In healthcare, providers make their clients the priority. A satisfied and happy client leads to a sustainable clinic. But patient care is about more than just fantastic treatment. Every aspect of each visit adds to the overall experience at your clinic – how patients feel about your practice and whether they’ll come back.

One significant item gets overlooked often, though – medical payment processing. Allowing your patients multiple ways to pay helps your clinic, its cash flow, and your patients all at once. Easy payment processing improves the patient experience. But how do you get there?

You need healthcare payment processing tools.

Ensuring safe and easy payments from your patients requires a robust medical payment processing system – for your patients and your practice. It’s best practice to collect payment at the time of service, but if you don’t offer simple payment methods, you could lose out once the patient leaves your clinic. Thanks to new payment processing solutions, you can even let patients pay before they see you.

Clinic Medical Payment Processing

Offering omnichannel payment methods – online, in an app, or in-office – is vital to collecting timely patient payments. Canadians’ desire for multiple payment methods continues to grow.

You’ll also help your clinic by showing patients that you value their time – one of the most dreaded aspects of a first-time patient is the multiple forms that need filling out. You could offer an app like IntakeQ that provides these forms in an online format, letting patients fill them out on their own time before an appointment. Another app that recently partnered with Square, Jane, lets you integrate your patient payments right from your Square Terminal. You can even bring your mobile card reader right into the examination room for convenience. No matter how your patients decide to pay, the experience should be the same.

Taking Payments with Your Medical Payment Processing System

Let’s look at the payment types from above:

Before appointments

This helps you improve patient experiences, reduce clinic wait time, and encourages your patients to complete any forms and copayments before their appointment. You can do this with the IntakeQ and Square integration. This app also helps you maintain PIPEDA compliance.

At the reception desk

Streamlined hardware just right for a clinic setting, the Square Terminal lets you accept payments at your office reception desk. If you prefer using your office computer instead, Square’s Virtual Terminal is also an option.

In the examination room

Perfect for maintaining an added layer of privacy and simplicity, the Square Terminal is mobile, too. You can bring the terminal right to your patients in the exam room before the end of their appointment.

After the patient’s appointment

Sometimes, a patient cannot pay at the time of service. If you choose, you can also allow patient payments after an appointment. You can choose to send them a bill using Square Invoices or an app like IntakeQ mentioned above. The newest partnership in the Square suite of solutions is the Jane app. This app was built just for clinics and lets you keep track of patient payments from your Square Terminal.

Choosing the Best Healthcare Payment Processing Companies

Your medical payment processing partner should be flexible. Quite simply, this means the software should let you offer multiple payment methods for your patients, like those outlined above.

To begin, you should enable in-person, online, and mobile payments. Every patient has their own preferences, so your options must be tailored to meet your patients where and how they want to pay. Making payments convenient for your patients helps you get paid faster and keeps your patients happy.

Choosing the right healthcare payments partner is about offering you the service you need when you need it and with transparency. Don’t be afraid to ask questions like what services they offer and if they offer data security.

It’s not just about offering your patients multiple payments options. It’s also about finding a payment processing partner that:

• Keeps up on trends in the industry
• Offers software, hardware, and services with upgradeability
• Provides peace of mind for you and your patients regarding personal, medical, and financial data security

Medical transactions aren’t like other payment types – if you ever suffer a breach, it could devastate your practice.

Work With Square

It can get complicated quickly when trying to manage multiple payment options. But a partner that offers cutting-edge technology to protect against fraud ensures your clinic’s financial information is a safe choice. Interested in learning more? Work with Square today.