ATLANTA — Patients at one of Georgia’s top hospitals are being prompted to pay their bills with a medical credit card, where they can end up with high-interest payments.
“It is inappropriate. It’s unconscionable,” said Emory Healthcare patient Elizabeth Burns.
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It was when Burns logged into her online to check her bill for a surgery at Emory University Hospital that she saw a button to pay by CareCredit.
“When I go to the billing is it says pay with CareCredit. Okay, well, what’s that?” Burns said.
Burns was also promoted to take out a CareCredit to pay for a follow-up visit. It was the only payment option on the screen.
CareCredit is a medical credit card. It can have high interest rates after initial promotion rates expire.
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“This is not a grill. This is not patio furniture,” Bruns said.
As a nonprofit, tax-exempt hospital, Emory is required to provide charity care. Patients can also often work out zero-interest payment plans directly with the hospital.
But on a patient’s MyChart home page, there is no mention of those options. But there is a large, green, pay now button that links to a portal for CareCredit.
“I don’t dislike this, I hate it. This is really a terrible thing for consumers,” Channel 2 consumer adviser Clark Howard said.
Howard did not mince words when we showed him the Emory payment portal.
“This is unacceptable behavior by a nonprofit hospital,” Hoard said.
In a 2024 Channel 2 Action News story, we showed how hospital charity care programs work and how one covered 100% of the costs of Renee Coker’s cancer treatments.
“Without that, I would be homeless or die from my cancer,” Coker said at the time.
But g up for a medical credit card, like the one Emory suggests to patients, disqualifies you for charity care.
Along with reaching out to Channel 2 Action News, Burns also complained to Emory Healthcare, which told her in an email, “Our intent is to only have the CareCredit link on pages where the patient first has the option to pay us without using CareCredit.”
But the CareCredit link is still there on patients’ MyChart page.
Burns instead worked a zero-interest payment plan directly with the hospital for the part of her bill not covered by insurance.
“I know what to do. But a lot of people don’t. It concerns me for other people. I knew not to click on that,” Burns said.
Channel 2 Action News reached out to Emory Healthcare and received the following statement late Wednesday night.
“Emory Healthcare offers patients a number of flexible payment options for paying health care bills that are not fully covered by insurance, or if they are uninsured. These include: payment cards, ACH transactions/electronic money transfers, interest-free payment plans through Emory, or interest-free payment plans during promotional periods through CareCredit. Individuals agree upon a designated length of time for payment when g up for the latter two options. Patients can also Emory Patient Financial Services to discuss financial assistance options. Our goal is to provide patients with choices for bill payment that may work best for them and their families.”
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