Wiki SELF PAY equality

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Burleson, TX
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2 patients both SELF PAY, same services - we normally bill $100 per visit. Just want to clarify that you can't charge different amounts to different patients for the same charge when they are both SELF PAY, right?
 
Most people will recommend against doing this just on the principle of equity and fairness to all of your customers, but I don’t believe there are any laws against it. If the patients are self pay, then what the provider decides to charge is really a private arrangement between them and their patient.
 
Your practice should have a policy and procedure on self pay rates and follow it. It's a terrible idea to charge patients different amounts as self pay. In some cases, I could see this being done if there was a sliding scale or some sort of hardship policy. As Thomas said, it's the principle of being equitable and fair.
In most practices, the self-pay rates are set at an amount that would be somewhat in line with what final reimbursement would be from an insured patient after deductibles, co-pays, coinsurance and insurance payment.
I have seen some practices that give "payment in full" discounts.
 
As amyjph mentioned, hardship policy/sliding scale would be the only case where you could charge different self-pay rates for patients
 
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