Studies Show that CarePayment Eases Financial Burden on Patients & Improves Overall Healthcare Satisfaction

LAKE OSWEGO, OR– May 5, 2016 – A recently-released white paper, supported by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, found that patients using the CarePayment^® solution to healthcare debt have a high degree of satisfaction that translates into a more positive perception of the healthcare provider and the overall experience.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has increased the percentage of Americans with health insurance coverage, yet many Americans still have problems paying medical bills. The Commonwealth Fund’s 2014 Biennial Health Insurance Survey (BHIS) reported that 35 percent of American adults are burdened with medical bill debt. One market-based solution to this problem is for third-party organizations to provide legally compliant financing programs. CarePayment, the national leader in patient financial engagement, provides innovative patient financing solutions with a 0 percent annual percentage rate (APR) that help patients get the care they need while allowing healthcare provider organizations to get payment for services rendered.

“Medical debt is likely to remain a challenge for individuals in need of care and the hospitals that treat them,” said Craig Hodges, CEO of CarePayment. “Our own research shows that 95 percent of patients using CarePayment are satisfied with the billing experience and that the majority would recommend medical providers that offer CarePayment. The patient and provider satisfaction documented by this independent study further demonstrates how CarePayment helps to solve the healthcare affordability crisis.”

The white paper, “Patient Satisfaction with CarePayment and the Impact on Provider Satisfaction and Selection,” by researchers Julie Solomon, PhD, of J. Solomon Consulting and Laura Lessard, PhD, MPH of the University of Delaware, is the result of an independent study of qualitative outcomes among patients, families, hospitals and communities as well as interviews with hospital staff that work with the CarePayment program.

According to the paper, nearly 90 percent of respondents indicated they were more likely to return to a provider for additional care because they can use CarePayment to pay their medical bills over time. The paper also suggests that having access to CarePayment has a significant impact upon patient satisfaction with healthcare providers: more than two-thirds of respondents indicated that knowing their provider offers this payment option made them much more satisfied with that provider overall.

Solomon and Lessard’s research found high levels of satisfaction among those using CarePayment to manage their medical bills. Repeated use of the CarePayment program was noted by multiple interviewees at participating hospitals as an additional indication of patient satisfaction.

Marleen Shroyer, a 62-year-old retiree in Niles, Michigan, is typical of CarePayment users. She had two different surgical procedures at Memorial Hospital of South Bend, Indiana, in 2014 and turned to CarePayment for help paying her out-of-pocket expenses after learning about it from one of her nurses. She loves the hospital and very much wants to meet her obligation to pay for her treatment, but were it not for CarePayment, Shroyer says she would probably have been forced to file for bankruptcy.

“When you have an $8,000 family deductible, it’s a lot to come up with all at once,” she said. “CarePayment helped a lot. And eased my mind.”

Solomon and Lessard’s white paper also broadly supports the results of a CarePayment-funded telephone survey of its users by Hardwick Research. That survey found that 91 percent of patients would prefer to pay their medical expense using the CarePayment program rather than obtaining a payment plan on their own, and that when selecting a healthcare plan, 74 percent of participants are more likely to select a provider network that includes CarePayment. When asked about the most important benefits of CarePayment, participants said they like that there is no interest, they have more time to make payments and that it is convenient and easy to set up a payment plan.