Better financing technology can expand health care access

The rise of health care costs is impacting patients and clinicians. In 2026, anxiety over health care expenses is pervasive; nearly half of U.S. adults (47%) worry about affording necessary care in the coming year. Simultaneously, practice leaders face rising claim costs, and health systems contend with escalating operating outlays.

Without clear financing pathways, patients could delay or forgo elective health care services. Connecting patients with the right financing options, therefore, is critical for patients and practices as they face rising costs.

However, facilitating this connection presents its own challenges. I believe that financial technology innovation, particularly when applied to traditional financial processes, holds the key to fundamentally transforming health care access and delivery in the year ahead.

Credit access and care access go hand-in-hand

Given the significant cost barriers for patients, and providers' limited economic and operational capacity to address financial concerns while delivering quality care, it has become essential to examine how access to credit can directly support access to care.

One example stands out. Recently, in a partnership with U.S. Office of the Comptroller of Currency, the launch of Project REACh focused on expanding credit access for underserved communities. I share this, because this partnership showed the value of broadening opportunities for credit access — these individuals did not have a credit score and within 12 months, 60% of SYF REACh participants achieved prime credit scores, creating more financial opportunities for themselves and their families.

While the majority (96%) of practices accept credit cards as a payment method, accounting for 44% of payments received, patients continue to cite cost concerns for ongoing care. How then, can we address the 45 million "credit invisible" Americans who may be overlooked and not able to use this common payment method.

A promising solution exists to address these cost concerns, credit access gaps, and providers' administrative burdens: holistic credit assessment technology integrated within health care financing options and existing clinical systems.

The power of holistic credit decisioning

Traditional health care financing options, credit cards, and other payment methods for medical and wellness services typically rely heavily on a consumer's credit score, which provides only a static, often incomplete, image of the consumer’s creditworthiness.

Moving beyond the traditional credit score is essential because its limitations restrict patients' credit options and, in turn, their ability to access the care they want.

So, how can we add context to our underwriting decisions and drive higher approval rates?

The process starts by assessing more and better data real-time through innovative, proprietary technology to assess creditworthiness. This could include looking at more comprehensive data attributes, spanning from credit bureau data to rich alternative data like cash flow patterns, rent payments and other merchant data, as well as considering payment experiences with the consumer, all coming together to paint a clearer picture of creditworthiness. This approach can also inform responsible lending practices by helping to ensure that consumers are not overextended — a risk that a traditionally high credit score might otherwise mask.

Driving access and efficiency in the health care ecosystem

Now that we have identified how deeper data assessment can play a role in credit access, let’s discuss additional ways financing support can make a real-word impact within our communities and practices.

In a recent conversation I had with Karen Wood at the Virginia Dental Association, she shared that the dental industry “is driven by innovation, not just in treatments but also in how patients can access them.” She emphasized that “the evolution of financial technologies that responsibly open doors for more patients to pursue the care they want, helps foster practice growth and patient satisfaction.” This highlights the tangible value already being realized by practices when they utilize these solutions.

For practices, it’s essential that they partner with a financing solution that does more than simply provide credit – but acts as a true business partner. According to a report from The American Hospital Association, administrative costs now account for more than 40% of total expenses hospitals incur in delivering care to patients, and research shows that clinicians agree that third-party financing adds less work for practice staff and supports billing processes more than in-house financing approaches.

There are several ways this can come to life:

1. Streamlined workflows: Seamless integration with leading practice management software platforms and independent software vendors simplifies and expedites payment processing.
2. Faster payments & improved cash flow: By managing billing and collections, the right financing partner ensures providers receive payments promptly — often within two business days — mitigating delays and defaults.
3. Multi-source financing: Beyond offering innovative credit access, an effective financing partner can also connect patients with alternative lenders if they do not qualify for initial financing options, ensuring broader access to care.

As the relentless rise of health care costs continues to cast a shadow over patients' well-being and providers' operational stability, the imperative to act has never been clearer, and, the era of relying solely on static credit scores for health care financing is waning.

By embracing holistic credit decisioning, powered by innovative technology, we can fundamentally redefine health care access, granting patients the autonomy to pursue treatments without debilitating financial burdens, while simultaneously enabling practices and health systems to achieve healthier revenue cycles, reduced administrative overhead, and a sharpened focus on patient outcomes.

The technology and its potential are already at our fingertips; the challenge now lies in proactive adoption and strategic integration, ensuring that financial circumstances no longer stand as a barrier to quality health care and paving the way for a more resilient, accessible, and patient-centric ecosystem.

Max Axler is Synchrony’s Chief Credit Officer and expert on Synchrony’s credit-decisioning platform, PRISM. Mr. Axler is responsible for credit, fraud, collections, recovery and authentication analytics and strategies deployed across Synchrony’s partners and Synchrony’s bank, as well as merchant and venture underwriting. Synchrony offers the CareCredit health and wellness credit card.Prior to joining Credit, Mr. Axler helped lead the IPO of the company from GE. Mr. Axler rejoined Synchrony from GE in 2013, where he was CFO of GE’s Franchise Finance business. Mr. Axler joined GE upon graduating Michigan State University and was part of their Corporate Audit Staff, working in 6 different countries across 8 different GE business models.