nmible and Highnote Launch Card to Streamline Clinical Trial Participant Reimbursement

Clinical trials can be a lifesaving mechanism for medical innovation. However, participating in these trials can impose a significant financial burden due to travel, meals, and accommodation expenses. While pharmaceutical companies and hospitals traditionally reimburse these costs with paper checks, these can be lost or delayed, adding stress to patients who may already be facing serious medical challenges. That’s why today, we at Highnote are proud to announce the launch of a card program with our newest customer, nmible, a clinical trial reimbursement software. Together, we’re alleviating the financial strain on trial participants and reducing the administrative burden on trial staff with a modern card solution that makes disbursing and receiving clinical trial compensation seamless.

One reason why paper check-based reimbursements can be delayed is because of the enormous complexity of distributing them. The largest clinical trial units may go on for multiple years, involving thousands of patients, and require the monthly disbursal of thousands of dollars in reimbursements. Tracking and managing the approval process for each payment becomes cumbersome and time-consuming for the staff administering each trial. As a former Therapeutic Area Head for Oncology, nmible founder Jon Anderson saw the problems of traditional reimbursement methods firsthand, launching nmible as a result. However, with increasing demand and a desire to control payment expenses on a more granular level, nmible sought a card partner that could grow alongside it while helping it deliver more innovative product offerings. nmible turned to Highnote, recognizing the flexibility and scalability of our cloud-native, domain-driven architecture.

“We have some very exciting use cases that can become complex from a payments perspective,” says Anderson. “Imagine a clinical trial going on for a decade or more, with various levels of spending controls on different expenses. And that’s not even accounting for if you want something more customized, like allowing approved spend for certain categories for some trials and not others. The ability to eliminate all of the manual approvals that go into administering a program like that is an immense advantage. It has only been with Highnote that I have seen the kind of functionality and customizability we have always envisioned.”

In partnering with Highnote, nmible's cards will feature Highnote’s best-in-class capabilities, including:

- Flexible Account Structures: Highnote's adaptable funds flow system enables nmible to organize its accounts by customer, study, department, and location, allowing seamless management even for customers with numerous locations and large numbers of participants.

- Tailored Spend Controls: Highnote's GraphQL-based API allows users to easily activate, deactivate, reload, and customize cards for specific categories, catering to the unique requirements of each study and its timeline. The platform’s collaborative authorization capability delivers even greater control, allowing cardholders to spend at various vendors, such as a hotel or gas station, without requiring the purchase to be preauthorized ahead of time.

- Comprehensive Program Management: Highnote's team simplifies the complexities of managing a card program, taking care of everything from negotiating banking partnerships to overseeing card design. This streamlined process enabled nmible to launch both a consumer and commercial card program effortlessly, which typically involves coordinating multiple vendors and systems.

“The card we’ve helped nmible launch today proves how powerful tailored approaches are in payments, rather than a one-size-fits-all paradigm,” says John MacIlwaine, Highnote’s cofounder and CEO. “Thanks to the unique architecture we’ve constructed and the thought we’ve put into our underlying framework's flexibility, we’re helping nmible take payment disbursal from a necessary but burdensome task and transform it into an experience that empowers clinical trial staff and engages trial participants. nmible is on the cutting edge of this space, and we couldn’t be more excited to partner with them.”

Modern medicine constantly pushes the boundaries and finds innovative solutions to some of human health’s most pressing challenges. With nmible and Highnote delivering the new standard in modern clinical trial reimbursement, we’re ensuring the research compensation process matches this same standard. Through our tailored approach and leveraging the power of embedded finance, we’re ensuring payments are secure, convenient, and just as empowering as the medical research those in the clinical trial industry seek to deliver.

If you’d like to learn how your company can benefit from Highnote’s modern issuing platform, contact us here.

Highnote issuing statement: This card is issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc