Disputes Explained
The payment processor is designed to facilitate the transfer of funds between two willing parties. If the cardholder believes they have been charged incorrectly or the goods or services are not as described they are encouraged to work with the merchant to resolve the conflict. If that route is unsuccessful, the cardholder can file a chargeback.
A chargeback occurs when a cardholder contacts their issuing bank (e.g. Capital One, American Express, Chase) and disputes a purchase made on their credit or debit card. The customer is asked to give information around the reason for filing a chargeback. Reason codes may vary but often include the following:
Goods/services are not delivered
Products received are not as advertised
Merchant assumed to not be following its refund policy
Charged by mistake
Fraudulent transactions
Whatever the reason may be, the customer believes they were wrongfully charged and are requesting their money back from the bank that issued their credit card. Chargebacks can be initiated by the issuing bank up to 180 days after the purchase is made. Once the chargeback has been filed, the issuing bank will temporarily issue a credit to the cardholder and funds are debited from your account.
If a patient disputes a charge, Hint will send you a notification of the disputed charge via email. In most cases, the cardholder's bank will immediately refund the transaction. Hint will then deduct the disputed amount and fee from your account the day after a dispute is received. If the dispute is resolved in your favor, the amount will be refunded to your account.
Once you’ve been notified of a dispute, you have a few options:
You can contact the patient to understand the reason for the dispute. It’s possible that the patient did not recognize the transaction; contacting them can often help resolve the issue quickly.
If the dispute is the result of a misunderstanding, the patient can ask their bank to withdraw the dispute.
**Note: Even if your patient withdraws the dispute, it might still resolve as a loss if you don't submit evidence.
You can accept the dispute—effectively agreeing to the bank’s refund of the transaction. You should always perform this action if you do not intend to respond and submit evidence.
You can dispute the chargeback. To do this, follow the steps in the 'Managing Disputes within Hint' section below to submit evidence for the dispute. Hint will submit any information you provide to your patient's credit card company and keep you posted afterwards.
Managing Disputes in Hint
To view all disputes, navigate to Reports > Disputes
Click "View Dispute"
You will see a window pop up that allows you to accept or dispute the chargeback
4. Click "Dispute ->" to begin disputing the chargeback
5. You will see a drop-down menu to select relevant evidence for the dispute, such as receipt/invoice, cancellation policy, and recurring billing agreement/membership agreement.
6. Input your available evidence for the selected item and upload the required documents as shown below:
7. After you have added your evidence, select the "edit" icon for the rebuttal as shown below:
8. Complete the required information and add any additional evidence or communication you had with this patient:
Example Rebuttal: We assert that this dispute is invalid. The charges represent services provided by [PRACTICE NAME]. These charges were approved and authorized by the patient for the care provided. Please review the following evidence that supports that the patient received the services they paid for. [PRACTICE NAME] is a locally owned medical practice offering direct primary care memberships. [PRACTICE NAME] has two ways to contact our practice via phone and email, both listed on our website.
We advise only submitting the minimum amount of information necessary and redacting medical information for your rebuttal.
9. Save and submit your dispute
**Please note that disputes can have a lifecycle of up to 150 days