Hospital allows paying bills by smartphone
A volunteer at Shanghai Pudong New Area People's Hospital teaches a patient how to install electronic medical insurance on his smartphone.
Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Hospital has become the first district-level hospital to allow patients to register and pay bills with their smartphones instead of the traditional medical insurance card. E-invoices are also available on the phone instead of having to queue for a cashier, the hospital said on Friday.
By installing the system via apps such as Suishenban, Alipay, WeChat and those of dozens of banks, patients can pay medical bills immediately.
“I used my phone to pay the bill soon after the doctor prescribed a urine check and I also received a text message from the hospital to inform me that I had made the payment and where I should do the test,” a patient surnamed Wu said. “It saves me much time and trouble.”
“Patients can enjoy the whole process of registration, payment and having medicine delivered to their home by using their smartphone at our hospital,”said Sun Wanju, the Pudong hospital’s president.
At the hospital’s Internet section, people can reserve nucleic acid checks online and get an e-invoice after paying the bill. People can go to the hospital at reserved times to do the test by showing the e-invoice and get the test result on their phone.
“As a hospital close to the Pudong International Airport, the service has received good response from people on business trips to other provinces during the novel coronavirus pandemic,” Sun said.
By Friday, the Internet section of the hospital had offered 1,689 e-invoices.
A QR code is available at the clinic for patients to install the electronic medical insurance system.
A patient has his medical bill paid at the clinic soon after the doctor issues a prescription.
