Medical Spa Success Requires Patient Financing

As I continue this series on “Medical Spa Success,” I thinks its very important to discuss offering patient financing options.   In today’s economy its more important than ever to offer your patients multiple financing options for aesthetic procedures, it’s not uncommon for a patient to pay for some of the procedure in cash, check, credit card, and a patient financing credit card. It’s important that you have them all available and clearly displayed. This is the reality of offering cash-based medical spa procedures. One thing you are going to also need to do is offer your patients a patient financing program (a credit card for cosmetic procedures done at a medical spa or doctors office).

There are many patient financing companies available, and is ideal for co-payments, deductibles, treatment and aesthetic procedures which are typically not covered by insurance.  When choosing one, make sure they offer quick on-line approvals.  You don’t want your patient waiting while they fill out a form and fax it to patient finance company. You want to enter it online for them, and get a quick response back. Also look for programs that offers no interest, low interest, or deferred payment plans to your patients. As a physician, you’ll want to keep an eye on the fees these patient financing companies charge you, they can sometimes be double what you’re paying for a major credit card. Also look for a program where you do not pay any up-front costs, pre-payment penalties or any other fees. Some of the larger players include CareCredit, Chase Health Advance,  Capital One Healthcare, and MedChoice Financial.

This material was taken from the IAPAM’s Aesthetic Medicine Symposium and the Aesthetic Practice Startup Workshop.

Jeff Russell
Executive-Director, IAPAM