Paywatch, a Malaysian financial-technology company that lets employees draw wages they have already earned before payday, has partnered with IMU Healthcare to launch MediPay, a feature allowing workers to pay for medical and wellness services using those earned wages.
In a statement on Wednesday, Paywatch said MediPay will be available from September. Founded in 2020, it operates in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, and is backed by banks including Citi and HSBC.
MediPay builds on Paywatch’s earned wage access platform, which lets employees tap pay they have already accrued rather than turning to credit or loans. It integrates IMU Healthcare’s services into the Paywatch app, launching with seven preventive and holistic health packages, including health screenings and therapeutic treatments.
A later phase will add treatments often excluded from employee insurance, such as chiropractic and dental care, at discounted rates.
Paywatch has expanded from earned wage access into a broader financial-wellness platform combining payments technology with embedded financial services such as insurance, bill payments and rewards. The service carries no interest and draws only on wages already earned.
Paywatch said the the partnership can help ease financial pressure on Malaysian workers. Citing a Zurich study, workplace stress and health-related presenteeism can cost the Malaysian economy about MYR34 billion ($8.3 billion) a year by 2030, equal to roughly 1.4 percent of gross domestic product.
They also cited data indicating that 70.2 percent of the formal-sector workforce earns MYR5,000 or less a month, while a family of four in Kuala Lumpur needs about MYR6,183 a month for basic expenses.
Richard Kim, co-founder and chief executive of Paywatch, said allowing employees to pay for care using money they had already earned would reduce the need for high-cost loans and ease financial stress. Nazimah Idris, medical director at IMU Healthcare, said the partnership addressed affordability as a barrier to timely care and would help people seek treatment when they needed it.