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Patient financing services should support your practice by increasing the financing options available to your patients while saving you time and money.  Instead, the leading companies in the patient financing industry provide patients with healthcare credit cards, which are both time-consuming and costly for your practice.

With healthcare credit cards, the process of providing your patients with access to financing is very complicated. Your office must not only personally sign and date each loan application, but also save and file a paper copy of each application for approximately 6 to 7 years! This method of patient financing will cost your office valuable time that you could use towards helping your patients.

Assuming your office received one application per day with a healthcare credit card, you would be required to store over 38,880 pages of paper over a 10-year period. This is over 388 pounds of paper and would fill up 4 vertical filing cabinets with 4 drawers each. Storing applications will also take up a significant amount of space in your office.

Most healthcare cards give your office a choice to either retain these records or ship them back to the credit card company, resulting in hundreds of dollars in shipping costs. Dealing with paper applications will also cost your office a significant amount in wages to process, file and box up and ship every single application.

Prosper Healthcare Lending, (PHL) is changing the way healthcare providers view patient financing. Instead of offering borrowers healthcare credits cards, Prosper will provide them with access to simple interest installment loans. These loans are completely paperless, meaning the healthcare provider does not need to store applications indefinitely and there is no need to print and personally sign each application.

PHL also operates an easy to use online provider dashboard giving your office access to real-time tracking on loan inquiries, detailed reporting, unlimited training and support, and access to our live lending consultants through Live Chat (instant messaging).

Prosper will save your practice time and money by providing access to responsible patient financing options.

Patients can apply for a loan directly from a link on your practice website. They can also check their rate quote online in seconds without hurting their credit score. And finally, your patients will never be hit with harmful retroactive interest or hidden fees.

Prosper Healthcare Lending is disrupting the patient financing industry by offering an innovative, easy-to-use patient financing platform for healthcare providers.  Through Prosper, you will be able help more patients receive the treatment they want or need without wasting time from your busy day with extra administrative hassle.  To learn more about how Prosper can save your practice time and money call 888-602-6066 to schedule a free web demonstration.

*All loans funded by WebBank, a Utah-chartered industrial bank, member FDIC.

Which Type of Patient Financing is a Better Fit for Your Office?

The high cost of healthcare can be overwhelming. Many patients often wonder how they will pay for the treatment they want or need. Patients in the cosmetic surgery, bariatric surgery, fertility and dental industries regularly turn to credit cards to pay for treatments and procedures, but it may not be the most financially sound choice for them or your practice.

Financing treatments with healthcare credit cards could cost your patients and your practice money.

It’s time to look at a different financing option. Which is a healthier financing choice for your patients and a better option for your practice: credit cards or fixed rate installment loans?

Why installment loans are a healthier option for your patients:

Prosper Healthcare Lending provides patients with access to simple installment loans that charge no retroactive interest. Through Prosper, the patient will receive a fixed interest rate, meaning it will not change for the life of the loan so patients can more easily budget each month. Compare that to our competitors who offer credit cards with a revolving line of credit with harmful penalty fees and retroactive interest. Healthcare credit cards may be a convenient way to pay for smaller amounts over a very short period of time, but they are not a sensible way to finance high dollar procedures over $2,000. By paying for expensive procedures using a credit card, the patient runs the risk of being thrown into debt that could burden them for years.

Why installment loans are a better option for your practice:

Healthcare providers have become numb to paying fees when considering financing options for their patients. Prosper Healthcare Lending has taken a healthier approach. We give patients access to more responsible financing options at zero-cost to the practice on fixed rate installment loans.  Patient financing companies with healthcare cards charge your practice a fee of 3-15% on all funded loans.

See the table below to see how Prosper Healthcare Lending compares with the leading competitor in the patient financing industry:

The financing company your practice refers patients to plays a critical part in the patient’s overall experience. With Prosper Healthcare Lending, you can be confident your patients will receive the best loan options available, reinforcing the positive image you worked hard to create while saving your practice money.

If your healthcare practice is interested in a financing company that makes sense for you and your patients, call for a free web demonstration.

* Annual Percentage Rates (APR) range from 7.95% to 36.00%. A borrower’s actual APR will depend on credit score and other factors. All loans funded by WebBank, member FDIC.

Loan terms of three and five years are available through Prosper. Annual percentage rates through Prosper range from 7.95% to 36.00% for first-time borrowers, with the lowest rates for the most creditworthy borrowers. For example, a five year $10,000 loan with a rate of 9.68% APR would have 60 scheduled monthly payments of $201. Actual rate depends on credit history, income, and other factors. Eligibility is not guaranteed, and requires that a sufficient number of investors commit funds to a borrower’s account and that the borrower meets credit and other conditions.

