I picked up the WSJ while heading to our UC the other morning and read this article about a multi-billion dollar settlement with the credit card companies. One key piece of the settlement is language that allows vendors, such as pediatric practices, to add a credit card surcharges to their charges. You can read about it here and here.
Vendors are already allowed to give a discount to cash paying patients - you see it all the time at gas stations. This, obviously, is different in a subtle way, as I will point out in a second.
My first thought was to wonder how many of our clients will use these charges. But as I sat at dinner with SOAPM friends, Lynn Cramer mentioned the settlement and asked out loud, "...what about those HSA credit cards and those insurance credit card EOB payments?"
What ABOUT those HSA credit cards and the payors who try to pay with credit cards? I need to find some clients ready to get recover their credit card fees!