self-pay

1 of 2

adjective

ˈself-ˈpā 

1

: allowing customers to pay for goods or services without assistance (as by using a payment kiosk)

a self-pay parking garage

self-pay gas stations

2

: making payment (as of a medical bill) with one's own money rather than money from another source (such as a health insurance company)

Self-pay patients who are uninsured will typically pay roughly 25 to 40 percent of the total price for ER visits—so the larger the charge, the larger the out-of-pocket bill.

—Anna Wolfe

: relating to or involving payment (as of a medical bill) with one's own money

self-pay treatments/procedures

the hospital's self-pay options

The increase in insurance deductibles and self-pay portions of costs for outpatient services …

—Pamela Sherrod

… the hospital said the MRI price in the survey was too high. But it would not disclose what it said would be the self-pay price.

—Anna Werner

self-pay

2 of 2

verb

self-paid ˈself-ˈpād  ; self-paying; self-pays

transitive verb

: to pay (something, such as a medical bill) with one's own money rather than money from another source (such as a health insurance company)

The average person cannot afford to self-pay for bariatric surgical procedures …

—Neil Hutcher

Examples of self-pay in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

The company focuses on providing minimally invasive body contouring procedures and highlights its reliance on self-pay patients for revenue. —Quartz Bot, Quartz, 8 Nov. 2024

The vials are available for self-pay through a Lilly program called LillyDirect, which facilitates access to doctors and shipping of medicines to patients. —Meg Tirrell, CNN, 9 Oct. 2024

For the Pandora and Off-Platform business, the company had 6 million self-pay subscribers, losing 41,000 in Q2. —Trefis Team, Forbes, 16 Sep. 2024

The company ended June with just below 6.0 million total self-pay customers at Pandora. SiriusXM, led by CEO Jennifer Witz, also recorded quarterly advertising revenue in its Pandora and Off-Platform unit of $528 million, up 2 percent over the year-ago period. —Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Aug. 2024

The current self-pay price for the LDT version of the test is $895. —Cnn.com Wire Service, The Mercury News, 29 July 2024

If an uninsured or self-pay patient receives a final bill that is substantially greater than the good faith estimate, the patient can initiate a dispute, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. —Tamia Fowlkes, Journal Sentinel, 17 June 2024

The system is mostly publicly funded through taxpayer dollars, with some aspects of the system requiring self-pay or coinsurance. —Devika Rao, theweek, 5 Apr. 2024

The company added about 131,000 new self-pay subscribers in the quarter, leading to a year-end total of about 34 million, but lost 445,000 self-pay subscribers across the full year. —Caitlin Huston, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Feb. 2024

Verb

The cost for the procedure at the University of Maryland Medical Center ranges from $28,000 to $30,000 for patients like Carlson who self-pay, according to a spokeswoman for the medical center. —Angela Roberts, Baltimore Sun, 2 Mar. 2023

Vasectomy services are available at Planned Parenthood for insurance or self-pay, and there are no grants or financial aid available, officials say. —Stephanie Innes, The Arizona Republic, 1 Mar. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1932, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Verb

1990, in the meaning defined above