Who Takes Credit Cards...and Other Lessons on Getting Paid

I’ve written before about my frustration, as a patient, with practices who don’t take credit cards for payment. I had a situation where in one sitting I paid the surgeon, the pathologist and the hospital. The anesthesiologist and nurse-anesthetists? They ended up waiting. 

 

 

 

SK&A, a healthcare sales and marketing information firm, recently surveyed 500,000 physicians as to their acceptance of credit cards. The survey is more of an overview, but it provides a good quick look:

 

 

 

71.1% of responding physicians accept credit cards. Of that group, 71.3% accept MasterCard and/or Visa (these are usually tied together), 35.2% Discover and 31.0% accept American Express (AMEX). 25.9% accept all three.

 

 

 

AMEX tends to charge a much higher discount rate than the other cards, and has, by design, a smaller market share.

 

 

 

	Percent of
Acceptance Level	Physicians Responding
Office Accepts Credit Cards	71.7%
Office Does Not Accept Credit Cards	28.3%
TOTAL	100%
Credit Card Brands Accepted
MasterCard or Visa	71.3%
Discover	35.2%
American Express	31.0%
All three brands	25.9%
Credit Card Acceptance by Specialty
Top 3 Specialties	%
Urgent Care Specialist	92.2%
Reproductive Endocrinologist	91.6%
Plastic Surgeon	91.2%
Bottom 3 Specialties	%
Pathologist	25.9%
Critical Care Specialist	44.7%
Emergency Medicine Specialist	47.5%

 

Source: SK&A Information Services, Inc., April 2008

 

Based on a survey of 500,000 physicians

 

 

 

 

The top 3 specialties who accept cards have a logic to them – urgent care centers, and two discretionary sets of services from plastic surgeons and assisted reproduction. I’d be interested in why the three specialties with the lowest acceptance level were in that category, particularly pathologists, where lab tests would be a frequent charge.

 

 

 

Look at it this way – urgent care centers accept credit cards because they know that they will be paid quickly (good funds in your bank account within two days), and patients will use a card to pay you and then only have one bill to worry about. Otherwise, your bill may get stuck in a pile. I’m guilty of that.

 

 

 

Since I was writing this post, I pulled out four physician bills and went to pay them. Three took my money. The fourth, who is owed about $180? The billing office “will call me back before the end of the next business day”.

 

 

 

Excuse me?

 

 

 

I’m here now, credit card in hand. I’m ready to pay you. When you call me back tomorrow, I may not be able to pay you – I may be on the phone, in a meeting, or tied up with something else.

 

 

 

Here’s the secret to successful collections. There are many, many seminars, books and consultants out there who have all kinds of advice on how to get paid for what you do. But I’m going to give you the secret, a secret known to many very profitable businesses, everyone from the phone company to funeral homes. Here’s the secret…..are you ready?.......

 

 

 

When they offer you money, take the money.

 

 

 

So here I am, offering to pay, and there’s nobody home to take the call. No online option either, which will work for many people.

 

 

 

Last lesson: before sending any bill to collection, make a phone call. Maybe even at 60 days out and before collection, make calls. Many people will react then – maybe they’re having a tough time and are embarrassed, maybe they can pay some but not all, maybe – whatever.

 

 

 

Take a look at your collection procedure – or write a collection procedure to include credit cards a policy to take all calls right away or within the hour. If you don’t take credit cards, taking just MasterCard and Visa will cover most everyone, except for certain high income area or for expensive, discretionary procedures. Finally, shop around for rates and other expenses.