Hospital Physician Partners Rolls Out CarePayment to Hospital Emergency Departments in More Than 20 States

0.00% APR payment plans help patients manage ER physician expenses over time 

HOLLYWOOD, FL and PORTLAND, OR (June  23, 2015) – Hospital Physician Partners (HPP) is one of the nation’s leading Emergency and Hospital Medicine contract management companies, partnering with hospitals in over 20 states. HPP has over 2,000 providers that will treat more than 2.4 million patients this year.  The company is currently enhancing its patient services by adding CarePayment patient financing programs. With CarePayment, HPP patients can pay Emergency Room physician charges in affordable monthly installments for up to 36 months at 0.00% APR for the life of the account and with no impact to credit scores.

“Co-pays and deductibles have increased significantly over the past several years, and patients are taking on more of the financial burden related to healthcare costs,” says Duane Lisowski, Chief Revenue Officer at HPP.  Prior to CarePayment, we were able to offer traditional options: cash, check, credit card, and a three-month payment plan that provided limited options for our growing number of patients,” says Lisowski. “We want to make sure we are as patient-friendly as possible in helping patients satisfy their financial responsibility, and that’s exactly what CarePayment enables. It is a win-win for HPP, and most importantly, the patient.”

With CarePayment’s Dynamic Term Lengths program, HPP can make options available to patients with payment term lengths that vary to fit the balance. This makes financing available to those with lower balances who might not qualify under other plans and extends the length to make payments more budget-friendly for those with higher balances. So a patient who owes $2,500 in emergency medical costs could take up to 36 months to complete payments while a patient with a $250 balance would pay the balance in 6 months or less.

Emergency department visits have been on the rise since the Affordable Care Act took effect, driven by a combination of millions of newly insured seeking care and a shortage of both primary care physicians and doctors who accept Medicaid. More than one-quarter, or 28%, of 2,099 doctors have seen large increases in ER volume while 47% saw slight increases, according to a recent poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians.

“ER doctors play a unique role in caring for people who usually need urgent attention and are not able to put off treatment until they can afford it,” says CarePayment CEO Craig Hodges. “With CarePayment, HPP helps relieve financial worries for patients but still receives payment for the vital services it provides to so many communities across the country.”

CarePayment’s patient financing program offers a flexible open-end line of credit, not a credit card or loan. Patients can manage their accounts in a variety of ways, including automatic payments, mobile and online account access, and paper or electronic statements.

The CarePayment program is part of HPP’s expanded patient financial services. HPP has made billing statements easier to understand, initiated a service to help patients apply for health insurance and enlarged its customer service department to increase hours of operation.