What do patients pay at the time of service referred to as?

The term for the amount that patients pay at the time of service is known as a co-payment. A co-payment, often referred to as a copay, is a fixed amount determined by a patient's health insurance plan that must be paid for specific services or medications at the time of receiving care. This structure helps to share the cost of healthcare between the insurer and the insured and is commonly used in insurance policies to make healthcare more manageable for patients at the point of service.

In contrast, a deductible is the amount a patient must pay out-of-pocket before their insurance begins to cover expenses. Coinsurance refers to the percentage of costs a patient must pay after meeting their deductible, and a premium is the recurring amount paid for health insurance coverage itself, not a payment made at the time of receiving services.