With patients paying more and more of their medical costs, many physicians across the country are looking for ways to ensure patients pay their bills in a timely manner. Keeping a patient’s credit card on file is one of these ways. There are several advantages to this form of payment, but also some disadvantages that you should consider before implementing it into your practice.
The Pros of Credit Card on File
Storing a patient’s credit card on file can be advantageous to your practice. Here’s how:
It saves time
Storing a credit card can cut down on the amount of time you have to wait on a patient to pay their bill. By keeping their credit card information on file, the payment can be done automatically.
It ensures bills are paid
The last thing you want is a patient not to pay their bill. However, if their credit card information is already on file, then the bill can be paid automatically, and you won’t have to worry about missing payments.
The Cons
Receiving payments in a timely fashion is extremely beneficial to medical practices. Nevertheless, there are some drawbacks to implementing credit card on file that you should be aware of.
Security measures must be in place
If you’re going to store a patient’s credit card information, then you must make sure that you have the proper security measures in place to protect their information. Just storing their information in your IT system won’t be enough (in fact, this can leave that information particularly vulnerable to hackers). Instead, you’ll have to implement new security measures to keep that information secure by setting up a contract with a credit card processing vendor, such as InstaMed.
If not, you’ll be liable
If you don’t take the necessary safety precautions, then by law, your practice can be held liable for any unauthorized charges or security breaches. If the data is stolen from your practice, then banks will turn to you to pay out the claims instead.
Have further questions about the ins and outs of keeping your patients’ credit card information on file? Then contact Medical Revenue Associates at 215-497-1001 today.
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