Cash-Paying Patients are Such a Bother 

 When is the last time you paid cash for something and the seller made you fill out a signed, witnessed, and dated form explaining that you were expected to pay in full at the time of purchase immediately after you had signed a credit card slip authorizing payment for the full price of the service that was about to be rendered?

Never? You obviously haven’t tried to pay cash for health care lately.
Called things like “Self-pay financial policy and waivers” or “uninsured patient information documents,” the forms treat self-pay patients like chumps who must be reminded of their responsibilities. Even if you have just written a check or run your credit card for the full quoted price of a discrete routine service, you will still be required to sign and date a witnessed document saying that you know you are responsible for paying for services.
At HCA facilities, the Patient Information Document helpfully explains that

• the “balance due on the account is expected to be paid in full at the time of service,”
• “if you are unable to pay the discounted account balance in full, we will work with you to establish monthly payment arrangements,”
• if “you cannot establish monthly payment arrangements, we will assist you with applying for Medicaid assistance,”
• “if you quality for a charity discount based upon Federal Poverty Guidelines, your account will be considered paid in full.”

How HCA determines whether someone’s income is below Federal Poverty Guidelines must remain, for the moment, one of life’s little mysteries. Do people who have just lost their jobs and technically have zero income qualify for free hospitalization?
The “Self-Pay Financial Policy and Waiver” form for a group of physical therapy clinics explains that its cash pay clinic fees will be reduced “from our regular commercial fee schedule to $80.” Although the clinics say they are always willing to take your money, paying patients must stipulate that they understand that “payments received after the date of service will be accepted but no reduction of fees will be made” and that “no forms will be produced now or in the future for you or us to submit for insurance billing.”
In short: Pay cash, eliminate collections overhead, and get reduced prices.
Real health care reform will have arrived when cash is the norm for routine services, and those who pay cash are treated as valued customers rather than as potential deadbeats.