What is patient finance?

Across a rapidly changing healthcare sector, today’s patients are continually reexamining and adjusting their expectations. As with all industries, traditional models of the established practice-client relationship are increasingly being questioned and challenged on numerous fronts.

Clinics, treatment centres and beauty businesses of all sizes now find themselves having to adapt both the types and methods of service they can offer. In particular, modern companies face a huge and growing demand to provide better all-round responsiveness, adaptability and flexibility in their day-to-day interactions with customers.

This is never more true than around financial arrangements. A health business that’s able to offer a wider range of flexible options around billing and payment is immediately more appealing to large numbers of patients – both current and potential. In short, offering healthcare finance results in a happier client base, and improves your chances of being chosen ahead of a competitor.

Financing gives your business a way to offer patients an affordable monthly payment plan. From a customer perspective, it offers a cheaper and more adaptable alternative to less attractive models such as high-interest loans. Options including 0% finance and interest-bearing packages are much sought-after by clients, giving them the ability to spread the cost of treatments in a way that better suits their own individual expectations and needs.

Benefits of patient finance for your health and beauty business

There are numerous benefits to offering patient finance, particularly when setting it up is easy and understanding how it works is simple. Moreover, the advantages of healthcare finance apply equally to both the patients themselves and the practices offering them.

For practices

Whether it’s a dental clinic, a laser eye surgery or a health and beauty-related treatment business, benefits include:

Increased treatment uptake
This, in turn, leads to greater potential for growing patient numbers.

Opportunity to broaden the range of services you can provide
The higher costs and charges associated with certain treatments instantly become more flexible and manageable for your clients.

Better point-of-sale conversion rates
Reduced delays between a service becoming available and patient uptake.

For patients

For your clients themselves, obvious and immediate benefits include:

Flexibility and affordability
Customers are far more likely to see treatment as a viable investment at any given time.

Better take-up rates
Many popular packages, such as 0% finance or zero deposit plans, remove the overriding factor that most often causes patients to decide against proceeding with treatments.

A sense of financial control
Providing a range of accessible finance packages, including options like 0% interest or interest-bearing finance, gives patients the ability and confidence to identify a plan that works best for them.

FAQs: patient finance for healthcare

Is healthcare finance difficult to set up?
No. The range of straightforward, flexible healthcare finance options offered by Duologi means you can get started in just a matter of hours. With our professionally designed custom plugins and integrations, you can be fully set up to offer viable financing plans to your customers within a few short days of beginning the process.

Is there any cash flow disruption after setting up healthcare finance?
No. You’ll still be paid upfront and in full, so very little changes for the individual healthcare practice, dental clinic or beauty specialist in terms of how money comes in. Meanwhile, the customer pays us back over time via an affordable monthly plan.

How can my patients apply for finance?
Clients can apply to take up finance options either in person at the clinic, or online from home. One of the key aims of all our healthcare finance packages is to allow you to be more agile, sell smarter, and stay ahead of your competitors.

Is my business protected with Duologi healthcare finance?
Yes. There’s no risk at your end because we make it our job to select only creditworthy customers on your behalf. We handle the necessary credit check processes ourselves from start to finish, ensuring the process of offering finance (and receiving payment for services as normal) remains entirely straightforward for you.

What’s the difference between 0% finance and Buy Now, Pay Later?
Our 0% finance packages offer your patients a way to spread their payments across several months. Provided instalments are made on time, it removes the stress and worry for them of borrowing with interest. It’s particularly helpful to clients who are seeking more costly treatments. Our payment terms under these packages are equally flexible, ranging from three months to 60 months, and can cover treatments costing anything between £150 and £15,000.

Buy Now Pay Later is an alternative option that also helps to spread the overall cost of purchases. Interest on deferred payments has a built-in grace period, meaning patients are given a better opportunity to manage their money themselves. Due to concerns around responsible lending, particularly when dealing with medical treatments, we’re no longer offering Buy Now Pay Later options.