company was founded in 1999 and has since worked with more than 500 carriers in over 180 countries. mBlox processes more than 2.5 billion messages per year.

The company's Free to End User text messaging service is initially aimed at financial institutions that use text message reminders for recouping collections from their customers, but clearly healthcare service providers could leverage the service, too.

"Banks who use FTEU text messaging have reported up to a 117 percent improvement in collections over voice-only communications," comments Alan Berrey, vice president, Market Development, Text and Mobile Messaging for SoundBite Communications, an mBlox customer. "They have also experienced more than a 10 percent reduction in collection roll rates and similar reductions in collection costs. Many of SoundBite's clients are using FTEU text messaging, including six of the nation's largest banks."

Here are a few programs or pilots that should consider whether their end user should be paying for their health-related text messages, or if they should be built-in to the program service fees:

Text4Baby: "There is one private-public partnership] under development, called Text4Baby, that would allow for the delivery of periodic messages to expecting mothers reminding them of basic healthcare needs. The aim of using that same technology that is in everybody's pockets, text messaging capability, and builds on the work that Voxiva has done with assistance from CDC. The government can play a role in this [by helping to] reach those populations most in need for this information and [by identifiying] the ways in which expanding this overall infrastructure might impact healthcare," Dr. Dan Fletcher, an adviser in the White House Office of Science and Technology, said recently. More

HappyFactor: Kaiser Permanente's Kendra Markle offered up a great example for mood tracking via mobiles: HappyFactor.com, which enables users to track their moods through text message responses. At random times throughout the day, HappyFactor asks its users how happy they are and also what they are doing. The service then compiles the responses and maps them against the activities reported to determine which activities make the user happiest and which tend to bring them down. Users can then visit the site to review the trends and use that data to make better decisions in the future. (To be clear, Happy Factor was not developed by Kaiser Permanente.) More

KP Appointment Reminders: Earlier this year Kaiser Permanente's Manager of Solution Consulting Nardo Manaloto announced that text message-based appointment reminders would be rolled out nationwide for KP's patients. KP teamed up with text messaging application service provider Mobilestorm to handle the delivery of the text message reminders for its pilot. More

For more on mBlox's FTEU program, read the company's press release here.