Payment plans

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enamelrod
Posts: 462
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2007 9:51 am

Payment plans

Post by enamelrod » Sun Nov 20, 2016 10:35 am

Trying to use the payment plan functions
Is there any way to include an administrative fe for in house financing?

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Arna
Posts: 444
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 3:16 pm

Re: Payment plans

Post by Arna » Mon Nov 21, 2016 10:07 am

Before we try and answer this one, it'd be helpful to understand how the fee is structured.
Is it a one time admin fee?
When is it charged?
Is it a flat fee regardless of the principal loan amount or is it a percentage of the loan amount?
Are you charging interest on your payment plans?

There are also some legal considerations regarding full disclosure with regards to loans. I'm not an expert in this matter, however there may be a little research needed into the legality of this setup if you haven't already considered that.
Entropy isn't what it used to be...

Arna Meyer

enamelrod
Posts: 462
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2007 9:51 am

Re: Payment plans

Post by enamelrod » Mon Nov 21, 2016 12:23 pm

I charge a flat 5% fee to all in house payment plans. we break up the payment into 4 equal payments automatically billed to a cc on file.

Zacky
Posts: 18
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2016 1:57 am

Re: Payment plans

Post by Zacky » Sat Dec 24, 2016 12:30 pm

We do payment plans like this...and are very clear about the extra fee. We use an excel sheet to easily calculate payments and fees, and then type in those numbers to OD to make sure it matches.

For example: Procedure is $100

Option 1: Pay in advance and save 5%

Option 2: Pay 30% to begin, then 3 additional monthly payments of 100-30%/3.

Option 3: Pay 40% to begin, then 5 additional monthly payments of 100-40%/5.

To both option 2 and 3, we add a flat 3% as an administrative fee - specifically this is the amount we calculated that our credit card processing company charges to hold and automatically process the card as well as the miniscule time our staff needs to track and input payments into the system. So we show patients if they use the payment plan options, their new balance is $103, not $100.

There is no interest or anything, we're not providing loans or checking credit so theres no legal issues - just splitting up cost into payments. No penalty fees or late fees (a risk we are okay takin and have never had a problem with).

You do have to watch because over 6 month period a patient may have a new credit card issued and so you have to update their information, this is sometimes a hassle but patients are apologetic and very willing to provide new information over the phone.

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