Patient Financing Can Help Empower Women to Advance Their Health Journey

Women’s health is a unique and important field, supporting women through every stage of life — from routine care and fertility journeys to pregnancy, childbirth, menopause and beyond. In recent decades, the healthcare community has made strides in recognizing women’s health inequities, and as a women’s health provider, you play a crucial role in that progress.

National Women’s Health Month is an opportune time to discover new ways to enhance access to the essential routine and preventative care your female patients want and need.

One way to help women move forward with healthcare recommendations is to consider enhancing your payment options. Research shows that 1 in 4 adults has skipped or delayed necessary care in the past year due to cost, with women being more affected than men (28% vs. 21%).¹

Health and wellness providers that offer patient financing solutions can help bridge that gap. By making it clear you are willing to work with patients to find an option that fits their budget, you can help remove one of the key barriers to care. This can help empower women — who are so often caregivers to others — to also take care of themselves.

How Cost Impacts the Female Healthcare Journey

Women have unique care needs, but worries about cost may prevent them from visiting health clinics, getting pregnancy checkups or working with fertility providers. Flexible payment options such as installment plans or third-party financing may help.

General care

Women face higher healthcare costs, from breast health to hormones and beyond. On average, they spend 18% more out of pocket than men — and that doesn't even include pregnancy-related care.² Research shows that women ages 30 to 51 drive this trend, likely due to increased care needs during prime childbearing years, perimenopause and menopause.² These needs often include prescription medications, preventive screening and diagnostic imaging such as mammograms or ultrasounds — all of which may be subject to out-of-pocket costs, especially for those without comprehensive insurance coverage.

Pregnancy

In 2022, the United States recorded approximately 22 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births — more than other high-income countries — with rates even higher among Black women.³ Limited access to affordable care may be a contributing factor. Pharmacy costs for prenatal vitamins, medications to manage pregnancy-related conditions and multiple lab and imaging appointments can also add up quickly.

In a 2023 patient journey study by Synchrony, 55% of respondents admit they’ve delayed or postponed pregnancy care due to expenses or out-of-pocket costs.⁴

Fertility

Fertility is another important women’s health issue. Among reproductive-age women who reported needing fertility services, 12% did not receive them, primarily due to cost.⁵ For context, the basic cost* of one conventional IVF cycle can range between $8,000 and $17,000 for frozen eggs and between $9,000 and $19,000 for fresh eggs (that's excluding anesthesia, medications, transfers, diagnostic or genetic testing and donor eggs, if needed).⁶

With insurance covering only about 51% of fertility treatment costs on average, it’s understandable why many women find treatment financially out of reach.⁴

Behavioral health

Mental health is another essential — yet often overlooked — aspect of women’s care. Women are more likely than men to experience anxiety, depression and eating disorders.⁷ Yet despite higher need, access to behavioral health services remains challenging, often limited by out-of-pocket costs and insurance gaps.⁸

Financing Can Benefit Your Patients and Your Practice

Giving women options such as patient financing that can help them pay for costs not covered by insurance can not only be a lifeline for the patient, but it can also help make your women's health practice more inclusive and efficient. Here’s why:

1. It may provide women with the financial reassurance they need to move forward.

Being transparent about pricing and offering health and wellness financing options can help ease patients' cost concerns. This may also encourage them to schedule appointments and follow through with care recommendations. For example, 62% of patients surveyed by CareCredit said that having access to 12-month deferred interest financing would reduce the stress of paying for pregnancy-related care.⁴

2. It might help reduce delinquencies and time spent on payment collection.

Research also found that 13% of OB-GYN accounts go delinquent, and 60% of the time, providers have to enlist the help of debt collectors.⁴ Giving women the option to pay their out-of-pocket costs over a period of time using a third-party payment solution can help remove some of the bill collection responsibility from your staff so they can focus more on patient relations.

3. Discussing costs up front can increase patient satisfaction.

Did you know that 41% of patients surveyed by CareCredit said the total cost of pregnancy was more than they expected?⁴ In addition, pregnant patients said they would prefer to learn about payment options before receiving care.⁹ However, 72% of providers only offered payment plans post-appointment.⁴

Having payment conversations earlier on can help prevent women from being overwhelmed by unexpected costs. Even better, they may be able to think through their financing options and plan accordingly.

4. Encouraging regular women's healthcare appointments can lead to better overall health outcomes for your patients.

If reducing financial worries can help women keep up with routine and preventative care, it might help providers make earlier diagnoses that can elevate overall patient health. For instance, a study in an American Heart Association Journal found that recognizing and treating novel contributing factors in women, such as systemic inflammatory disorders or pregnancy-related factors, could help improve women’s heart health outcomes.¹⁰

How to Implement a Patient Financing Solution

Patient financing is an important tool that helps empower women to make healthcare decisions that aren’t dictated by worries over out-of-pocket costs. Here’s how you can get started:

• Do an assessment of your current payment process. Are you being transparent and communicating costs to your patients? Are out-of-pocket expense discussions happening, and if so, when? Are patients given any opportunities to spread out their payments over time? Is payment collection becoming overwhelming to your staff members? What percentage of payments go delinquent?

• Research patient financing solutions that can enhance your practice and provide better customer service. Can the solution be built into your practice’s software? What is the reputation of the payment solutions company? What does the user experience look like from the patient’s perspective? What are the requirements to qualify for financing?

• Roll out the new solution strategically. To help you get a new patient financing solution up and running, your finance partner should be able to provide you with onboarding and educational materials to help train your administrative staff. Do some internal testing to work out the kinks, and then slowly introduce it to your patients.

• Market your new offerings. Place pamphlets and posters around your office, share the news about your financing options on your website and social media pages and in email newsletters and bring it up during conversations with new and existing patients.

Offering female patients financing can help encourage them to follow through with their routine care as well as address the specialized needs that are part of women's health like fertility, maternity or menopausal care. At the same time, offering financing options has the potential to increase patient satisfaction in your practice, lower your payment default rate and reduce the time your staff spends on collection calls.

A Patient Financing Solution for Health and Wellness Providers

If you are looking for a way to connect your patients with flexible financing that empowers them to pay for the care they want and need, consider offering CareCredit as a financing solution. CareCredit allows cardholders to pay for out-of-pocket health and wellness expenses over time while helping enhance the payments process for your practice or business.

When you accept CareCredit, patients can see if they prequalify with no impact to their credit score, and those who apply, if approved, can take advantage of special financing on qualifying purchases.** Additionally, your practice or business will be paid directly within two business days.

Learn more about the CareCredit credit card as a patient financing solution or start the provider enrollment process by filling out this form.

Author Bio

Dawn Papandrea is a journalist with more than two decades of experience covering personal finance and consumer issues. She has written for leading financial publications and organizations, including U.S. News & World Report, Investopedia, Bankrate and others.

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