Medical groups have registered in favor of a bill that would bar health insurance companies from requiring providers to accept virtual credit card payments.
AB351 author Rep. Clint Moses, R-Menomonie, said the measure would help health care providers avoid getting stuck with an extra fee they then have to pass on to customers.
“Many cases, the only way we can recoup that money is by billing our private payers more, if we can under contract, or self payers,” the chiropractor said. “And in my industry, same with the dental industry, there’s still a fair number of patients that either have high deductible insurance or no insurance, where they’re having to pay us.”
The bill wouldn’t prohibit health care providers from accepting virtual credit card payments, if that’s what they prefer. But insurance companies would have to make any extra associated costs clear in contracts with providers.
Patrick Teepee, a dentist and legislative advocacy chair of the Wisconsin Dental Association, likened virtual credit card payment requirements to automatic paycheck deductions.
“What if, for your next paycheck, instead of getting your pay deposited to your checking account … you get a fax or a secure email with a string of credit card numbers and a pin that requires you to go online to get paid,” he said. “You didn’t ask to get paid this way, but yet, that’s how it came. When you go to that online portal to get your pay, you learn that there is a 5% service charge deducted from your paycheck. That’s just not right, in our opinion.”
Watch yesterday’s hearing.
See the bill.
