After you've evaluated financing plans in your areas, you can ship for the best program for your practice. MEDCASH Program Advisor Charles Foushee recommends you consider the following features when making your decision.

• A program�s competitiveness.
Does the company have what you need? Ideally, the financing partner you choose will offer programs that are affordable for your patients and competitive in your market. This is where your research will pay off.
The goal is to find a program that will provide you with a proactive marketing tool that will attract more patients incrementally and that will increase your patient conversion rate (turn prospective patients into patients). Of course, you also want to develop a program that will distinguish your practice from competitors�.
• Approval rate and credit line.
There are two great unknowns in financing: How many people will qualify for loans and how much will they qualify for? When you ask finance companies, the answer you get will usually refer to averages or examples. Both depend on the demographics in your area, the programs available, your advertising, how much risk the financing company is willing to take and other factors.
If you look at similar programs, differences in prices usually will be hidden in the approval rate or in the credit lines. You�ll also need to look at financing programs� approaches to loan approvals and decide which approach works best for you.
One company may have a high approval rate, but you�ll learn that the company doesn�t always approve the full amount for surgery. (The patient pays the balance.) If so, ask yourself if partial approvals will conflict with your marketing message. Offering financing to a prospective patient and then telling him he only qualifies for 50% of the fee could dampen his enthusiasm for the procedure.
But consider this: A company that offers only full approvals could have a lower approval rate, meaning more of your prospective patients might not qualify for any financing. So you have to ask yourself if it�s better to have at least partial approvals to motivate patients to undergo surgery instead of losing them because they are not fully approved.
Plans will vary in terms of repayment schedules as well. Find out what range of possibilities exists. To increase approvals, some companies might shorten repayment terms, raise certain applicants� interest rates or increase their fees, based on their credit histories. You might not want a patient who plans to pay off a loan in 60 months discovering that he has to pay it off in 24 months, for example. Your choices should be determined by how you want to manage marketing, elective procedures and patient expectations.
• Value.
I say value instead of cost because, in financing, you usually get what you pay for. There may be a valid reason why one program is lower in price than another. It may be worth less. The approval rate or credit lines may be lower, the financing charge may be higher, and corners may have been cut on service.