Miami-based CareCloud, a developer of practice management software, and commerce technology company First Data have launched Breeze, a mobile and web platform that allows patients to flexibly view, manage, and pay for their care. The jointly-built platform runs natively on First Data’s Clover Mini and Clover Station, and allows practices to access and integrate over 300 business applications curated on the Clover App Market within their Breeze interface.
“CareCloud has spent years honing its technological capabilities to serve the healthcare industry, and we are delighted to partner with them on this game-changing product for physicians’ offices across the country,” said Chris Foskett, EVP of corporate and business development at First Data. “We are bringing to market a comprehensive healthcare solution with full payments integration, a unique product offering that has major implications for how people engage with their healthcare providers.”
Breeze offers patients a one-stop application with which they can make appointments, fill out check-in or insurance forms, and easily make payments using the payment method or plan of their choice. While streamlining the patient’s interactions alone can cut down administrative workloads, providers can also set a customized interface to better manage their specific practice’s various workflows.
The result, says Juan Molina, vice president of strategy and business development at Care Cloud, is a comprehensive “super app” that brings the strengths of patient-centric design strategies to healthcare.
“If you think about the healthcare IT industry in particular, I think we’ve been going after the patient experience in a pretty siloed way,” Molina told MobiHealthNews. “Breeze is not just a shinier silo — it’s about infusing what you and I expect in our daily lives, and infusing those principles into the patient experience and giving practices the same exact experience when they’re interacting with their patients. It’s about smashing those silos to give the market a solution that patients and practices deserve.”
Among the trickiest of these silos has been patient payment systems, Molina continued. The partnership with First Data allows CareCloud to roll patient payments into their platform, while offering a number of other key advantages for practices.
“On the business side, the fact that it also works with Clover unlocks a huge opportunity for a medical practice,” Molina explained “By the mere fact of having a Clover account, you now have access to over 300 curated business applications that other industries, other businesses are using to enable their companies and their workflows, like loyalty management applications, inventory management applications, time and attendance apps. … It’s the combination of those two things — Breeze and the Clover app marketplace — that makes this incredibly powerful for a better patient experience and a better practice experience.”
Molina admitted that super apps with goals similar to Breeze are already hitting the market, and will continue to do so for some time. He said that these offerings are evidence of a pressing desire for all-encompassing, convenience-focused platforms, and that the healthcare market is better served when providers have options.
“There are certainly other companies that are going to do this, and some that are going to do this incredibly well, and I think it’s great,” Molina said. “Still, I think what will separate Breeze [is] our attention to design and usability. … I just think that kind of native experience, and instant experience around the integration, will be a nice differentiator.”
