Understanding the role of healthcare expense management solutions
In the healthcare sector, organizations face many expense-related challenges:
- High volume of petty cash usage across many locations
- Multiple departments (nursing, pharmacy, laboratory, travel) each requesting funds
- Stringent audits, regulatory compliance (GST, corporate governance)
- Need for real-time visibility to control budgets and prevent unauthorised spending
A strong expense management solution helps centralize, automate, and monitor these spend flows—reducing risk and freeing staff time.
Why hospitals and health networks need smarter solutions
By 2025, healthcare providers must handle:
- Distributed branch networks (multiple hospitals, outpatient centres)
- Mobile spending (travel, supplies, field services)
- Rapid approvals to ensure patient-care is not delayed
- Tight audit requirements and digital records
Manual processes simply don’t match the speed and scale required in this environment.
Key features of healthcare expense management solutions
Mobile-first spend submission & approvals
Healthcare staff are often on the move—mobile uploads and approvals enable claims from the ward, lab, or during travel.
Auto receipt capture & categorisation
Using OCR and AI, expenses like supplies, travel, or petty cash can be captured instantly and categorized correctly.
Branch-level visibility & budgeting
Each hospital or centre needs its own budget and spend tracking. Visibility across units is critical.
Policy enforcement & fraud prevention
Automated workflows enforce hospital policy, prevent overspend or misuse, and support audit readiness.
ERP & accounting integrations
Seamless sync into hospital ERP, accounting or finance systems reduces manual reconciliation and errors.
Medicover case study: How virtual accounts helped crunch cash-disbursement challenges
Background
Medicover Hospitals, a chain of multi-specialty hospitals in India with 23 hospitals and 2 cancer centres across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, and more than 5,000 employees. Tera
The finance team faced serious operational burdens:
- Each branch maintained a physical cash float to manage operational spending (emergency supplies, local travel etc.). Tera+1
- Lack of real-time visibility: “Head office had no immediate insight into how cash was being used across branches.” Tera
- Inconsistent documentation: receipts and expense proofs often got lost or duplicated. Tera
- Cash shortages and delays: branches frequently ran out of petty cash and operations were delayed. Tera
- High audit risk: fragmented records made audits time-intensive and prone to errors. Tera
Solution implemented
Medicover partnered with TERA to implement virtual accounts + expense automation across their network:
- Virtual accounts per branch: Each hospital unit assigned its own dedicated virtual account to track branch-level spend. Tera
- Scan-and-Pay via UPI: Employees could simply scan a QR code and pay directly—no cash or card required. Tera
- Department-level budgets & access controls: Finance configured per-department and per-user budgets to minimise overspend. Tera
- Real-time spend monitoring: TERA’s dashboard provided live visibility into transactions filtered by branch/department/user. Tera
- Built-in approval workflows: Every expense went through a defined approval chain, ensuring policy compliance. Tera
- ERP integration & OCR: The system synced with Medicover’s ERP for fast reconciliation; invoices and bills captured via OCR. Tera
Results & impact
The results were substantial:
- 95% reduction in petty-cash disbursement delays – moving to virtual wallets and UPI scan-pay removed waiting times. Tera
- 3× faster reconciliation cycles – automated data sync and real-time dashboards reduced manual processes. Tera
- 100% audit-readiness – receipts were digitised and linked to transactions, improving compliance. Tera
- Centralised visibility — finance now monitors all branch spending in real time from a single dashboard. Tera
- Zero physical cash handling — eliminating risk and administrative burden on staff and branches. Tera
This case study demonstrates how a tailored expense management solution can transform operations in a complex healthcare network.
How to select the right solution for healthcare organisations
When evaluating healthcare expense management solutions, consider:
- Branch-level scalability: Can the tool handle multiple hospitals and centres?
- Mobile capabilities: Staff often submit expenses on-the-go.
- Audit and compliance support: Digital trails, receipts, budget controls.
- Integration with healthcare ERP or finance systems: Avoid manual reconciliation.
- Real-time dashboards: Finance needs visibility across the network.
Benefits healthcare organisations can expect
- Significant time-savings: Reduced manual data entry, quicker approvals.
- Better financial control: Real-time spend monitoring, less leakage.
- Emerging employee satisfaction: Less administrative burden, more focus on core healthcare tasks.
- Improved audit readiness: Digitised receipts and policies embedded into workflows.
FAQs about healthcare expense management solutions
Q1. What is a healthcare expense management solution?
It’s a specialised tool for hospitals and health networks that automates expense workflows, tracks spending across branches, and enforces policy compliance.
Q2. Why are virtual accounts important in healthcare contexts?
Virtual accounts enable branch-level spend tracking without physical cash, supporting better control and visibility.
Q3. How fast can such a system reduce manual work?
As seen in the Medicover case, delays can drop by 95% and reconciliation speed can triple.
Q4. Do healthcare tools support mobile receipts and approvals?
Yes—most modern solutions feature mobile apps, QR/UPI payments, and on-the-go submission.
Q5. What about integration with hospital ERPs?
Integration is critical. Automatic sync with accounts/ERP drastically lowers manual reconciliation and errors.
Q6. Is this only for large hospitals?
Not at all—while large networks benefit most, smaller clinics or multi-centre practices can leverage scaled-down versions too.
Conclusion: the future of healthcare spend management
Healthcare organisations face unique financial challenges—many locations, high operational tempo, strict compliance demands. Modern healthcare expense management solutions are no longer optional; they’re essential. The Medicover Hospitals case illustrates how automation, virtual accounts, real-time dashboards and mobile workflows can dramatically improve control and efficiency.
If your organisation is seeking to reduce spend leakage, free your teams from manual tasks, and sharpen financial oversight—you’d benefit from exploring specialised tools tailored for healthcare. Platforms like TERA show that the shift from paper, cash and spreadsheets to smart, digital expense management is both achievable and impactful.
