Health Insurance Why do so many consultants only take cash?

C

cms

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Between me and my family I've had three visits to three different medical consultants recently. They were all in clinics in private hospitals and all of them asked for payment by cash (or cheque). Since I no longer have cheques I had to get cash. Why is it I can pay my hairdresser using a card but so many consultants won't accept them? Is it purely because it's cheaper? A hairdresser surely earns far less than a doctor but they make it as easy as possible to pay despite any costs. I'm just curious to know is there a particular reason.
 
cms said:
Between me and my family I've had three visits to three different medical consultants recently. They were all in clinics in private hospitals and all of them asked for payment by cash (or cheque). Since I no longer have cheques I had to get cash. Why is it I can pay my hairdresser using a card but so many consultants won't accept them? Is it purely because it's cheaper? A hairdresser surely earns far less than a doctor but they make it as easy as possible to pay despite any costs. I'm just curious to know is there a particular reason.
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Sounds a bit like dealing with a builder for a small job, there's the price and the price for cash. Would it by any chance be tax related and should you ask for a discount for cash?
 
Maybe the credit card scanner can be only linked to one account or something. So in a shared clinic where you have different consultants in there on different days maybe that's the issue.
Only a guess.
 
thedaddyman said:
Sounds a bit like dealing with a builder for a small job, there's the price and the price for cash. Would it by any chance be tax related and should you ask for a discount for cash?
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Doubt its tax related, they issue receipts and invoices.
 
They just rent the room/building from the hospital. It's up to them to manage the taking of money. They might only do a half day per week in different hospitals so it might not be worth it to get a card machine in each hospital they work for only a few hours work in the week.
 
I have never encountered a consultant who didnt take cards.

Mind you, the last time I was with a consultant, the secretary did say they have a lot of trouble with the card machine because they dont have a permanent office and hot desk in the private hospital.
 
The exact same experience here regarding two top consultants operating out of two so called hi-tec hospitals.If a plumber or painter did the same what reason would they be doing that for?
 
My GP takes credit cards, and so do DDOC. But the consultant my son saw yesterday only took cash or cheque.
 
I'm a doctor and I asked a few colleagues about this before. The majority said they do take cards. The ones who don't said that it's a combination of no demand (which I find hard to believe) and that having a card machine is too expensive (which I explained it no longer is).

And then there are tax evaders in every walk of life.
 
This is a strange one.

Thankfully they do issue receipts so that the patient can claim outpatients expenses and tax relief on the unrecovered element. Do consultant's invoices show their income tax number ? I ask as I once dealt with health insurers on a particular scheme who paid consultants directly so they insisted that they needed the number.

On a more cynical note, a cash only basis leaves no electronic audit trails.
 
My GP takes cash, cards or cheques. ( I've known him for 30 years) My consultant takes cash or cards only (no cheques) Both are paid by card. Receipts are always given whether they are requested or not.
 
We've had reason to go to several specialists/consultants over the past four months for our sons condition - in each case they have only taken cash or cheque and all but one, who was located in a large Dublin private hospital gave a hand written receipt on printed receipt paper.

I find it very hard to believe that there is a cost challenge to providing a card solution at the level of a private consultations in Ireland so there has to be an element of it taken as undeclared cash income to my mind.....

I'm also sure however that Revenue are all over it as it touches so many households in order to avoid the public health system wait times.
 
arbitron said:
I'm a doctor and I asked a few colleagues about this before. The majority said they do take cards. The ones who don't said that it's a combination of no demand (which I find hard to believe) and that having a card machine is too expensive (which I explained it no longer is).

And then there are tax evaders in every walk of life.
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Doctors are no more or less likely to evade tax than plumbers, carpenter, solicitors, teachers doing grinds, barristers or anyone else. They are people, no more or less honest than any other people.
Honesty is not related to income level, education or (usually self-perceived) social status. The assumption of honesty and virtue amongst those who we previously tugged out forelock to is the root of many of our problems.
The "Sure I pay enough tax" brigade are no different to welfare or insurance fraudsters.
 
Tax evasion by doctors and consultants is easier to detect and consequently more difficult to accomplish successfully than ever before, as our litigation culture forces such professionals to record the particulars of each patient interaction, and it's difficult if not impossible to argue that they're seeing a large number of patients for free.
 
I've always gotten a receipt when paying in cash.
I was just taking to a colleague about this and he said his wife had to pay her private obstetrician in the Coombe in cash! Considering this can be thousands I think that was mad. She had to bring €500 in cash each appointment. I certainly wouldn't like to walk around the Coombe with that much cash on me.
I've a consultants appointment myself soon so I'm going to ask when I'm paying why I can't pay by card.
 
There has been a big crackdown in the past few years. Some "naive" tax advice meant big Revenue settlements for a few consultants recently.

Everyone should be given a receipt, not least so you can claim it back against your income tax.

T McGibney said:
and it's difficult if not impossible to argue that they're seeing a large number of patients for free.
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Funny that you mention that. I found out last year that a colleague of mine reserves about a quarter of his private practice for public patients who are on long waiting lists. He sees them for €1(!) in his private rooms at his own expense (he still has to pay secretary, etc.) and no-one knows about it except close friends. His father also did this.
 
arbitron said:
Funny that you mention that. I found out last year that a colleague of mine reserves about a quarter of his private practice for public patients who are on long waiting lists. He sees them for €1(!) in his private rooms at his own expense (he still has to pay secretary, etc.) and no-one knows about it except close friends. His father also did this.
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I hope for his own sake that he is keeping good records. A venerable dentist in my own neck of the woods, now sadly deceased, was similarly seeing a large proportion of his less well-off customers for free.

Then one day, a Revenue Inspector confronted him having literally sat outside his door for days on end counting the numbers of customers coming in and out.

The Inspector wouldn't believe the dentist was seeing people for free so he threatened to raise a huge tax demand on the dentist.

So the dentist literally shut his doors. For good.

And the poor people of Co. Cavan lost the only dentist who would cheerfully treat them even if they couldn't afford to pay.
 
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