Jim Du Molin offers dental marketing news and dental practice management advice for dentists.
Dental financing can be a real challenge, with 65% of dentists reporting that it has gotten harder for dental patients to get credit.
Dental credit cards, dental loans and other dental financing options let dentists avoid the risk of in-house dental financing.
But sometimes lenders don’t want to take the risk of either making it hard for many patients to get dental credit for dental care.
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The average dentist offers patients outside dental financing options, we found in this survey of dentists.
Most dentists these days don't offer their own dental financing, relying instead on dental credit cards and outside dental payment plans. "We’ve never offered inside financing," said one prosthodontist. "We don’t want to deal with any problems, so we farm the financing out."
“I wouldn't be able to sell all the cases without dental financing," said one dentist.
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Medical and dental credit cards are being investigated by Andrew Cuomo, New York's Attorney General, for allegations of predatory lending practices.
His office has received complaints from hundreds of patients who were convinced by their doctor or dentist to sign up for a medical or dental credit card, only to find themselves beset by high interest rates and surcharges.
The Attorney General's office has issued subpoenas primarily to investigate GE Money's CareCredit card, but other subpoenas have also been issued for Chase Health Advance, Visa Health Benefits and Citibank Health Card.
Concerns have been raised that it is inappropriate for a dentist (or other medical practitioner) to simultaneously push for dental treatment and for dental financing.
Read more: NY AG investigating health care credit cards
Only 11% of dentists said they would accept a state IOU for dental financing, found this survey, while 36% said, "No way!"
On the other hand, 41% said they would if their bank would take an IOU, and 13% said they would only accept an IOU for a poor patient.
"I'd trust IOU's from my own patients who have fallen on tough times before I'd trust the government (at any level)," declared a Georgia orthodontist.
Here are some more comments:
A Minnesota dentist described the flaws in that state's Care Tax:
"In Minnesota we have to pay a 2% provider (MN CareTax) on our revenue, which is a noble cause. Any donated care is taxed on the value of the care.
Note: … let's start letting the public and legislators know how much we donate care, so that they see we are more philanthropic than most other business owners!
This tax was supposed to go to help those without insurance or the means to pay. For the past many years, MN has seen this big fund as money they can confiscate to balance the General Fund, not to mention taking away the ability for many patients to use this fund.
In summary, I feel I already have accepted IOU's which will never come true. Lesson, never let your state tax providers for their services, it will end up being a money tree in the legislature's back yard to take for other reasons."
CareCredit is a credit card designed to help people pay for medical costs they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford. About 50,000 US dental providers offer the card.
But a recent NPR report indicates that complaints about CareCredit have increased.
More patients are claiming they didn't realize they were signing up for payments they would never be able to afford.
"People are being convinced to take on more credit than they can afford," claims Elizabeth Landsberg, an attorney with the Western Center on Law and Poverty. "We have people who are living on a fixed income of $1,000 a month who are being signed up for $6,000 in credit. There's no way they can make those payments."
Though the American Dental Association endorses CareCredit, many people do not realize that the ADA is paid for its endorsement. "The blurring of medical provider and financial services provider is problematic," said Mark Rukavina from The Access Project, a health care advocacy group.
Jim Du Molin is a leading Internet marketing expert for dentists in North America. He has helped hundreds of doctors make more money in their practices using his proven Internet marketing techniques.
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