These 3 clinics accept bitcoin payments, but see little demand from patients

Ayla Ellison -

Bitcoin is not widely accepted at brick-and-mortar businesses, but a small number of healthcare clinics across the nation have started accepting the cryptocurrency, according to STAT.

One of those clinics is My Doctor Medical Group in San Francisco. The physician practice has accepted bitcoin since 2013, but only about 2 percent of patients use it to pay. Although only a small portion of the practice's patients have used bitcoin as a form of payment, My Doctor Medical Group has seen more interest than many other physician practices.

Central Urgent Medical Care in Los Angeles has allowed patients to pay with bitcoin for years, but the practice has never had a patient ask to pay with the cryptocurrency, according to STAT.

In New York City, a private dental practice run by Liliya Etkina, DDS, has accepted bitcoin for five years. "I think somebody inquired once, but no patients have used it yet," Dr. Etkina told STAT.

Although few patients have shown interest in using bitcoin to pay for medical care, Paul Abramson, MD, founder of My Doctor Medical Group, thinks the forms of payment patients prefer could change over time, creating greater demand for bitcoin payments.

"My grandfather and great-grandfather were surgeons, and they took chickens as payment," Dr. Abramson told STAT. "This isn't really much different."

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