Hospital Teams With Bank To Offer Interest-Free Loans So Patients Can Pay Their Bills

Health care, especially of the emergency kind, has been known to leave consumers with hefty bills and few options expect to go into debt. But now some health systems are finding ways to give their patients relief when it comes to credit-destroying medical bills.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that health care systems are ditching their in-house payment plans and teaming up with banks to offer patients interest-free loans to pay their medical bills – even if they have no way of repaying the loan.

Back in March, SSM Health Care, which operates in Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, partnered with Commerce Bank to offer interest-free loans with three- and five-year terms to make it easier for consumers to pay their ever-increasing deductibles.

The program, for which Commerce receives a fee for servicing the loans, doesn’t require a credit check and won’t deny loans even if the patient doesn’t have the ability to pay.

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