Telehealth Guide to Credit Card Processing

In the new normal, telehealth services are becoming more popular than ever before with technology rapidly changing and evolving to meet the needs of the healthcare industry. It is expected that this service will continue to see exponential growth. It’s important that telehealth services have a safe payment gateway that allows patients to confidently pay for their care online and allows merchants to remain operational at all times.

Telehealth Guide to Credit Card Processing

In the new normal, telehealth services are becoming more popular than ever before with technology rapidly changing and evolving to meet the needs of the healthcare industry. It is expected that this service will continue to see exponential growth. It’s important that telehealth services have a safe payment gateway that allows patients to confidently pay for their care online and allows merchants to remain operational at all times.

What is Telehealth?

Telehealth is the term that’s used for providing health care services remotely. This can incorporate consultations by primary care providers or specialists that are provided via telephone, video chat, live chat, or text message. Services such as BetterHelp, Teladoc, and Doctor on Demand are prime examples of telehealth services that are commonly used across North America.

In 2020, the Telehealth industry grew more than 9%, according to IBISWorld, and is expected to continue to increase as we adjust to staying home more and making use of these convenient services.

What to Look For in a Telehealth Payment Processor

Since telehealth is entirely virtual, it’s important that a payment processor can provide a safe virtual payment gateway. It’s important to look for a company that’s reliable and has a long-standing reputation in its industry.

Additionally, since telehealth is considered a high-risk industry due to its proclivity to use recurring billing, it’s important to find a payment gateway that supports high-risk merchants without charging exorbitant rates, as well as one that has services and features in place to protect merchants from account closures and other issues.

Common Issues in Telehealth Payment Processing

Just as with any high-risk industry, there are several issues that are commonly faced by those in the healthcare industry – particularly those that are providing telehealth services.

Chargebacks

Chargebacks occur when a customer contacts their credit card issuer to reverse a charge. While in some cases chargebacks can be requested for legitimate reasons, merchants in the telehealth industry need to consider the possibility that some consumers may request chargebacks for fraudulent reasons. This might occur when a customer is displeased with the diagnosis or service they receive and want to get their money back without contacting the merchant, or unfortunately, it also can occur when a customer simply doesn’t want to pay for the service they’ve received.

If your business begins to rack up a high number of chargebacks, it can lead to detrimental circumstances for your business.

Fraud

Fraud can be a serious issue for any company that accepts credit card payments online. The inability to check signatures and identification when a customer hands over their credit card leaves merchants vulnerable to accepting stolen cards and, in some cases, even the best cybersecurity systems can be hacked and leave customers’ credit card numbers and other personal information exposed.

That’s why it’s important to work with a payment gateway that implements top fraud protection with their services. Look for a processor that offers protection tools such as fraud and suspicious transaction alerts, as well as the option to suspend suspicious transactions so that the merchant can take manual steps to verify the cardholder’s identity. 

Keeping Telehealth Services Operational

At PayDiverse, our primary focus is working with high-risk merchants to provide a safe payment gateway for them to process credit card and bank transfer payments. We also work hard to ensure that we have systems in place to keep our merchants operating at full capacity with little to no downtime. Our high-risk telehealth merchant accounts include:

• Chargeback alerts
• ACH/Check 21 processing
• Competitive credit card processing rates
• Chargeback disputing
• Fraud protection

PayDiverse is dedicated to helping merchants avoid the most common issues that face telehealth and other high-risk merchants. That includes offering services such as real-time chargeback alerts and fraud protection that ensure your business can stay in business, no matter what may come.