Why Your Healthcare Practice Should Offer Patient Financing

What’s one of the biggest barriers to potential patients seeking out your healthcare services? If you’re like many healthcare providers, you’ll probably say money. 

Healthcare practice patient financing could be an effective solution. 

With many patient financing options available to your practice, you can choose the best solutions for your practice and your patients’ needs. Continue reading to learn why your medical practice should offer patient financing. 

What Is Patient Financing?

Patient financing is a program that enables patients to pay their medical bills over time rather than in a single check or deposit. Through patient financing, patients can seek services from a healthcare professional that they may not be able to afford upfront. Your business can increase your revenue and reduce the burden of collections through these programs. 

Your medical practice can structure patient financing in a few different ways:

• Monthly payment plan: A financing option that enables patients to pay medical bills in monthly installments with 0% APR or low-interest rates
• Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) program: A patient financing solution with flexible term lengths and no interest that allow patients to break medical bills into a few even payments
• Medical practice loan: A third-party medical loan for patients with a low credit score, poor credit history, or small cash flow to pay for medical services
• Personal loan: Short-term loans patients can use for debt consolidation or to pay for medical equipment or services
• Medical credit card: A credit card that a patient can only use for medical expenses and that does not charge interest when payments are on time

With internal financing programs, you would obtain a patient’s credit information and charge their account in small increments over time. If a payment falls through or a patient fails to make payments on time, your business may be responsible for footing the bill. 

Some patients prefer to receive financing through their medical practice instead of from a third-party lender. Offering at least one healthcare financing solution in-house can produce numerous benefits. However, you can also point patients to third-party options as an alternative solution should they fail to qualify for your program. 

Benefits of Offering Patient Financing

Offering financing through your medical practice can benefit your patients and your business. Here are the benefits you can expect from health services financing:

Benefits to Patients

A Bankrate survey found that 63% of people in the U.S. do not have enough money in their bank accounts to cover a $500 emergency. With healthcare costs rising across the U.S., many of these same people would struggle to cover a single appointment at your medical practice. 

Even those with health insurance often struggle to afford necessary healthcare services. A survey from Affordable Health Insurance found that 61% of respondents who receive health insurance from an employer and 69% of respondents who pay for health insurance independently reported having medical debt. 

The most significant benefit of medical practice financing to your patients is a greater ability to pay for medical services. Your patients can feel more confident seeking medical services when they know financing options are available. They won’t need to have the cash to pay their medical bills upfront. 

Emergency Services

Financing options can also enable patients to seek emergency services, which can help your practice sell more of these services. 

Many financing options allow patients to receive funding quickly and easily, making these programs excellent solutions for emergencies. If patients don’t have enough in their accounts to pay for emergency expenses, they can rely on financing programs to cover the difference while still receiving essential emergency treatments. 

Additionally, your medical practice can provide financing programs as a unique offering that sets your business apart from other practices in the area. Patients will come to your practice during an emergency because they know they will have access to the payment option necessary to cover their emergency treatment. 

Benefits to Your Healthcare Practice

While financing solutions can undoubtedly benefit your patients, they present even more benefits for your medical practice. Here are a few of the main advantages a financing program can provide for your practice:

• Increase revenue: Without financing, your practice may never see payments from certain patients. Financing can lower your accounts receivable and increase your overall revenue. This extra money may prevent you from needing a small business loan or merchant cash advance to pay for expenses. 
• Attract new patients: Financing options are attractive to patients who cannot afford medical procedures out of pocket and do not have good credit. When you begin providing financing, more new patients may choose you as their primary healthcare provider.
• Easier collections for your office: Billing and collections take up a lot of your administrative staff’s time and provide little reward. When you offer a unique payment plan for each patient’s needs and budget, you can reduce the burden of collections and close accounts receivable faster. Your staff can dedicate their time to other important processes. 
• Improved patient satisfaction: Financing can also enhance retention. Patients feel more positively toward a medical provider who does not constantly call and send letters about their bills. Payment plans can also build patient trust, as patients will know that your practice goes above and beyond other medical professionals to meet their needs. 

With these benefits in mind, your medical practice can begin structuring a patient financing program that brings more patients to your door and improves your cash flow. 

If you’re looking for a payment program to get you started, you can consider Weave’s Buy Now, Pay-over-time integration with Sunbit. When you integrate this payment option into your Weave platform, you can give customers access to financing options that let them break bills into manageable payments.

Customers can apply for financing in less than a minute through a simple online form, then review their options. Then, Sunbit will provide the loan amount for the patient, allowing you to receive the total payment upfront. 

Are you interested in trying Buy Now, Pay-over-time? Request a free Weave demo to see how this integration works for your medical practice.