In recent news it was revealed that Michigan doctors offices are requiring that, patients present and utilize their credit cards before getting any medical care. A fairly new internet based medical payment program permits medical providers to secure a credit card before medical help is provided.
Claiming that it is a way of ensuring medical providers get paid while also keeping administrative costs down, the company has been around since 2008. It operates like this: when they arrive at their doctors office, patients are told by their medical care provider what the maximum amount a particular procedure will be likely to cost. The patient uses their credit card, gets the procedure done, and walks out of the office with a receipt and a detailed slip of services provided.
At this point the provider will bill the patient's insurance company. It will tell the provider how much of the work is covered; the balance left over is charged on the card. If a deductible hasn't been met, then the entire price of the procedure is charged.
As health care costs increase, more and more pressure has been placed on medical patients to pay their bills in the form of co pays, out of pocket expenses, and higher deductibles. With this increasing stress, delinquent and unpaid bills have become huge issues for medical providers.
Health care payments are now up to over three hundred billion dollars a year, and that number is supposed to balloon up to double that number by 2015. From this number, fifty to sixty billion dollars of current health care debts go into delinquency. The program has proven to reduce delinquent accounts by up to eighty percent.
But some analysts remain skeptical. The issue of patients who don't pay off their balance each month hasn't yet been resolved, much less the issue of a patient not having a credit card.
Mallory Megan is employed by a debt collection agency. She also writes articles on business and finance, consumer spending and collection agencies.
