November 24, 2007 
I went out to the Hospital Marketing Journal this morning and looked a few recents posts.
One entry is about “The Other CEO” which is the Chief Experience Officer. I agree completely. Healthcare is such an experiential business that we should be thinking about this from our process design through our architectural design. There are many things that can be done physically to improve the experience not to mention service levels, communication techniques, and other levers that people could pull.
The other entry which is about a topic I have struggled with several times is called “Just Put It On My Card” which is about a credit card for patients that can’t afford their out-of-pocket expenses. On the one hand, great. I would hate for money to push someone to not be compliant or miss a physician’s visit. On the other hand, how sad. We have to loan people money to afford their healthcare?? Do we offer to excuse the loan if they become sick and can’t work? Are we charging them outrageous interest on the credit?
For whatever reason, the social democrat in me finds the concept of loaning people money (which means they ultimately pay more with interest) for their basic healthcare costs a very slippery slope.
Enabling Healthy Decisions 
Hi George — I think that people have been using credit cards for health care balances for quite a while. Spectrum Health System (where I work) recently partnered with a company to offer an interest free card. You can see more here: http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-38/1193463434123920.xml&coll=6