virtual
terminal
I was expecting a payment from Cigna but I couldn’t remember how I was able to retrieve it the last time. All I remember is that there was some secret unlikely portal where I retrieved it. The last time was December of 2025. This date for this service was in June of 2026. I file claims at the end of the month. Even though you’d expect money transfers to go through within 72 hours, claims for this member usually take 3 weeks to go through the pipeline. We’re in the second week of July, still early, but I wanted to see if I could find out where my reimbursement might be coming from.
Of course I couldn’t find it on Cigna. I couldn’t find it on Payspan or Availity either. For reasons that still make no sense to me, some insurances will make their EOBs accessible on those sites instead of on their own sites.
I went into my computer folder to look for clues, based on last year’s payment.
I wasn’t sure if I’d get notified when there was a payment, or whether it was up to me to poke around in dusty corners until I inadvertently happened upon it somewhere.
On last year’s documentation, I saw references to a website called MPX (medical payment exchange, powered by deluxe), that indicated the payment was from a company called ECHO Health, Inc., on behalf of a company called Bywater, Ltd. So counting Cigna, that adds up to 4 different companies so far.
I tried to get onto all their websites and I called all of them on the phone.
Some reps told me nothing. Some said they saw something being processed but couldn’t give details. Some said to create accounts and log onto those websites, and then I might see something. Some said I’d receive a Virtual Credit Card that I could process. Some said I’d have to call if I wanted a Check. Some said I’d have to create an Account if I wanted to be sent checks in the future without having to call each time. But for that I needed to have a Draft Number as well as the Amount on the check, which is a Catch-22 because I hadn’t received the check yet. At one point, someone told me that either MPX or Optum might have the EOB. Optum? But how could that be? Optum has nothing to do with Cigna. Maybe that’s the unlikely place where my payment was waiting for me all this time (it wasn’t).
When I spoke with one of the representatives from one of the 4 companies, I was asked why I didn’t want to accept a Virtual Credit Card that I’d process with my own Credit Card Terminal.
The answer is a matter of principle: I upheld my end of the bargain; I expect the company to uphold theirs. Which means I deliver a service, and they pay me in return. And in a timely manner, too. Not 5 months later, which happens sometimes.
It doesn’t feel right for me to have pay money to get money that’s owed to me.
Coincidentally, the next day, I got an email from MPX. It had a link. From which I found the payment. A PDF file with an image of a check, upside down. The instructions said to print it out, cut it out, endorse it, and bring it to a bank.
David Levingston
Like everyone, I have different sides. Counselor, photographer, writer, cooker of food – both spicy and plain, and seeker of truth and happiness. I have always taken an interest in the unassuming things that pass us by – both heard and seen, both ordinary and not so ordinary. They are all sacred and beautiful in some way.