If you want a face lift but your heart sinks at the price and your insurance company refuses the bill, your local hospital soon may give you the option to pay for the operation in the same way that you might pay for a new refrigerator.
A growing number of hospitals in Orange County and nationwide are trying to boost business and hasten payment for services by offering financing plans that allow patients to pay monthly installments for cosmetic surgery and other medical treatments typically not covered by insurance. These credit plans also are assisting patients in paying that part of the medical bill not covered by insurance.
Plans recently introduced by such traditional consumer finance agencies as Household Finance and Chrysler Financial Corp. are providing hospitals with "non-recourse financing," meaning that the hospitals get paid up front and the finance companies take full responsibility for collecting on loans made to patients.
One company pioneering non-recourse medical financing is Hudson & Hudson, a medical consulting firm in San Francisco. Two years ago the company began offering a financing service to plastic surgeons, and last November it expanded to hospitals, said John Lee Hudson, who is a senior partner in the firm along with his wife, Shana.
Hudson said that so far he has introduced his financing package, including the plans of a variety of national and regional financing companies, to the offices of more than 400 plastic surgeons and 100 hospitals nationwide, including three in Orange County--Chapman General, Buena Park Doctors and Anaheim General.
Most hospitals say it is too early to gauge the success of the new financing. But they say it holds promise of assisting patients who are faced with increasingly larger co-payments, deductibles and restrictions on their medical insurance coverage.
Hospital officials also say installment financing is expected to improve the cash flow at hospitals that are struggling under burdens of bad debt and delays in payments from government insurers like Medicare and Medicaid, private insurance companies and private-paying patients.
Richard Carpe, a hospital consultant at Laventhol and Horwath in Costa Mesa, said the Hudson & Hudson program is a "great idea."
"I think it would be a boon to many hospitals if they would more effectively market creative financing packages to their patients," Carpe said.
