LR Hospital Adds Interest Charge to Bills

St. Vincent Health System is more than a quarter of the way through a two-year contract with a North Little Rock company that sends credit card-like bills — complete with interest charges — for balances owed by individual patients.

The verdict: It’s working to decrease the hospital’s receivables.

“We are not where we want to be, but we are definitely improving,” said Pam Stoyanoff, chief financial officer for St. Vincent. “It’s getting better and better every month.”

Two other Arkansas hospitals, Rebsamen Hospital in Jacksonville and Ozarks Regional Medical Center in Clinton, also bill through Complete Care Inc., a finance and collections agency founded in 1992.

Charging interest is not unheard of among health care providers, but it’s not common.

Late last year, CompleteCredit, a division of Complete Care, took over the growing number of self-pay receivables — the balances owed by individuals either because they have no insurance or because they have deductibles and copayments — for St. Vincent Infirmary and Doctor’s Hospital in Little Rock and for St. Vincent North in Sherwood.

The increasing cost of health insurance premiums has resulted in more uninsured patients and higher deductibles and copayments for insured patients, Stoyanoff said. The two St. Vincent employees who previously worked on self-pay accounts were overwhelmed, and “it’s cheaper for us to have [Complete Care] do it than it is for us to do it ourselves,” Stoyanoff said.

Self-pay is about 7 percent of gross revenue at St. Vincent, she said.

As soon as the insured portion of a patient’s bill is received, CompleteCredit sends the patient a bill for the balance. Patients can pay the full balance within 30 days and avoid any interest charges. Or they may opt to make smaller monthly payments while accruing interest on the balance at an annual rate of 6.25 percent.

A form letter sent with the bills describes the interest rate as “nominal,” but it is currently the highest interest rate allowable in Arkansas for lenders other than banks. Steve Owen, president and CEO of Complete Care, said the company never charges more than 8 percent in Arkansas, even when the Federal Reserve’s discount rate would allow a higher rate.