How Cape Fear Valley Health Improved Patient Affordability and Reduced Bad Debt by 13% with PayZen
Cape Fear Valley Health partnered with PayZen to implement patient financing solutions that improved healthcare affordability and boosted patient collections. Key results include:
About the Provider
Cape Fear Valley Health is North Carolina’s eighth-largest health system, operating eight hospitals and 150+ sites—including a regional medical center and a new medical school in partnership with Methodist University—across southeastern North Carolina. With $1.4B in NPR and 1000+ physicians, the system delivers comprehensive, patient-centered care at scale. Like many health systems, Cape Fear Valley Health sought to improve revenue performance without compromising access or experience.
The Provider’s Challenge
Cape Fear Valley Health’s revenue cycle team had never partnered with a patient financing provider, and they were skeptical. Leadership had long prioritized protecting the patient’s experience, and most available patient financing options charged interest or fees, creating friction and misalignment with organization’s values.
The opportunity to reimagine healthcare affordability surfaced when the health system acquired a large orthopedic practice that relied on a third-party patient financing solution. Cape Fear Valley Health saw the need for pre-service financing but wasn’t satisfied with the patient financing partner in place, which charged patients fees.
It needed a better solution—one that:
PayZen’s Solution
Beginning in July 2023, PayZen became Cape Fear Valley Health’s partner to deliver personalized, patient-friendly financing across the care journey, from pre-service to post-care, all with no fees and 0% interest.
Care Card
Cape Fear Valley Health first launched with the Care Card, a flexible pre-service payment solution that automatically breaks large bills into manageable monthly installments based on each patient’s financial profile. Powered by PayZen’s proprietary AI platform, the Care Card personalizes payment plan terms using thousands of data points, ensuring healthcare affordability, realistic repayment, and strong patient adoption. While the program began in the orthopedic practice, its real success came from being rolled out across all hospital outpatient departments. By offering patients a clear, upfront path to affordable care, the Care Card quickly proved its value.
Post-Care Payment Plans
The results were so strong that, once the Care Card was firmly established, Cape Fear Valley Health moved forward with PayZen’s Post-Care Payment Plans in June 2024. These plans extend healthcare affordability into the post-service setting and, like the Care Card, are delivered on a non-recourse model, meaning PayZen assumes the financial risk while Cape Fear Valley Health receives guaranteed, upfront payments.
Key Results
Cape Fear Valley Health evaluated the impact of PayZen’s patient financing solutions by comparing performance from June to December 2022 against the same period in 2024, when both the Care Card and Post-Care Payment Plans were live.
The results were significant:
The Provider’s Perspective
We had our doubts early on, especially with so many patient financing options charging fees or underdelivering. But PayZen earned our trust with the Care Card. They provided real value, respected our existing programs, and they were material in helping us reduce bad debt.
Why It Matters
Initially skeptical of third-party financing, Cape Fear Valley Health found in PayZen a partner that not only protected the patient experience but delivered real financial results. By implementing Care Card across outpatient settings and later expanding into post-service financing, health system was able to:
Reduce bad debt and recover revenue that would have otherwise gone uncollected
Preserve and enhance in-house payment plan performance, ensuring higher-margin patient payments without cannibalization
Increase total patient collections, creating a more financially resilient revenue cycle
In short, PayZen helped Cape Fear Valley Health achieve better outcomes for its patients and its bottom line using innovative patient financing solutions that support healthcare affordability.