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F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
BUSINESS ADVISOR
Mamas uses the payment calculator on CareCredit's website to create a
spreadsheet listing payment options and how much patients would have
to pay each month to settle debts in full before the selected promotional
period expires. "It shows realistic payments, not the small minimal
monthly payments that they're charged to stay current," she explains.
Ms. Mamas has patients sign their spreadsheets so she has what they
agreed to on file. She keeps the signed pages on hand to avoid potential
You didn't explain the deal to me phone calls from miffed patients hit
with surprisingly high bills. OSM
DO PATIENTS REALLY GET IT?
How I Ended Up Paying More Than I Should Have
D
on't assume your patients understand all the ins and outs of
patient financing. The first time I used CareCredit to pay off a
large dental bill, it worked out exactly the way it was supposed
to. As long as I made the minimum payments and paid the whole bill off
in the allotted time, everything would be interest-free. I did, and it was.
Now, fast-forward to a few years later, when another 4-figure dental bill
came along and the same company was again suggested. Perfect, I said.
Then the bills started coming. It was a month or 2 before something shocking
caught my eye. The interest wasn't being deferred; it was being tacked on
from the get-go. And if I was going to take a year or more to pay this thing off,
I was going to end up paying a lot more than the original bill. I dipped deeply
into my savings and paid off the whole bill (plus accrued interest), which, I
assure you, hurt at least as much as the procedure I'd had.
The somewhat happy ending: It's now 3 years later, and I recently
learned that I shouldn't have been charged interest right off the top. So I
called CareCredit to ask what happened and was told my dentist submit-
ted the wrong code. CareCredit agreed to refund the interest.
— Jim Burger
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