With so many options in the marketplace, managing your healthcare payment processing needs can seem overwhelming for many medical professionals.
Besides the top-notch medical care that your patients receive, it’s imperative (and responsible) to consider the ways in which healthcare payment processing can affect your medical practice in both how your patients are paying you and how you are protecting those payments and personal data from outside threats. Unlike typical payment transactions, healthcare payment processing has a lot more at stake, particularly because of the sensitive nature of the services.
There are many payment processing options for healthcare professionals, but finding the right partner matters. Equipped with the latest healthcare payment processing solutions in the marketplace, the right partner will enable you to to focus on providing care, allowing you to think less about whether or not your payment solutions are working for your practice.
Selecting the Right Healthcare Payment Processing Partner
To start, you want a payment processing partner that’s designed with flexibility in mind. What that means, in terms of healthcare payment processing, is that the software enables you to integrate a variety of ways to allow your patients to pay.
This starts with enabling payments in-person, online, and via mobile devices. Because your customers each have their own payment preference, it’s important you tailor your payment processing options to what your patients want. Giving them more convenient ways to pay means you’ll likely get paid faster and without issue — keeping your patients satisfied knowing that you are accommodating to their needs.
Selecting the right partner is also about finding one that offers you service when you need it, and is transparent about how they are charging your business for processing transactions. You will also want to know what types of services they offer and what type of data security tools they provide. Your payment processor should benefit multiple aspects of your business.
Selecting the right partner for your healthcare practice, however, isn’t just about providing choices for your patients. It’s also about selecting a provider that follows industry trends, is committed to delivering software and services that can continually be upgraded, and provides assurance that your patients’ personal and financial data is protected. Unlike a typical transaction, if your system becomes breached, any leak of personal data linked to medical records could be devastating to your practice.
Managing different payment methods can complicate the equation when settling funds, but relying on a partner who employs sophisticated payment fraud technology (data and payment encryption and tokenization methods), can keep your practice’s financial records safe from outside threats.
Opportunities for Healthcare Professionals in Payment Processing
By having an effective payment processor, your medical practice can process payments faster, which gets your business paid faster. By having advanced, modern ways to pay, you can give your customers reassurance about the payment process. People are not typically eager to pay high-priced medical bills, but making the entire payments experience more seamless can take some of the stress out of the process for your patients.
On the technical side, medical professionals can see a number of other benefits to your workflow and cash flow process from having the right payment processor. This includes reducing manual processes by enabling automatic and recurring payments, spending less time managing your payment systems (thanks to advanced automation tools), and seeing a reduction in the number of billing errors made. All of these together can boost revenue opportunities.
Payline offers special pricing for medical professionals to also increase their revenue. We work with several associations to ensure that our healthcare payment processing solutions are compliant with healthcare regulations and to ensure that we are staying up to date with the medical community.
Challenges Healthcare Providers Face with Payment Processing
Once you’ve chosen a healthcare payment processing solution to assist your practice with its financial needs, you’re on the right path to providing quicker ways to get your patients’ payments into your accounts.
Still, challenges remain. Similarly to the ways in which medical professionals must update their tools and equipment in order to stay relevant in the market, they must apply that same philosophy to choosing a payment processing solution to power their business’ payments.
When your payment processing solutions are outdated, you are putting your patients’ data at risk. Not only is it your job to protect their health, it’s your responsibility to manage and protect their personal and financial data shared with your practice. This includes where and how the information is stored and how it’s shared with your accounting systems.
Healthcare payment processing isn’t quite as simple as a typical retail service payment. It is common for customers to pay a bill through multiple installments. This puts the responsibility on the healthcare provider to offer easy ways to pay both in-person and online. If you don’t make online payments an option, for example, it could create a lag in when your patients actually pay you.
Enabling online or mobile payment methods also means you must ensure your payment processing systems are in sync with each other so the payment process remains seamless — regardless of the channel through which your patients pay.
Payline is the Right Choice For Your Healthcare Payment Processing Needs
Payline is a trusted friend in your payment experience. We solve the problems your healthcare practice has faced before — inflexibility, inaccessibility, and complexity — by offering a personalized analysis of your current pricing. Just send over a few recent statements and a member of our team will ensure our solutions fit the unique needs of your healthcare practice.
