Rising Fees Could Be Culprit As Fewer Doctors Accept Credit Cards

While credit card acceptance is making inroads in a slew of new markets like transit and parking, it turns out the plastic is losing ground among physicians. Some 32.7% of doctors' offices do not accept credit cards, up almost 4.5 percentage points from a year ago, according to a survey from SK&A Information Services Inc., a research firm specializing in health care. Rising interchange rates may be to blame, according to Jack Schember, director of marketing for the Irvine, Calif.-based company, which surveyed physicians in April following its first survey in April of last year. While SK&A's surveyors did not ask respondents for reasons, Schember says the firm's familiarity with business trends in the medical market leads it to believe higher acceptance costs are playing a role in doctors' offices dropping cards. Another reason, he says, is that a troubled economy is leading more patients to dispute transactions, causing hassles for medical staff. More doctors may be concluding that “cash and checks are an easier way to get your money,” Schember says. Among the roughly two-thirds of offices accepting credit cards, specialists offering high-ticket procedures often not covered by insurance are, unsurprisingly, the most prolific acceptors. Plastic surgeons lead in this category, with a 91.1% acceptance rate, followed by ophthalmologists (84.1%) and otolaryngologists (82.5%). The least likely specialties to accept cards are pathologists, at 20.6%, dialysis (26.9%), and geriatric medicine (31.9%). Among brands, Visa or MasterCard are accepted by nearly two-thirds of offices, while Discover (31.2%) comes in ahead of American Express (27.7%). All the brands took a beating over the 12 months since the last survey, when 71.3% accepted Visa or MasterCard, 35.2% took Discover, and 31% accepted AmEx. Schember says SK&A undertook the surveys at the behest of a card brand, which he will not name. He says the brand wanted to know the extent of its acceptance in medical offices. The firm canvassed some 202,650 practices, nearly all of the 226,000 offices in its data base. The firm's data base represents more than 650,000 physicians.