By Mark Spinner, CEO of AccessOne. 

AccessOne has been beating the drum on the growing affordability gap in healthcare since our founding by a primary care physician just over 20 years ago. Affordability in healthcare for all patients is the reason we exist. However, in late 2024, for the first time, it felt like this conversation spilled out into the wider world.  

Have we finally reached a tipping point? Over the holidays and new year break everyone in my life outside of healthcare was talking about affordability. Most had their own emotionally charged stories. Even famed entrepreneur and Shark Tank host Mark Cuban recently weighed in on these issues with producer and comedian Jon Stewart. 

People are taking notice, and my sense is the “sentiment score” for healthcare could now be hitting a low point.   

Providers are struggling, patients are overwhelmed, and the system is increasingly burdened by the complex costs of care. In this environment, it’s no wonder there is rising dissatisfaction with the status quo. 

The current healthcare law of the land is a litany of consequential legislation from Medicare to the Affordable Care Act, with patches along the way, too many to recount here. While the politics of major change to each draw heated debate, the status quo’s outcomes for patients and communities is undeniable.   

Most American consumers cannot afford a medical bill over $500, while insurance premiums and deductibles keep increasing.  No one, it seems, is happy with how care is paid for. 

It’s important to understand how we got here but more important is how we move forward…and we must in 2025. The answer to the affordability challenge must unequivocally be, “we will rise to meet it.” 

Staying the course benefits neither providers nor patients. The affordability crisis is not unsolvable, but it will require a collective and sustained effort to fix a deeply flawed system. By staying informed and advocating for change, we can work toward a healthcare system that’s both affordable and accessible to all.  

And equally important: help hospitals and health systems keep their doors open. Without sufficient cash flow and resources, providers cannot deliver on their mission to care for all patients.  

At AccessOne, we have inside information (of sorts) that drives an optimistic outlook. Our technology platform for building flexible financial products exists to benefit the patient. Our “Do No Harm” mission focuses on helping patients live their healthiest lives by enabling affordable and accessible care.  

Over the past year alone we’ve helped hundreds of thousands of families afford their care without having to make sacrifices for everyday essentials. We are not doctors and nurses, but our team is quite literally helping improve lives through our products and the corporate sponsors who enable us.  Helping patients also means helping providers. When patients are paying their share, it helps the provider be able to serve more patients.   

Providers typically only collect approximately 30-35% of outstanding patient balances. Any uptick in that rate means more cancer care, more heart disease screenings, more necessary patient care in the communities they serve.  

It’s an incredible flywheel we feel fortunate to be a part of.  

We hear our corporate partners every day – expressing their gratitude, their pride and strength. It drives us. Caring for patients doesn’t end in the exam room. It’s never been more important to extend that care to the patient’s financial experience.   

At AccessOne, we’ll continue to work tirelessly with you and on behalf of your patients to ensure they can pay for care in a way that works for them and their families. We’ll continue using all our resources and applying our ‘do no harm’ philosophy to serve every patient, regardless of what their insurance produces or what the credit agencies say about them. We’ll continue to work with our provider partners to ensure our programs are flexible and adaptable enough to work for their various patient populations because we know no two patients are alike. We’ll continue to release new features and updates that are inclusive, simple, and highly effective.  

In short, we will continue to be a tireless ally for all patients. 

The healthcare economy in this country is a work in progress, to put it mildly. But, waiting for regulators and the government to take action could take too long or potentially make things worse. Surely, we’ve learned that failing to act ourselves as an industry will only cede this role to outside forces, that don’t understand the complexity of our industry or whose track record of unintentional negative consequences we continue to live with today.   

It’s crucial to ensure that all Americans have access to the care they need without facing financial ruin. Whether through policy reform, innovation, strategic partnerships, or consumer education, it’s time for change in 2025. That’s why we all need to work together to find a way through. 

Thank you to all of you for your resilience, your character, and, in some cases, your partnership.  We look forward to designing more Win-Win-Win opportunities for patients in 2025 and beyond.