The Executive Interview Series provides readers with exclusive insights from movers and shakers in the payments industry. The payments industry is under continuous transformation. This series offers diverse perspectives on everything from strategy to payments technology and the industry’s future.
In this interview between Anthony Lucatuorto, CEO of Sphere, and TSG’s Morgan Murphy, Anthony highlights the keys to Sphere’s success and strategies for the future of the healthcare payments sector. With a 25-year legacy of payment security and interoperability across major processors, Sphere positions itself as a leader in simplifying healthcare payments and boosting provider efficiency.
Bio: Anthony Lucatuorto is Chief Executive Officer at Sphere, Powered by TrustCommerce. An accomplished veteran in the financial technology space, Anthony has over 25 years of leadership experience in embedded payments, digital engagement, and high-growth partnerships. Prior to joining the company, Anthony held executive roles at First Data, TSYS, and TransFirst Holdings, Inc. Mr. Lucatuorto began his career working at Mastercard and American Express.
Q. Morgan M.
What drew you to your current position at Sphere and how have you shaped the company’s approach to healthcare payments since becoming CEO?
A. Anthony L.
I began my career working at Mastercard and American Express and it has spanned executive roles at First Data, TSYS, and TransFirst. Given the time I’ve spent in the industry, I was familiar with Sphere’s leadership and the great reputation TrustCommerce has had in the marketplace over the last quarter-century. That’s what drew me to Sphere.
In terms of shaping the company’s approach, I’ve always believed in focusing on culture. You have to hire and promote the right leadership who share your cultural philosophy and strive for excellence. We control our effort and attitude and with passion for the work we do, we have been able to achieve great things. From launching our next gen card-present payment solution Cloud Payments to advancing our EHR integrations, we are helping make the patient payment experience more seamless, flexible, and secure for providers and their patients.
Q. Morgan M.
What leadership philosophy guides you in your role at Sphere, and how does it shape your vision for the company’s future?
A. Anthony L.
One philosophy I’ve always believed in is: Say what you’re going to do and do what you said you would do. Ultimately, our business is about finding solutions and that takes great leadership and collaboration. I like to empower strong leaders with a foundation of trust and accountability. With a solution-oriented mindset you can power through any obstacles and stay focused on delivering results.
Q. Morgan M.
Having served at several high-profile companies like First Data and TransFirst, how do you leverage your past experiences to innovate and differentiate Sphere in a competitive industry?
A. Anthony L.
The experience and knowledge I gained early in my career at these companies is extensive. I was lucky to work with some exceptional executives and learned many great things including what not to do. Two of the most important things I take away from these early days are: 1. To balance short-, medium-, and long-term goals, initiatives and investments; and 2. The voice of the customer is vital.
When you’re a public company like First Data, you have to manage quarter-to-quarter, but you absolutely have to invest in the future, and the company’s long-term solutions and goals. It can sometimes be challenging, but you have to find the right balance to be a successful company. Additionally, it is essential to hear the voices of all constituents including customers, employees, and owners. It is important to hear from clients first-hand and we believe in taking every opportunity to meet in person with clients to discuss their experiences, needs, and strategic goals. We foster a culture of open feedback to cultivate innovation at every opportunity.
Q. Morgan M.
Under your leadership Sphere has grown, and currently supports a large number of US health systems. What strategies are you focusing on to further Sphere’s impact in the healthcare market and beyond?
A. Anthony L.
Again, it starts with listening to customers to understand what is important to them now and in the future. Next, we must always prioritize compliance and security. We provide validated point-to-point encrypted solutions, comprehensive tokenization and support digital wallets so investing in the right percentage of R&D for the future based on this customer feedback is paramount for our continued success.
Additionally, our industry has seen substantial growth in omnichannel payment methods, so our job here is to ensure integrated payments happen across all various payment methods and all various payment types—credit card, debit card, ACH, digital wallets, mobile payments, FSA/HSA cards, and more. Whether our users are taking a payment online, in the back-office, through e-commerce, face-to-face, or through a kiosk, our solutions have to work through all of those different endpoints, with full payment type support, seamlessly. With our customer feedback, we’re always making sure our product roadmaps encompass the future of where the industry is going, and that’s always a theme that we work on.
