Ask most business offices what a paper statement costs, and you’ll get a number for print and postage. That number is real, but it’s only the start.
The bigger cost is everything that happens around the paper: the repeat notices, the statements that never reach anyone, the checks that have to be keyed in, and the calls it all creates.
Postage keeps rising
A metered one-ounce First-Class letter now costs 78 cents and a Forever stamp 82 cents (USPS Notice 123). Both rose on July 12, 2026, from 74 and 78 cents. The stamp was 58 cents in 2021 (NBC News, 2026).
And postage is only one piece of what paper statements cost. Printing, envelopes, return envelopes and vendor fees come on top of it, for every statement, every cycle.
Every follow-up statement adds to the cost
All of those costs are for a single statement. Any balance that needs a second or third notice repeats the print and postage cost, and so does every statement that comes back undeliverable. The worksheet in “Run your own numbers” below helps you count how many your office sends.
Paper depends on an address that keeps changing
Paper only works if the address is right, and addresses change constantly. 11.8% of people in the U.S. moved in 2024 (Census Bureau, American Community Survey). Older adults move less often, but they still move: in 2015–2019 data, about 6.2% of adults 65 and older had moved in the prior year (Census Bureau).
When the address is wrong, the statement comes back or disappears. In fiscal 2013, 4.3% of all mail, 6.8 billion pieces, was undeliverable as addressed, costing USPS an estimated $1.5 billion (USPS Office of Inspector General, 2014). A vendor analysis of USPS data put undeliverable First-Class Mail at 3.38% in 2024 (GrayHair Software, 2025). Each returned statement then has to be researched and remailed, or the balance just ages.
A paper statement can only go to one address. A text can go to whoever pays, wherever they live.
Families have moved on from paying by check
Paper bills also invite paper payments, the slowest and most expensive kind to handle. Most consumers have already moved on: just 7% of bills were paid by check in 2024, down 12 percentage points from 2020 (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, 2025).
The checks that do arrive cost more to process. Receiving a paper check costs businesses a median $1.01–$2.00, compared with $0.26–$0.50 to initiate and receive an ACH payment (AFP Payments Cost Benchmarking Survey, 2022; B2B data, sponsored by Corpay). Each one has to be opened, matched and keyed into your system by hand.
Paper also prompts calls: How do I pay? Did you get my check? Which visit is this for? Every one of those is staff time.
Run your own numbers
Every business office’s costs look a little different, so the best place to start is with your own numbers:
- Statements mailed per month, including second and third notices
- All-in cost per statement: print, envelope, postage and vendor fees
- Returned statements per month, and staff time to research and resend them
- Share of patients, or their payers, with a mobile number or email on file
Multiply the first two by the fourth, then by 12. That’s roughly what you’d save in a year on print and postage alone by sending those statements digitally first. It doesn’t count the returned mail, faster payments, fewer calls and less manual posting that come with it.
Cutting paper without cutting anyone off
Digital-first billing sends the first notice by text or email, with a link to pay from any phone. Paper still goes to patients who ask for it or have no digital contact on file.
Payments post to your EHR automatically, so the savings show up in staff time as well as postage.
See what a payer would see
Visit our patient experience page to see what your patients would experience. Then book time with us and we’ll work through these numbers for your hospital.