General
Q. What does it mean to pass through credit card fees to patients?
Passing through credit card fees means the transaction processing costs are added to the patient’s total charge instead of being paid by the practice. If a practice issues a $100 invoice, with this feature they will receive a full $100 and the patient will pay $100 plus transaction fees.
Q. What are the benefits of passing through credit card fees?
Passing through credit card fees helps practices reduce payment processing costs and retain more revenue while still offering the convenience and ease of credit card payments to patients.
Q. Who is this feature intended for?
This feature is for practices billing retail memberships on Hint. It does not currently support employer billing.
Q. What subscription tier is it available for?
This feature is available for all practices. It is not restricted to a specific tier.
Q. How do I activate Credit Card Pass-through for my practice?
Go to Settings > Providers & Patients > Patient tab and click ‘Accept and Enable’ under 'Pass Credit Card Fees Through to Patients.' You’ll need to confirm compliance with applicable laws and credit card regulations by selecting Accept and Enable. Once activated, transaction fees will automatically be added to patient invoices when credit cards are used.
Q. Can all practice users enable this feature?
Only users with “Admin” permissions can enable this feature.
Compliance
Q. What are the compliance requirements for surcharging?
The top 3 compliance requirements are: 1) that surcharging is only on credit cards; 2) that surcharges must be disclosed to customers before they complete a transaction; and 3) that the surcharge amount cannot surpass the credit card cost. Hint’s feature automatically ensures your practice meets these requirements. The remaining compliance task for practices is to verify any applicable regulations in the state(s) in which you practice, and whether additional steps are needed by the practice.
Q: What should I ask my legal counsel?
Here is an example starter question. Practices may also want to share how the feature works in Hint to communicate safeguards in place by design. For example:
"Is my practice legally allowed to pass credit card processing fees on to our patients in [State]? If so, are there any specific rules, disclosure requirements, or other compliance obligations we need to follow?
For implementation context, I use a billing software program that can automatically support the surcharging if a patient pays by credit card. The application notifies patients of these fees when they add a credit card as a payment method and displays the fees as a separate line item on invoices. The fee amount matches my practice’s standard transaction fees outlined in my subscription plan, and is capped at the cost of card acceptance. It’s added exclusively to credit card payments, and not debit, HSA/FSA, or bank account payments.”
Q: Do I have to notify credit card networks if I use this feature?
No, practices do not need to notify credit card networks or acquiring banks about their decision to implement surcharging. This is managed by Hint’s underlying payment processor.
Fees
Q. What are the transaction fees?
Transaction fees vary based on your practice’s Hint subscription plan. For exact rates, please refer to your subscription plan details in your Hint account in Admin>Account>Billing.
Q. How will patients be notified of the fees?
Patients will be notified about credit card fees when selecting and paying with a credit card as payment method during Online Signup and when paying an invoice. The specific transaction fees will be listed before they complete payment and included on all invoices where a credit card is used.
Q. How can patients avoid transaction fees?
With this feature turned on, transaction fees for the patient apply if a patient uses a credit card. Bank account, debit, and HSA/FSA card payments will not incur an additional cost to the patient.
Q. How are fees managed if a patient wants to make a scheduled partial payment?
All scheduled payments will also have pass-through fees, including scheduling partial payments. Each partial payment will be subject to its own credit card fees, so a patient may pay more in total fees for an invoice if they make multiple payments.
Q. How are fees managed in the event of a refund?
For full refunds, patients receive the entire amount they originally paid, including any added credit card transaction fees. In the event of refunds, the practice absorbs the transaction fee in favor of the customer on each full refund.
Note: At this time, partial refunds are not supported. While using this feature, practices can issue a full or no refund on payments made by credit card.
In the case of partially paid invoices, the total amount paid can be refunded. For example, if a patient receives an invoice for $100, and makes two partial payments of 50.42 each, the practice would need to refund the total amount instead of just one of the payments.
Q. What happens in the event of a dunning attempt?
If the practice has pass-through fees enabled, then the payments made via dunning will have pass-through fees.
Q: Can I add a flat amount instead of Hint’s fees?
No, Hint does not currently provide configurability of passthrough fees.
Q. Can I add a flat amount on top of the pass-through?
No, Hint does not currently provide the ability in the app to add a flat amount on top of the transaction fees.
Q: Can I give patients the option of covering credit card fees?
Right now, the fees will be passed to all patients paying by credit card by default. But Hint is interested in learning more about interest in offering optionality.
Communicating with Patients
Q: Do I need to tell my patients I’m implementing surcharging? Does Hint have a template email for communicating my surcharge policy to patients?
This would be a good question to verify during your legal counsel review on whether there are communication requirements in your state. In Hint’s experience, some practices have chosen to send an email to existing patients to let them know that credit card fees will be applied starting on a future date. Communication examples we’ve seen include a statement about the upcoming change and brief note on why it's impactful to your business and information on other payment options.
Hint does not currently have example email templates.
Q. How can patients change their payment method?
Patients can change their payment method on file on the patient portal or when paying an invoice. Practices can also update a payment method on behalf of a patient directly on the provider portal under the patient’s payment methods tab.