Challenge

While the French healthcare system is globally recognised, its reimbursement model creates significant friction. Although national health insurance covers part of the cost of medical expenses, insurees are often required to pay the full amount up front and then wait to be reimbursed – first by the public system and then, where applicable, by an additional insurer. This creates both a financial and administrative burden for insurees and insurers alike.

In 2017, Marseille-based mySofie built a successful mobile application that ultimately helped more than a million French users track their healthcare reimbursements. By mid-2023, the company recognised an opportunity to transform its services by eliminating up-front insuree payments. "We thought we could go even further", said Aymeric Mehu, co-founder of mySofie. "If we paid up front, our customers wouldn't even have to track their reimbursement".

Engineering this solution required overcoming formidable technical hurdles: querying insurance coverage data in real time, charging insurees only for their remaining out-of-pocket portion and automating the entire process. mySofie also needed to issue virtual cards to users, with robust controls to ensure all payments went to only legitimate healthcare services eligible for payment.

The user onboarding experience had to be frictionless. For the solution to achieve widespread adoption, insurees would need to register quickly and begin using the service without complex setup procedures or lengthy enrolment processes.

What's more, the company faced an aggressive timeline. mySofie wanted to launch in time to demonstrate the solution at a major health insurance industry event just four months after the project's conception.

Solution

mySofie evaluated about 10 payment service providers before selecting Stripe. The company prioritised multi-faceted payment processing and card-issuance capabilities, as well as strong developer tools that would meet its ambitious timeline.

Technical teams at mySofie were already well-acquainted with Stripe's solutions, having worked with Stripe's tech stack at earlier points in their career. This experience served as a touchpoint for the team to advocate for Stripe over its competitors. "The final criterion that played a role was the technical aspect", said Aymeric. "The operator with whom we felt most at ease in terms of meeting deadlines was clearly Stripe".

mySofie integrated Stripe Connect to enable the complex flow of funds between multiple parties in its ecosystem. The customer journey begins with the insuree downloading the mySofie Pay app and authenticating with their health insurance credentials. The app connects directly to their insurance contract to retrieve beneficiary and coverage data.

mySofie Pay then uses Stripe Issuing to issue a virtual Visa card with powerful programmatic controls that are added to the insuree's mobile wallet. Through Stripe's APIs, mySofie implements real-time control over card usage, restricting transactions to verified healthcare provider merchant categories only. This enhanced control was a key selling point for insurance companies, as it significantly reduces the risk of fraud compared to traditional reimbursement methods.

At healthcare appointments, insurees open the app, select the beneficiary and the healthcare provider and enter the payment amount; the app shows how much insurance will cover and how much will be charged to the insuree's personal card. After the instantaneous approval process, insurees pay the full amount using their mySofie Pay virtual card. Stripe Payments handles the transaction processing, with 99.999% uptime reliability, so insurees can count on the service at critical moments of care.

The company valued Stripe's scalability, knowing the platform could support mySofie's ambitious growth plans without requiring significant infrastructure changes as their user base expands. This scalability, combined with Stripe's developer-friendly integration process, allowed mySofie to implement its complete solution in just a few months, meeting its ambitious timeline for market introduction.

Stripe's simple, intuitive APIs also enabled mySofie to quickly integrate payment processing with their existing app to launch quickly and create a smooth checkout process. The team relied on the APIs, as well as Stripe's extensive documentation, as it worked to complete the integration quickly.
mySofie also employed the expertise of Stripe professional services to help guide its Connect integration and digital wallet setup for Google Pay and Apple Pay. The team provided an integration guide, helped mySofie navigate the certification process with Apple and supported testing to ensure a smooth launch.

Results

Connect integration drives strong market interest

Stripe's ability to handle these complex payment flows has driven significant interest in mySofie Pay from insurance providers since its introduction. "Last October, at the event where we presented our solution, it stirred a lot of discussion", said Aymeric. "We have clients in the consideration phase for implementing payment solutions, with some being potential buyers". Just a few months after development, three health insurance providers had already adopted the solution and begun the process of implementation. Others were also in the pipeline.

Issuing enables insuree onboarding in less than two minutes

Using Issuing's APIs, mySofie created an intuitive experience that allows insurees to register, receive a virtual payment card and add it to their mobile wallet in less than two minutes. "We're pleased that users generally spend less than two minutes onboarding", said Aymeric. Seamless onboarding has been key for adoption, giving users immediate access to mySofie's payment solution.

Solution goes to market in four months with Connect and Issuing

mySofie met its ambitious timeline by using Connect and Issuing's comprehensive documentation. "Without the responsiveness of Stripe's teams, we likely wouldn't have met our deadlines", said Aymeric. Thanks to Stripe's developer-friendly APIs and documentation, mySofie built a working prototype between June and October 2024 to demonstrate at a key industry event. After obtaining necessary certifications and further refining the product, the company onboarded its first insurance clients in April 2025.

Stripe's comprehensive fraud controls protect insurance providers' funds

With robust transaction monitoring and verification through Payments, transactions only occur at legitimate healthcare providers. Dynamic transaction monitoring also helps detect and block suspicious activities in real time, minimising the risk of fraud. Precise merchant verification, powered by Payments, has been a selling point for insurance companies looking to reduce fraud rather than relying on traditional reimbursement systems.