Patients across the country are noticing an alarming an inconvenient trend in their doctors’ offices. Medical practices are starting to refuse credit cards as a form of payment for co-pays and deductibles. An estimated one-third of physicians throughout America do not offer the choice of patients paying with plastic, even as more and more consumers are really struggling with being able to keep up with healthcare costs. This figure was determined by a widespread phone survey conducted by SK&A Information Services about two months ago.
Plastic surgeons offered the best rate of credit card acceptance, at around ninety-one percent of all doctors. Pathologists had the worst rate of acceptance, at just twenty-one percent. Around three-quarters of general health practitioners accepted plastic as of April, but only thirty-two percent of doctors specializing in geriatric medicine.
SK&A did not include a question about why practices do not take credit cards as a part of their survey, but financial experts believe they know the answer: high credit card transaction fees. These fees could cost a practice as much as three or four percent of every bill. Of course, these same experts will point out that physicians are shooting themselves in the proverbial foot by not taking plastic because of costs, since it certainly costs more to mail bills and chase down patients in the collections process. Many patients assume nowadays that everyone accepts plastic, and may not come equipped with cash or a checkbook to pay their co-pays at the time of their visits. Not taking credit cards is an inconvenience to both patients and medical office staff.
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