Q. Morgan M.
What are some of the key challenges you’re seeing healthcare providers face with patient payments? How do TrustCommerce’s solutions address these challenges to boost efficiency and revenue?
A. Anthony L.
Providers often struggle with collection rates, and there are a number of reasons why, including high-deductible plans, higher healthcare costs, greater patient responsibility, copayments, and confusion. What does the patient owe out-of-pocket based on their eligibility statement? Should they pay? What do they trust?
These are things that make it difficult for providers to collect 100% of what they are owed. They need to offer a way for patients to understand what that exact payment is at every touch point that they have with them. So how do our solutions address these challenges?
We help our providers collect payments across all these main channels by helping to deliver a digital-first payment experience that patients expect. Such as pre-visit scheduling and check-in workflows, greater cost transparency, consolidated patient billing, and, as mentioned, flexible payment options.
Additionally, we were the first to tokenize credit card payments and the first to integrate to EHRs like Epic and IDX. We also give providers the ability to update payment types through our TC CardCurrent® account update product, which ensures that patients don’t lose the ability to pay our clients as cards expire.
Providers benefit from streamlined workflows that free up internal resources, seamless EHR integration for up-to-date account information, and centralized reporting and analytics across locations.
The breadth of our products offers a one-stop shop for healthcare providers. As a single source for all payment processing needs within these streamlined workflows, providers are collecting more.
Q. Morgan M.
TrustCommerce is positioned as a leading provider of healthcare gateway and merchant processing solutions. How does the company’s native EHR integration and focus on a seamless, patient-centered payment experience differentiate it from competitors?
A. Anthony L.
We absolutely believe we are the No. 1 trusted payments platform in the healthcare industry. Sphere has a long-tenured enterprise client base as well as a 25-year history of payment security leadership in the marketplace.
We were the first to tokenize a payment card in 2001. We were the first to integrate with the leading EHR in the industry in 2007, and we do business with more than a third of the 100 largest health systems in the country. That type of experience cannot easily be replicated.
Not only do we have tremendous experience within the workflows of all these EHRs, but we also have it in our staff. Many employees have been here 10-plus years. They understand the inner workings of these EHR workflows, such as how to implement customers, how to provide end-to-end reconciliation, and how to speak fluently with all our solutions and all the key features and functionality within the healthcare payment ecosystem. That level of experience is incredibly hard to replicate, and we take immense pride in it.
Q. Morgan M.
Sphere emphasizes enhancing the patient experience and boosting provider efficiency. How do you ensure that these dual goals remain at the forefront of your development and strategic initiatives?
A. Anthony L.
Again, our platform drives greater patient engagement within streamlined workflows and provides omnichannel payment acceptance. We prioritize partnering very closely with leading EHR providers and patient billing systems. This ensures that our roadmaps are aligned and include them on new product launch materials to ensure that they’re aware of our solutions, capabilities and ongoing advancements. We have to make sure that our product roadmap includes the options and digital tools that providers want. But also, we have to make sure it aligns with the workflows of the EHR providers that we are integrated into. Including them in the roadmap discussions is paramount to ensure our ongoing success.
Q. Morgan M.
What do you see as the biggest challenges for Sphere in the healthcare payments landscape? How is your team working to overcome them to maintain a competitive edge?
A. Anthony L.
Complexity is our biggest challenge. Interconnectivity in the ecosystems of the healthcare environment requires that all parties in the payments flow support new payment methods and any updates and changes to existing ones. You can’t just integrate and leave it. You have to always refresh, enhance, and advance your solutions. Partnering with EHR companies and participating in their advisory committees helps us to overcome some of these challenges.
We are an agnostic platform. That means that our solutions from our gateway work with all of the major processing platform back-ends, including Fiserv, Chase, Elavon, Global Payments/TSYS, and Worldpay. This requires a lot of work and investment to keep that up. Our unsurpassed experience working with these major processing platforms for the last 25 years is critical to continued success.
We always endeavor to minimize friction to the extent we can. For example, we’re super proud of our new Cloud Payment solution released earlier this year. It is getting great reviews in the marketplace. No longer is there a need to install software at the individual workstations in our partner hospitals to provide them with seamless integrated payment solutions. It’s all in the cloud! We’re very excited about that.