Arizona patients call for change after receiving unwanted medical credit cards
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Ariana Wylie wasn’t thinking about medical bills while she cradled her newborn. She didn’t have to. A few days before she was admitted to the hospital to deliver her son, she handled everything.
“I had gotten a call from Banner registration,’” she said. “They had said, ‘Hi. We’re with Banner registration. We want to set up a payment plan with you,’ and so I said yes.”
Soon, Wylie discovered it wasn’t a payment plan. Wylie says she began receiving letters about a credit card from a company called Curae. “It was extremely stressful and overwhelming, and still is,” she said.
Then, Wylie saw a recent On Your Side report and realized she was not alone. We told you about a teacher from Apache Junction whose credit took a hit when she was signed up for a Curae credit card at a Banner hospital. “Of course, I was freaking out,” Kerry Morgan said.
According to PIRG’s Patricia Kelmar, medical credit cards are becoming more common in healthcare settings but could be costly for consumers.
“Oftentimes, they have a zero interest introductory rate, is what they call it, but the interest is significantly higher than what you’d see on a regular credit card, and if you miss a payment or don’t pay it off, the full balance, in a certain amount of time, the interest is retroactive,” Kelmar cautioned.
There’s another potential problem, according to Kelmar, if you use a medical credit card. “Now, you owe the money to a bank, not to the provider. The provider’s been fully paid. If you find out that you were misbilled, now the argument is not with your provider anymore. You’ve lost that ability to fix that error,” Kelmar said.
Issues with medical credit cards are documented in a 2023 report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “Patients report being signed up without their consent or knowledge,” the report said.
Colin White had to get surgery because of a kidney stone. He ended up with a Curae account and says he had no say in the monthly payment. “I wanted a payment plan. I didn’t want a credit card,” he said. “I wanted to be able to pay it off in much smaller, more affordable increments.”
Rebecca Beebe reached out to On Your Side, too. “The interview you did with that teacher, that’s exactly what happened to me,” Beebe said.
Right before Christmas, Beebe was rushed to the ER in extreme pain. She thought she agreed to a payment plan on the way out of the hospital. Months later, she realized the mail she thought was junk was actually a stack of bills, and she was being sent to collections.
“I dug through my trash and I found [the credit card] and I was livid,” she said. “It already dinged my credit. I already have a fee.”
Beebe contacted Banner Health. The hospital system agreed to close her Curae account and discounted her bill. “I said closing my Curae account to be bare minimum, but I want to see what I signed,” she said.
Banner Health provided her with a copy of the paper she signed. Her signature is near the top of the paper, which says, “Rebecca Beebe is approved for the following offer(s). The paper also outlines a series of ‘next steps.’
This is the text from the print-out:
- Print offer details for review by the patient.
- Read to the patient the ‘Deferred Interest Disclosure” above.
- Have patient supply the Offer Code for the offer they choose.
- Click on the desired offer above and enter the Offer Code
- Click Accept offer below and print the Cardholder Agreement.
Beebe says none of that happened. “I essentially signed a piece of scrap paper,” she said. “I said to [Banner], ‘I feel like this is proof that you’re signing people up for lines of credit without their consent.’”
Now, she’s calling for something to change. “They offer you this thing without all the details and without all the information, and it could destroy someone’s life,” Beebe said.
Wylie wants to see changes, too. “I hope from now on that they use the word’ credit card’ because most people don’t think someone coming in from registration is going to try and get you to get a credit card to pay their hospital bill,” Wylie said.
In a statement to On Your Side, Banner Health wrote:
Banner did not answer several questions, including what type of training Banner Health employees receive to ensure patients know what they are signing up for and whether Banner Health tracks how much Curae debt ends up in collections. Curae declined to comment for this report.
If you are facing a medical bill you are not able to pay in full, ask to set up a payment plan directly through the health care provider. Get everything in writing so there are no surprises, and ask for time to consider options before you agree to anything.
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