care they need. The financing plans also allow our facility to get paid
in advance of procedures, a key factor in ensuring we run in the
black. Here's how we've designed our process to ensure we're provid-
ing access to care in a way that allows us to run a profitable business
and support our patients.
1. Know the processing fees
Patient financing companies charge various processing fees on the
amount patients borrow. We allow our patients to choose from three
plans offered by our vendor. The most popular is a six-month plan
that allows them to pay back what they borrowed at no interest. The
other two allow the patients to repay over a 24- or 36-month period at
moderate interest rates. We're charged about 3% of what the patient
owes us by the financing company. In other words, we receive the
amount of money the patient borrowed from the company — minus
the 3% processing fee — within 24 hours of the patient signing up for
the plan.
Our patient financing company also offers a 24-month, no-interest
plan that we could offer our patients, but the company would take a
whopping 13% of what the patient borrowed as a processing fee. We
can't run a business that way and decided not to make that plan avail-
able to patients. There are other plans that would allow the vendor to
take 9% off the top, which is still high. You must be very careful about
which plans you accept from your vendor and offer to your patients.
Knowing the details of the available plans is important, as some of the
best plans for your patients come at your facility's expense.
2. Keep patients informed
When patients sign up for a no-interest plan, make sure they under-
stand they have to pay each monthly bill on time, and that the amount
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