The health care sector requires a particularly strong commitment by providers to patient privacy and information security. In spite of your best efforts to provide these vital qualities, however, you may still be experiencing significant delays in receiving payments from the people you serve.
Integrating card-on-file (CoF) payments into your business model is one of the single most effective steps you can take to receive the funds you are owed more quickly while maintaining your focus on security.
What are CoF payments?
Customers are already quite familiar with the CoF recurring billing model. They see it in their Amazon Prime, Apple Pay and Netflix subscriptions and may also pay utility and other bills with this format.
In all of these, their payment data is stored securely by the seller to facilitate a seamless, predictable and reliable buying experience.
Although physicians and other health care providers might be a bit late to the CoF payments party, they too are coming to realize the numerous benefits that they can experience by implementing it.
1. Time-saver for patients.
These days, most of us are accustomed to resolving bills and other invoices electronically ā€“ except when it comes to medical costs. Even now, sending out a paper bill is standard procedure for many health care offices.
As a result, patients continue to be forced to complete manual paperwork in order to submit a credit card payment, a burden that frequently leads to extensive delays that hit your practice directly in its wallet.
By contrast, CoF payments give patients a way to conveniently submit their credit card details during the digital registration process.
Instead of extended lapses between the appointment and the payment, the patient can submit their money via any of your omnichannel payment processing options.
2. Reduces late payments
Although there are instances when patients intentionally put off paying their bill due to financial reasons, the fact is that many people simply forget to complete the invoice resolution process.
Needing to wait for a paper bill and then keep track of sending in a check makes mistakes and omissions much more likely.
When a personā€™s card is on file, they can effortlessly submit their payments even before their appointment occurs. Because the system is linked with their patient portal, they always have access to past invoices should they ever need these details for financial or insurance-related purposes.
3. Offers a more hygienic option
CoF payments are totally touchless. Once you set up your system that you can get from one of a number of high-quality payment processing for health care providers, there never needs to be any contact between your clients and your staff or your credit card equipment.
The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated the importance of focusing on cleanliness in public places.
Even though the worst of its effects seem to have subsided, continuing to furnish vulnerable patients with a contactless payment experience demonstrates your ongoing commitment to health and safety.
4. Provides ironclad security
When you partner with a premium health care payment processing company, the systems they provide will be in full compliance not only with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) that protects cardholder data but also with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that protects their personal health details.
When asking a patient to keep their card details on file with your practice, be sure to let them know that their records will be protected to the maximum extent of your processing companyā€™s ability with the help of robust anti-fraud and anti-theft software and protocols.
Under no circumstances should you manually record credit card or other payment details to be stored in your own physical files. Instead, they will be kept in your payment processorā€™s secure, cloud-based systems, shifting the liability onto them should a breach occur.
5. Lets you offer alternative options
Having payment details on file gives you the ability to give your customers additional ways to resolve their invoice. Most notably, your system can be configured for recurring billing.
With this model enabled, you can divide larger medical balances into smaller and more manageable payments that are automatically withdrawn each month from a patientā€™s credit card or bank account.
When invoice amounts are divided into more digestible portions that have been set up in advance, you are much more likely to receive what you are owed in the long run. Although it may take longer to get the total amount, the process is known, predictable and finite.
Best of all, your time chasing late payments will be drastically reduced.
Improving the bill payments process for medical providers continues to contain challenges and pitfalls. However, integrating CoF payments into your day-to-day operations is one of todayā€™s most effective and secure ways to streamline this complex but vital aspect of your back-office functions.
Talk to your payment processor for health care providers today about how to furnish it to your own patients.
