Footing The Bill: How To Pay Your Podiatrist For Services Rendered

As a general rule, most specialists are paid for their services via healthcare insurance, but what if you do not have insurance? If you were already seeing a podiatrist when you lost your insurance, then what do you do? What happens if you need to see a podiatrist, but you cannot cover the costs? Here are a few ways you can approach this problem and still treat your foot pain, foot fungus, and foot diseases.

​Ask the Front Desk about a Care Plan

Different health organizations have financial support for patients who have recently lost their insurance or did not have any insurance to start. These "cost reduction" or "cost modification" plans help patients get the care they need at a price they can afford. The plans are payment-assistance plans, not true healthcare insurance plans. Still, it beats stepping on rusty nails with bare feet, so to speak.

Healthcare Lines of Credit

While dentist offices do this almost all the time, the healthcare credit card is very slowly making its way to doctors' and specialists' offices. This might be an option for you if you have reasonably good credit, but you are unable to pay your podiatrist bills in full. You will have to call or go online to apply for the credit card your podiatrist uses (if applicable). Sometimes the application can be taken right in the podiatrist's (or other doctor's) office. As soon as you know that you are approved and that you have the card in hand, you can call your podiatrist's office to give them the card number for payment. Then you can continue to see your podiatrist until such a time as you have insurance again.

​Billed in Easy Installments

If you do not qualify for a healthcare credit card, ask about easy installment plans. This gives your podiatrist's billing agent permission to auto-withdraw "x" amount of dollars from your checking account each month until the bill is paid in full. If new bills are created, those are tacked on to the end of the billing period and the billing office/agent continues to withdraw a monthly amount from your checking until all of your appointments have been paid for. There is typically no discount applied to this type of billing, so you end up paying the full charges for your foot care. However, if your podiatrist has, and takes, sliding scale payments or flex payments, then you might be able to pay less out of checking each month.