Your choice of words matters when figuring out how to pay for plastic surgery with bad credit or no history.
Determining whether your plastic surgeon will perform reconstructive or cosmetic surgery is essential because the type directly influences your financing choices.
Reconstructive surgery corrects facial and body defects and is often medically necessary. Health insurance and Flexible Spending Accounts cover most procedure costs.
Cosmetic surgery reshapes healthy tissue to improve appearance and isn’t medically required. As a result, patients usually pay all costs and may need financing to afford the procedure.
Cosmetic Surgery Financing
It’s challenging to finance cosmetic plastic surgery without a credit check from lenders. Patients often need larger loans for surgeries that improve their appearance, balance their features, or change their shape.
Medical insurance or Flexible Spending Accounts won’t cover surgeries to improve your appearance. So, patients have to pay all the costs on their own
Consider these average expenses for popular invasive procedures.
| Cosmetic Procedure | Average Surgical Fees |
|---|---|
| Breast augmentation (Augmentation mammaplasty) | $4,516 |
| Breast lift (Mastopexy) | $5,012 |
| Buttock implants | $5,278 |
| Facelift (Rhytidectomy) | $8,005 |
| Liposuction | $3,637 |
| Nose reshaping (Rhinoplasty) | $5,483 |
| Tummy tuck (Abdominoplasty) | $6,154 |
Personal Loans
It’s hard to get a personal loan without a credit check for the total cost of most cosmetic surgeries. While lenders might not check your credit for small loans, they usually do for loans over $3,000.
Bad Credit
People with bad credit histories won’t likely get personal loans without a credit check, especially for $3,000 or more. Lenders usually want to see your credit report and credit score for such amounts.
Sharing your details with an online network can help you get a loan. You only need to submit your information once, and it will be seen by many subprime lenders who specialize in people with bad credit.
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No History
Young adults without a credit history might only get loans that don’t need a credit check because lenders can’t see any past borrowing. These loans are available but might not offer enough money for significant expenses like cosmetic surgeries, which often cost $3,000 or more.
Some lenders don’t look at the usual credit scores or reports. They check other things, like whether you pay rent or utility bills on time, which might not reveal as much about your financial habits.
Getting first-time loans is possible, but they’re usually for smaller amounts.
Credit Cards
You could use a credit card you already have to pay for cosmetic surgery without a new credit check. Banks usually let you make purchases if they don’t push the balance above the account limit.
To see how much you can still spend on your credit cards, take your credit limit and subtract what you owe.
For example, if your limit is $10,000 and you owe $5,000, you can still spend up to $5,000. Your bank usually lets you use your card for any amount up to this available credit.
Payment Plans
It’s tough to find plastic surgeons with no-credit-check payment plans. Most refer patients to outside finance companies; only a few have in-house programs.
Third-Party
Plastic surgeons often work with finance companies for payment plans. This way:
- Surgeons get paid immediately and can focus on the surgery, making patients look better.
- Finance companies handle the money, including the risk if someone doesn’t pay, and handle billing and collection of payments.
Here are some patient finance companies you can check out. They usually do a soft credit check first so you can see if you might qualify without hurting your credit score. But remember, a complete application will include a hard credit check:
In-House
Some plastic surgeons offer in-house payment plans and decide who qualifies for financing instead of leaving the decision to an external company. The office may not perform credit checks on some patients.
Due to the high earnings from plastic surgery, some practices hire software firms to assist with managing patients with poor credit. Expect to do more work when searching for offices that handle patient financing internally.
For instance, Credee markets software to businesses supporting no-credit-check payment plans. Although the Credee website claims a 97% approval rate, it doesn’t guide visitors to businesses using their software.
Calling the Credee headquarters office at +1 (949) 266-6850 might help you find plastic surgeons who use their software.
Reconstructive Surgery Financing
Patients can choose two cost-effective methods to pay for reconstructive plastic surgery without needing a credit check. Do not borrow money without exploring these options first.
