Outpatient Surgery Magazine

want to offer the best possible deal for the patient and the practice, and it's tough finding that middle ground." What makes this even more challenging is the variability. Facilities can pay anywhere from a 1.9% fee on the low end to as much as 14.9% on the high end, depending on the type of plan (duration of promotion or loan) and the medical specialty. The transaction fee rises along with the length of the loan. Generally, the longer the payment term, the higher the transaction fee with which you'll be charged. It's tempting to want to offer your patients as many choices as possible (12-, 18- and 24-month deferred-interest promotions), but beware: The more options you offer, the more likely it is one of these options will carry unfavorable fees for you. "I could offer a 24-month deferred interest promotion for a credit card with a $2,000 credit line that charges an 8.5% facility fee, but why would I do that if I can offer the same credit line for an 18- month promotion and only pay a 6% fee?" asks Ms. Getlan. 4. Reputation. With the number of patient financing options growing each day (we came across dozens while researching this story), the identity of your financing company is critical. "When you're evaluating potential vendors, you have to look at reputation," says Beto Casellas, CEO of CareCredit, a healthcare lending company headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif. With more than 100 years of experience (nearly 30 years for CareCredit and 80 for its parent company, Synchrony), CareCredit is generally the most well- known and relied upon name in the patient financing space. Of course, facilities have plenty of options — and not looking closely at these many options could come back to haunt you. "I think sometimes facilities aren't doing enough research and looking at all the offerings that are available to them in the market," says BHG's Mr. Crawford. "Maybe there's a tendency to just go with the status quo and say, 'Oh, I've heard of that, it must be something I should offer.'" Still, you want some assurances from a financing company because, as Ms. Thomas puts it, "you don't want to put your neck on the line and recommend a lender that's still working through their growing pains and keeps changing up their program every couple of months." A good benchmark to use is 5 years; you want a partner that's been in the industry for at least 5 years, so you know they're not going anywhere, adds Ms. Thomas. 5. Technology and service. Whether it's an easy-to-navigate website or a frictionless iPhone or Android app, consumers now demand these things, so your financing company must be able to provide them, says Mr. Casellas. Seamless technology is also what 4 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • A U G U S T 2 0 1 9 A Better Idea for Patient Financing Patients are delaying care until they meet their deductible, leaving providers to struggle with low volume, especially early in the year. This leads to capacity utilization issues and operational cost burdens. CarePayment's 0.00% APR «>ÌiÌw>V}ÃÕÌ drives increased patient volume by removing out of pocket costs as a barrier to care. On average, we collect two times more than current «iÀvÀ>Vi>`Õ«ÌwÛi times more than any other «>ÌiÌw>V}Ûi`ÀpiÌ our fees. carepayment.com High deductibles used to cause ƂTUVSWCTVGT volume challenges. Today, they are an all year concern.

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