What One Lending Company’s Hospital Contracts Reveal About Financing Patient Debt

With tens of millions of Americans burdened by medical debt, hospitals and other medical providers are increasingly shuttling their patients into loans serviced by banks, credit cards, and other financial services companies.

The arrangements have proven very profitable for lenders. But, as KFF Health News reported in November, the rise of the patient financing industry is often less welcome for patients, who can end up in loans that pile interest on top of what they owe for their medical care.

UNC Health in North Carolina, for example, historically did not charge interest on payment plans patients enrolled in to pay off their…