Archived — retained for historical context. Verify current payer requirements before acting.
Get Quicker Access to Payments from UHC/Optum
To speed up payments to your practice, UnitedHealthcare is phasing out paper checks and moving to digital transactions, where not prohibited by law.
You’ll need to choose between two options for receiving payment from UnitedHealthcare – ACH/direct deposit or virtual card payments. Both of these are facilitated by Optum Pay on behalf of UnitedHealthcare.
If your practice/health care organization is already enrolled and receiving claim payments through ACH/direct deposit, there is no action you need to take.
The California Medical Association (CMA) has learned that UnitedHealthcare is in the process of discontinuing physician payments via paper checks and will instead require both contracted and non-contracted physicians to receive payment via automated clearinghouse (ACH)/direct deposit or through virtual credit card payments.
The change was first communicated in UHC’s March 2020 Network Bulletin and has since rolled out in phases across the payer’s book of business.
As detailed in UHC’s August 2020 Network Bulletin, the phased rollout began with commercial plans and extended to Medicare Advantage and Community and State (Medicaid) plans. The dates matter less than the durable lesson: once the policy is in force, any provider who does not proactively elect ACH gets defaulted into virtual card payments. Protecting your remittance means enrolling in direct deposit before the payer decides for you.
UHC will be publicizing the change to both contracted and noncontracted physicians, who will be directed to sign up for ACH/direct deposit through Optum Pay or via the UHCprovider.com/payment website. Physicians who do not elect to sign up for ACH/direct deposit will automatically be signed up to receive virtual credit card payments in place of paper checks.
Physicians with questions or concerns, or that need to request a hardship exemption from this policy, should contact their UHC Provider Service Advocate or UHC at (877) 842-3210 for more information.
What is a virtual credit card?
With the virtual credit card (VCC) payment method, payors send credit card payment information and instructions to physicians, who process the payments using standard credit card technology.
This method is beneficial to payors, but costly for physicians. Health plans often receive cash-back incentives from credit card companies for VCC transactions. Meanwhile, VCC payments are subject to transaction and interchange fees, which are borne by the physician practice and can run as high as 5% per transaction. Physicians can avoid these interchange fees by enrolling in ACH/direct deposit.
What to do about the UHC direct pay issue?
This depends on the business setup and priorities of your organization. The change can cause major problems for some programs and be only slightly beneficial to others. Before enrolling, read the authorization language for the payment method you are accepting and confirm the terms actually govern provider claim payments — the ACH enrollment agreement does not always spell out every disclaimer that could affect your group, facility, or providers.
Here is what UHC says the benefits are for ACH
Automated Clearing House (ACH) /direct deposit
- We recommend ACH because it’s the quickest form of payment available and there are no fees for the service.
- Payments can be routed by both the tax ID number (TIN) and National Provider Identifier (NPI) number level.
- Enrollment generally takes less than 10 minutes. You will need to provide your current bank account information.
- Funds are deposited directly in to your bank account – there are no paper checks or remittance information to lose or misplace.
Here is what UHC says the benefits are for Virtual Card Payment (VCP)
- If you don’t enroll in ACH, in most instances you’ll receive a virtual card payment from Optum Pay. VCPs are electronic payments that use credit card technology to process claim payments. There is no requirement to share bank account information.
- A 16‐digit, single-use virtual card will be issued for payment (single or multiple claims). You’ll receive a VCP in the mail; for quicker access, you can view the VCP statement in Document Library.
- Each VCP is issued for the full amount of the claim payment. However, VCPs are subject to additional terms and conditions, including fees, between you and your card service processor.
- You can enroll in ACH even after receiving a VCP. However, ACH will only apply to future payments and can’t be applied to previous payments.
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