Does Your Plastic Surgeon Take Plastic?
Increasingly, doctors, dentists and especially physicians who treat patients paying out-of-pocket are partnering with credit card firms that specialize in financing medical procedures. About 140,000 health care providers now accept GE’s CareCredit card – an increase of 40% in the past three years reports the Wall Street Journal.
In part, the card issuers are taking advantage of gaps in health-insurance policies for procedures like dental implants, corrective eye surgery and cosmetic surgery. By 2015, patients could be forking over roughly $150 billion in out-of-pocket health-care costs, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co., up from an estimated $45 billion in 2010.
David Williams of The Health Business Blog points out another reason physicians sign up with medical credit card companies. It allows them a way to offer a discount (zero interest payments options) without actually having to discount their services.
There are also vetrinary “insurance” plans that are essentially credit cards with discounts and payment options related to the use of participating providers.
Health care for pets has improved to the point that it can cost several thousand dollars to treat a pet (e.g., oncology, hip and other joint replacements, heart valves). Since people tend not to save in advance for pet care, providing convenient financing increases utilization of services.
Interesting. But it makes more sense to combine a debit card with a Health Savings Account.
Another advantage of direct payment that is usually completely overlooked is this: zero fraud. (Or as near zero as you can possibly get.)
My only question has to do with why would people need a special credit card to finance medical procedures? A standard credit card would work. Plus, I would imagine people have less initiative to repay medical debt compared to other forms of debt. There is the perception that doctors are rich and, therefore, must not need the money as badly as I do.