Credit Card Payments for Physician Fees: A Regulatory Tapestry

Collections are a critical part of running a physician practice.  The shift toward patient responsibility for higher co-payments and deductibles under today’s health plans has driven the need for physician offices to shore up collection methods.  Whether a practice is insurance or cash-based, patient payments are making up an increasing share of the revenue.  Every business needs to make money to survive, but physicians must balance the need for profit with the responsibility to provide quality patient care.  In addition, laws regarding ethics, licensing, and patient privacy are layered into the regulatory tapestry that governs physician collections. 

The ability to use credit cards for health care can benefit both providers and patients.  To increase the bottom line, most health care providers have opted to accept credit card payments for the patient’s portion of the visit fee.  Patients don’t carry their checkbooks anymore, and the market demands acceptance of credit cards.  For practices that collect the patient portion at each visit, payment may be easily made when the patient presents a card at the time of the visit.  However, patient balances may accrue if the practice does not collect the patient portion during visits, or if payments are not forthcoming for other reasons (for example, when a patient originally describes a case as work-related but fails to notify the employer, so no party is paying the bills).  Of course, the ICS does not recommend using credit cards to pay for patient balances that are not legally authorized by or due from the patient.  In proper cases, though, a practice may protect itself by using a patient’s pre-authorization to run a charge using credit card information on file when a bill remains unpaid for a certain period.