As the healthcare industry has become more complex, call center volumes have increased. Apex's new IVR offering can easily handle the more repetitive payment transactions, enabling agents to focus on higher-level issues and, ultimately, keep overhead expenses down. With 100 percent conversational, natural language prompts, the platform guides patients through the payment process, helping them make payments when it's most convenient. Call times are also reduced, which is optimal for patients who would rather avoid speaking directly with an agent. AI is at the centerpiece of the technology, enabling quick deployment and continuous learning and improving.

"We know patient preference varies when it comes to how they pay for healthcare, which is why we continually look for ways to offer more choices that elevate the patient experience, always putting them first," said Pat Maurer, president, Apex Revenue Technologies. "The combination of Apex's healthcare expertise and understanding of how patients pay with SmartAction's industry-leading technology in the IVR space allows for a complete solution to help improve patient-provider relationships and payment results. We're thrilled to be able to offer this new platform to our customers."

Other benefits of the new IVR platform include:

• An effortless, natural, self-service experience for customers, thanks to state-of-the-art speech recognition and AI technology that automates conversations 
• User data entry errors are handled clearly and gracefully by the application to reduce frustration 
• Overall effectiveness is improved as the system continually learns and adapts in real-time 
• Can be easily integrated into a provider's existing call flow and with other Apex payment channels – resulting in common reporting, behavioral insight and administrative time-savings for posting payments 
• Captures the "voice of the patient" through experience feedback surveys, regardless of channel 
• Enables providers to access quarterly analyses on caller engagement and success rates

"We're very proud to partner with Apex to deliver a voice solution that will help them expand their omnichannel payment options," said SmartAction Senior Vice President of Operations Mike Vanca. "When coupled with an online platform like Apex's, our intelligent payment processing solution helps boost success rates and improve customer experiences, which are important metrics for any business."