Question

Dr. Lewis's office collects patients' co-pays of the time of arrival; Dr. Mbadu's office collects the co-pay as the patient is leaving the visit, is one method mom advisable than the other? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

Before we get into the debate of which kind of Co-payment is more advisable, let us first understand what Co-payment means.

Co-payment is basically an Out-of-pocket expenditure made by the patient which is not covered by the insurance provider. It is mostly a fixed charge that the patient needs to pay for a doctors visit and this information is given to the patient prior to visit.

The kind of co-payment, to be made after or before the appointment is mostly based on the target patients visiting the clinic.

• Some patients do not like being asked for the money before a service is being provided. The patients always view the doctors as someone who would look after their health and well being and getting monetary benefits to the hospital before the service has been provided gives a negative impression to the patient.
• We visit a clinic, more often than not, when we are in pain or distress. Asking for co-payment in a condition such as that is not advisable, keeping the comfort of the patient as a primary concern.

The co-payment done before an appointment is mostly for patients who would like to make a productive use of the waiting period before the scheduled appointment so that no time is wasted after the visit.

In my opinion all co-payment should always be made after the doctors visit, unless a patient has requested for payment to be done at the time of arrival.