Doctor redefines plastic surgery.

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It's a common scenario: A patient gets a hefty hospital bill. Without insurance, he can't pay. And unlike insured patients, whose insurers get discounts on hospital services, he's asked to pay the retail cost.

Rusty Salton is a doctor and CEO of Charlotte-based HRA Financial Services Inc., which does business as AccessOne. It offers a solution for uninsured patients--a revolving charge credit card, which allows them to make monthly payments. Most hospitals offering the "MedCard" give participating patients a 20% discount.

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Salton, 56, grew up in Williamson, W.Va., where his grandfather founded a hospital. As a college student, he spent summer mornings in the operating room with his dad and afternoons in the hospital's business office. After graduating from West Virginia University School of Medicine in 1973, Salton did his family-practice residency at Carolinas Medical Center. He stopped practicing in 1990 to form Primary PhysicianCare, a Charlotte-based managed-care company. In '95, he joined Aetna U.S. Healthcare as network medical director for the Carolinas.

Salton bought HRA's AccessOne unit in 2002. When he took over, it had five hospitals as clients. Today it has 14 employees, 42 client hospitals, 14,000 active MedCard accounts and...