EP425: Three Ways for "Regular" Clinical Practices to Take Cash When It's Cheaper for a Patient Than Using Their Insurance, With Marshall Allen

About half the time, the cash price for a medical service is actually cheaper than the "negotiated" insurance rate — a fact that matters enormously given that roughly 90% of patients never meet their deductible in any given plan year. Marshall Allen, investigative journalist and founder of Allen Health Academy, joins Stacey Richter to explain, in concrete operational terms, how a "regular" clinical practice that still takes insurance can also accept cash from insured patients when it's the better deal — without abandoning insurance altogether, and without running afoul of contracts that sound like they forbid it. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN ✅ Why nearly half of insured commercial patients say they're delaying or forgoing care due to cost — and why those patients are invisible to clinicians who only see the people who show up ✅ How offering a clear, fixed cash price can reduce costly no-shows, which run practices as much as $7,500 a month, by giving patients pricing certainty for a next-day appointment instead of a six-months-out unknown ✅ The practical building blocks a practice needs to start taking cash from insured patients: a proper form, an actual set cash price, and a plan for how to market that option ✅ How Marshall Allen addresses the biggest objection practices raise — the belief that health plan contracts legally forbid accepting cash from an insured patient — including how HIPAA gives patients the right to request this ✅ Where to find fair-pricing benchmarks for setting a cash price, including tools like FAIR Health Consumer, BILLY, ColonoscopyAssist, Jason Health, and Green Imaging WHY THIS MATTERS This isn't a pitch for cash-only concierge medicine; it's about giving ordinary insurance-taking practices a legitimate, patient-friendly option for the very common situation where insurance makes care more expensive, not less. Practices that ignore this reality lose patients to care abandonment and revenue to no-shows, while patients who could have simply paid cash instead absorb costs they can't actually afford. Marshall Allen's framework turns a widely misunderstood pricing quirk into an accessible fix that benefits both sides of the exam table. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE EP363 with David Scheinker, PhD: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps EP413 with Will Shrank, MD: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps EP297 with Jerry Durham: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps === LINKS === 🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page ✉️ Enjoy this podcast? Subscribe to the free weekly newsletter 🫙 Support the podcast with a small donation to the Tip Jar 🎤 Listen on Apple Podcasts 🎤 Listen on Spotify 📺 Subscribe to our YouTube channel === CONNECT WITH THE RHV TEAM === ✭ LinkedIn ✭ Threads ✭ Bluesky ✭ X 00:00 Introduction. 07:04 What Allen Health Academy is doing. 11:01 What's the problem with the system now? 14:19 EP363 with David Scheinker, PhD. 14:27 EP413 with Will Shrank, MD. 14:34 What's the hack Marshall Allen shares for insured patients paying cash? 15:06 How can patients cite HIPAA to pay cash instead of using their insurance? 19:00 What's the first recommendation Marshall Allen has when dealing with healthcare billing? 21:26 EP297 with Jerry Durham. 21:48 What are the other benefits of a clinic accepting cash payments? 25:36 Why do we need to have more direct pay happening? 26:36 How should a medical provider set a cash price? 27:12 Research tools for fair pricing: fairhealthconsumer.org, BILLY, colonoscopyassist.com, Jason Health, Green Imaging. 32:36 How do you find the win-win between a patient and a doctor? 32:51 What's the final tier of partners in creating more direct-pay opportunities? 34:30 What's Marshall Allen's opinion on having to pay credit card fees?