Dr. Jay Anders, CMO of Medicomp Systems, was interviewed about the emerging use of medical credit cards by Cheryl V. Jackson of HFMA.org
“Despite growth, the medical credit cards offer little advantage over traditional credit cards for providers, said Jay Anders, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Medicomp Systems, a medical information technology company.
“It’s nothing more than another payment vehicle,” Anders said in an interview. “The cost of medical care is so great and the charges can be run up very high; you can run up a lot of debt very quickly. It’s another financing gimmick by someone who wants to charge interest from people unfortunate enough not to have health insurance or not to have enough for the co-payment and things like that.”
And barring the exemption of merchant fees, Anders sees no benefit to providers to promote use of the cards over traditional credit cards. And he doesn’t think they’ll be around for long.
“I certainly don’t see providers or hospitals getting on board with it,” Anders said.