Remember when “viral” referred to an actual virus?

 Patient gripes and complaints can go viral in a hurry. It’s been said that healthcare providers can quell the spread of criticism with one simple act. Listening.

Widespread changes in healthcare in recent years have led to confusion, frustration and uncertainty for patients and providers alike. Patient complaints and frustrations can fester over time with each visit to the doctor’s office.  For better or worse, you are the face of the healthcare system for your patients and as a result, their frustration can be unwittingly unleashed on you and your staff.

Now more than ever, doctors need to take the time to listen intently to a patient’s concerns and have a system in place to document and remedy patient objections.

3 compelling reasons why doctors should listen:

1. The Megaphone Effect

There was a time when unsatisfied patients would share their complaints with their family and their immediate friends.  Imagine an individual griping about your office with a small group of people in their normal speaking voice.  Now imagine giving the same person a megaphone! The message is now amplified and can be clearly heard by many others from far away.

Today’s online review sites for physicians and dentists are the megaphone, making it easy for a patient to broadcast their complaints about anything from front office staff to building cleanliness. We’ve certainly heard of patients complaining about other patient financing companies. Their complaints can be seen by thousands, regardless of their legitimacy. Online reviews can either positively promote your practice, or cause significant harm.

2. Empowered patients

Knowledge is power. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project study found that 72%[1] of internet users have researched health related information online within the past year.  Unprecedented access to health resources and a growing number of provider choices means patients are better informed and are less likely to consider the experience they had in your office as acceptable.

Since socially active patients have a real and measurable impact on the cash flow and success of your practice, it makes sense to genuinely engage with them about their concerns or grievances.  See our blog post XXX for ideas on how to more effectively engage your patients.

3. Quicksand

Increasingly empowered and assertive patients understand there are other avenues for expressing their concerns besides online forums or social media.  Their concerns can escalate into formal complaints to government or licensing bodies and can even find their way into the courts. Just over 2 years ago a major class action decision resulted in a $34 million judgment against a well-known patient financing company.[2] You can imagine how the court’s decision could reflect poorly on the healthcare providers who may have recommended financing through that company to their patients. Again, the importance of doctors listening intently to a patient’s concerns should be emphasized.

It’s much easier to address concerns as they begin to surface rather than allowing them to escalate.  A doctor’s direct involvement with an issue can often diffuse the situation and even turn the disgruntled patient into a champion.

Additionally, it is important to talk to your staff on a regular basis to get their view on the most common patient concerns they hear. This will help you uncover information to which you may not be privy.

We all know complaints are going to happen.  With this knowledge it is important to plan to both document and resolve concerns in person and online.

If you and your staff are hearing complaints about your current patient financing provider, consider a healthier approach. Prosper Healthcare Lending provides access to transparent and responsible fixed rate installment loans with no retroactive interest and no hidden fees. To find out how you and your patients can have a better patient financing experience, click here for an online demo.

[1] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/01/15/the-social-life-of-health-information/

[2] http://www.consumerfinance.gov/newsroom/cfpb-orders-ge-carecredit-to-refund-34-1-million-for-deceptive-health-care-credit-card-enrollment/

This week is National Infertility Awareness Week. We want to highlight our clients at FertilityAnswers who have helped countless patients receive life-changing treatment to build their families.

Click here to see more.

After 6 months of development, countless user testing sessions and a titanic effort, Prosper Healthcare Lending is launching an updated provider dashboard with remarkable improvements.

Whether you’re currently using Prosper’s patient financing platform, or thinking of signing up with us, the new dashboard is worth a look. One of our goals is to relentlessly simplify and improve patient financing, and the new provider dashboard is a giant leap forward in that endeavor.

These are 3 of the more notable and impactful upgrades, but as you start using the dashboard we’re confident you’ll find the entire experience to be a substantial improvement. More

Is patient financing hurting your referral business?

Patient financing is crucial in helping your clients receive the care they need.  When patients know payment plans are an option they are more likely to proceed with the treatment or procedure.  The industry is growing with more choices available than ever before. Financing options range from healthcare credit cards to unsecured installment loans.

Selecting the third-party company to provide your patients financing plans is an important consideration and there are a variety of reasons why. More

Are you attending the Hinman Dental Meeting in Atlanta this year? Is your practice tired of being charged endless fees to provide your patients access to financing? If you answered yes to both of these questions, make it a priority to stop at the Prosper Healthcare Lending booth while attending the show.

Prosper Healthcare Lending is disrupting the patient financing industry that in the past has seen little competition, More

American HealthCare Lending appeared on the TV show NewsWatch, which aired on the History Channel and FYI Network.   Check out the video here:

EVP of Marketing, Graham Anderson, discusses healthcare affordability and the American HealthCare Lending patient financing platform