Perhaps it’s time to take a page from the cosmetic surgery playbook. Patient financing has long been an option offered by plastic surgeons to expand their client base for non-covered procedures. However, there is no reason this approach should be limited to the cosmetic surgery industry.

There are a number of lenders such as GE (CareCredit®) and Enhance Patient Financing that permit patients to access a revolving line of credit. These funds can be used for any healthcare service, copay, or deductible. Physicians can generally enroll in this type of program for a nominal fee and then simply make credit applications available to patients at their office (or via a link on their website).

How This Might Benefit Your Private Practice

You may be able to access a broader fee-for-service patient base by enrolling in a healthcare financing program. This includes patients with HDHPs who pay out of pocket for much of their medical care.
You can charge credit plan patients those rates you believe are fair for your services rather than letting insurance companies dictate your pricing.
Your ability to collect patient deductibles may increase as you offer more options for affordable, extended repayment.
The lender takes on all collection responsibilities – relieving office staff of this time consuming function. This could make it possible to reduce overhead for labor hours.
Specialists and physicians who perform expensive procedures can be paid in advance under some financing programs. This effectively eliminates the risk of nonpayment and increases your immediate cash flow.
You are not responsible to the lender if a patient defaults on a loan (make sure this is clearly stated and guaranteed by the finance company).
Is patient financing a viable option for your practice? Do you have additional ideas for ways to get paid for the services you provide? Join us in the comments for some brainstorming.

COMMENTS:

This does sound like a viable option for our practice. Do you have any contact information for some of these finance companies? We have a very busy two physician internal med. practice and do struggle with uncollected accounts as most practices do. It would depend on the cost to provide this service to our patients.
Rosie Loy
04/12/2010

CareCredit is a good place to start.
Becky Nelson
04/13/2010

Dr. Loy I will do some checking around for you. I have heard of care credit but do not know enough about the physician use of it. I will circle back around with you when I have more information.
Sherry L. Krueger
04/19/2010

This would not be very realistic in an Oncology Practice as the Chemo costs billed are very costly.
Becky Goebel
04/22/2010

Becky, True this is definately better in some specialties than others!
Sherry Krueger
06/07/2010