Like any modern and dynamic business, a medical office needs highly organized, precise processes in order to keep patients happy and stay on top of day-to-day operations. Medical POS software solves all of this issues.

You need to look for a provider offering medical merchant accounts that manage payments optimally.

The Right POS Technology

Always look for a system that’s been specifically designed for medical and health care offices. It should allow you to do the following things: 

  • Streamline or automate your patient appointment reminder calls, via SMS text or email confirmation
  • Offer your patients the latest in payments options
  • Track your patients’ appointment history at-a-glance, alongside their complete medical histories—with no need to sift through paper records
  • Track and manage inventory for your medical and office supplies 

Today’s consumers are demanding and require many more payments choices than in the past. Your system of choice should allow them to pay as they wish. Mobile payments are the fastest growing type – they have amounted to almost $15 billion this year. You can attract new patients by investing in a medical POS system that accepts mobile payments using mobile-enabling technology like NFC or an app.

Building the Right Solution 

By choosing the best option, you’ve taken a step on the road to quicker, smarter, and easier payments.  There are no unpleasant surprises lurking in wait, like having to buy extra software. Normally, payment processing is integrated within the most popular POS systems for medical offices. Your system should be fully functional and driving your bottom line from the very first day your medical office is processing payments. 

Features to Look For

  • Dependable and fully protected debit and credit card processing
  • Comprehensive 24/7 phone and email support—even on major holidays
  • Backup processing protection in the event that a network goes down
  • Streamlined payments that you can accept from multiple locations
  • Advanced troubleshooting and timely alerts to help you resolve payment issues in real-time

Doctors’ jobs are important and they need to get paid like everyone else. Taking payments at your medical office is a crucial aspect of your business. Patients are paying more out of pocket as the healthcare and insurance industries grow. This year, they are expected to reach $515 billion.

To ensure safe and easy payments from patients, a solid healthcare payment system is key to keeping medical offices healthy and revenue flowing. Once a patient leaves your office, the chances of collecting payment drop by 62 percent. To avoid losing out on co-pays or other fees, make it easy for patients to pay at the front desk, ask for payment in advance, or catch them before they head out. How?

Getting a POS Terminal

Patients want multichannel payment options according to J.P. Morgan Chase, which means they are looking for different ways to pay — online, in app, or in the office.

To fulfill this requirement, it’s essential to have a flexible and versatile healthcare payment system.

You may choose to bring a mobile credit card reader directly into the exam room for their convenience or provide an app for intake forms and co-pay payment use.

Make sure patients have the same experience whatever your payment solution may be – in app, in person, or from an invoice. We’ll proceed to explain how to take payments with your healthcare payment system.

Prior to an Appointment

To reduce waiting and improve your customer experience, encourage patients to fill out forms and pay any fees due before coming to the office, using a POS terminal and system.

The integration enables you to easily take payments and build custom forms. When the patient comes in, they’ve already filled out the necessary forms and paid their co-pay.

To process payments at your front desk before or after an appointment easily, opt for modern hardware that complements your practice. It’s also possible to swipe cards on your office computer using magnetic stripes or virtual terminals. 

Go for a mobile payment solution if you want a mobile option to take payments into an exam room or office for ease or privacy. By taking a system on an iPad or iPhone, you’ll be able to bring the payments right to your patient.

There are also special readers for chip and contactless payments. Doctors are very happy to have the ability to take a sleek, reliable, solid device into the exam room to charge the patient in private. A lot of practices have found that this has upped their customer service game.

They are now able to avoid the awkward feeling of asking the patient for payment at the front desk with everyone in the waiting room hearing how much the clinic is charging them.

Taking Payments after the Appointment

Your office may have the practice of collecting patient payments after the exam. This is achievable through integration with a form-building app like Dr. Chrono or IntakeQ (the former can also keep patient cards on file) or with an online invoice.

Your developer can build a custom solution with a payment SDK or payment API if none of these solutions are a good fit for your office.

What Else Should Medical Offices Take into Account?

Medical offices and their payment systems must fulfill specific requirements when it comes to managing patient data. In particular, medical practices in the United States have to comply with HIPAA when managing patient data and information.

Some systems are party to the HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (HIPAA BAA), according to which the POS provider helps facilitate your HIPAA compliance. This applies to practices that are subject to HIPAA as a business associate or covered entity.

Final Note 

Medical merchant account providers take data security very seriously. Some come with a proprietary token setup that makes sure unencrypted payment data never touches your app or device.