Medical insurance often covers reconstructive procedures for facial and body defects from birth disorders, trauma, burns, or diseases, as they are considered medically necessary. A Flexible Spending Account could help with remaining expenses.
Medical Insurance
When medical insurance covers most of the cost, financing reconstructive plastic surgery is more manageable without a credit check. As a result, patients need to borrow less money.
To ensure coverage, establish the medical necessity and obtain precertification from the insurance company before scheduling an elective reconstructive procedure.
Plastic surgery can cost very little if your medical insurance covers most of it and you choose an in-network provider. In-network surgeons accept the allowed amount as full payment.
However, patients must still self-pay the smaller annual deductible, coinsurance, or copayments. Financing these smaller unreimbursed amounts is easier.
Flexible Spending
A Healthcare Flexible Spending Account (HCFSA) can fund many of the remaining reconstructive plastic surgery expenses. An HCFSA provides better terms than financing and does not require a credit check.
An HCFSA provides a healthcare financing alternative for patients with access through their employers. Follow these steps.
- Obtain a precertification from the plan administrator, verifying that the procedure is medically necessary.
- Make a contribution election during the annual open enrollment set by your employer.
- Schedule the elective procedure early in the HCFSA plan year (January is the most common starting month).
- Employees can access all HCFSA funds at the beginning of the plan year before making any contributions.
- Repay the amount advanced in equal installments throughout the remaining year using pre-tax payroll deductions.
An HCFSA resembles a loan because it allows immediate use of funds through an HCFSA debit card. The employer funds the card at the start of the plan year, and the IRS dictates the repayment terms, which employees fulfill via pre-tax payroll deductions.
An HCFSA is superior to medical financing in several ways: people are not subject to credit checks, they avoid interest charges and origination fees, and they save money on taxes, among other benefits.
Plastic Surgery Procedures
You are more likely to receive no credit check financing approval if you prove the plastic surgery procedure is medically necessary. By establishing medical necessity, you gain two significant financial benefits:
- Health insurance covers most of the costs.
- Healthcare Flexible Spending Accounts (HCFSAs) might cover the remaining costs not covered by medical insurance.
Medically Necessary
Below is a partial listing of reconstructive plastic surgeries most commonly deemed medically necessary by health insurers and HCFSA plan administrators.
- Breast reconstruction is covered if it follows treatment for cancer, such as a mastectomy or lumpectomy, or if it fixes disfigurement from an injury or other surgery.
- Debridement, skin grafting, and reconstruction are eligible when repairing damage from second and third-degree burns.
- Congenital defect repairs qualify when restoring function and correcting deformities associated with cleft lip and palate.
- Hand surgeries are covered for diseases or injuries that reduce the wrist and fingers’ strength, function, and flexibility, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, Dupuytren’s contracture, and rheumatoid arthritis.
- Scar revision qualifies after documented trauma or scar tissue limits movement, breathing, or eyesight.
Precertification
To ensure your plastic surgery is deemed medically necessary, spend time on the precertification process with your insurance and FSA administrator.
Ask your surgeon to write a letter that explains how the treatment corrects a health problem. Then, send this letter to your insurance and FSA administrator to start the precertification.
When preparing the document for precertification, it is indeed best practice to structure it using the SOAP acronym, which stands for:
- Subjective: Capture what the patient says about their health issues and feelings. This section is the patient’s narrative of their symptoms and medical history.
- Objective: Note facts like vital signs, examination findings, and lab results that can be seen or measured.
- Assessment: Write the healthcare provider’s expert opinion based on the subjective and objective information. This assessment might include a diagnosis or a forecast of the patient’s health.
- Procedure: Clearly outline the planned surgery or treatment, explaining how it will address the patient’s condition.
Following this format helps ensure that the document is organized and provides a comprehensive view of the patient’s case, which is essential for the precertification process.
Ensure each section is clear and concise, providing all the necessary information for the insurance and FSA administrator to understand the procedure’s medical necessity.
