Rare Patient Voice pays patients and caregivers by check when they complete a study. We’ve asked our panelists, and they prefer checks. You can’t pay rent or co-pays with a gift card.
But what about patients who don’t have checking accounts. We get asked by patients from time to time, “What do I do, I don’t have a checking account?” Lack of checking accounts is a problem – 6.5% don’t have accounts according to the FDIC. And these are the people most in need of the rewards for our studies. When we get that question, we provide suggestions. There are various things people can do, from cashing the check at Walmart or a check-cashing store, to going to the issuing bank. But I think the best approach is simply to have the respondent endorse the check over to a trusted friend or relative who has an account. They can cash it for our respondent. That always seems to work!
We’ve rewarded patients with over three million dollars, we want to make sure our panelists get paid!
