How to Improve the Patient Experience with Easier Payments

The Key to Happier Patients Is Offering Flexibility with Better Payment Solutions  

In your chiropractic practice, having convenient payment options is one of the best ways to improve the patient experience and retain more patients. Everywhere modern patients go, they look for ways they can save time and get back to the parts of their lives that matter most. They do not want to spend hours in a clinic away from their families or burning off the rest of their limited PTO in your practice.  

For this reason, you need to streamline as much as you can. In particular, one area you can probably improve is how you process payments. It can be tedious, wrought with privacy risks, and downright inconvenient with longer waiting times. And if transactions are difficult for your patients, it won’t be long before they seek care elsewhere.  

That can be a tough blow to take—especially if you’re a newer practice seeking growth.  

To combat your payment woes and start improving the patient experience, we’ve compiled a list of the top patient payment options to make transactions easier for everyone. And with better payments, you can be the efficient practice your patients want you to be.  

Tap-to-Pay: Google Pay & Apple Pay  

Your patients have gotten used to fast transactions at the terminal. This is because many businesses use contactless payment methods, like Apple Pay and its Android-based counterpart, Google Pay. But even though the companies are natural competitors, they’re quite similar in terms of the payment solutions they offer.  

To the point, both store credit card information and secure user information behind virtual, encrypted account numbers. Additionally, they offer near-field communication (NFC). This means users can make contactless payments with their mobile devices at payment terminals, just as they would tap with a chip card. It’s a safe and modern solution that saves patients time, allowing them to use apps they already have in their mobile devices.  

However, the benefits of these payment methods don’t determine their cost. It’s completely free to accept payments with Google Pay and Apple Pay. However, since card companies consider these digital transactions as card-present, you’re still liable to pay the same fees you would with physical cards (which can be up to 4%).  

Regardless, your patients prefer one-tap convenience of NFC payments. It’s a more efficient process that they already do everywhere else—which is why it’s time to start offering them.  

How to Accept Tap-and-Go Payments  

Like your patients, you may be loyal to one brand or the other. But fortunately, you don’t have to choose between Apple Pay or Google Pay—you can offer both. All you need is an NFC terminal, which is offered by POS systems that advertise “tap-to-pay.”  

Although, before you make the switch, check to see if your software or hardware supports these platforms. Once you’re set up with a compatible terminal, you can start processing payments the way your patients want.  

Convenient Kiosk Payments  

One modern payment tool that can improve your patients’ experiences in your practice is a kiosk check-in that accepts payments. Patients prefer kiosk payments, or payments on an iPad, because it allows them to pay quickly and discreetly. This gives them a sense of control and privacy in the financial process—which is definitely a good thing.  

Additionally, payments via an iPad are secure and reliable, letting patients know that their personal and financial information is safe. With this easy-to-use tool, patients can check-out of your practice without compromising their time or security.  

It’s also worth mentioning that patients prefer the modern aesthetic of kiosks. An iPad check-out process just looks better, and patients will view your practice as more advanced and up-to-date. It conveys to patients that you have high standards, and that means you have a higher standard of care—so they know they can trust you.  

How to Offer Kiosk Payments

The process of accepting your patients’ payments with an iPad can be tedious if the kiosk isn’t integrated with your practice management system. With an iPad that’s disconnected from your patient and financial records, you’re left manually keying in amounts and processing financial reports, which can cause significant errors.  

Using an integrated practice management system makes it easier for your practice to offer the convenient check-out convenience your patients want. For example, ChiroSpring Pay’s patient kiosk is tied to all patient data, including their payment information, for the fastest check-out processes. If their cards are already on file, they can pay at the iPad without presenting their physical cards—making kiosk payments even easier for them.  

Then, it does your practice a favor by automatically populating payment records into your Practice Dashboard, allowing you to monitor financial reports and keep an eye on your bottom line.  

Easy Online Payments  

Your patients pay for everything else online, so chiropractic services should be no different. In particular, paying online offers convenience, flexibility, and security. Patients can make payments at any time, from any location with internet access, without having to physically visit your office or call. This saves the time and hassle of in-office payment processing—so it’s not just for your patients, but for your staff, too.  

Plus, patients can set up online payment plans to automatically recur, which can help them stay on track with their treatment plan and finances. This can be beneficial for your practice, too, since you’ll receive predictable cash flow.  

How to Accept Online Payments  

There are a couple of ways your practice can complete online transactions. For one, you can use a practice management system with an app that accepts virtual payments. Secondly, this type of software should also enable you to send virtual statements via email or text messaging (SMS). Once bills are paid, they should then post back to your software, allowing you to maintain your financial records.  

With online payments, your practice saves time and minimizes errors associated with manual processing. And, importantly, patients will appreciate saving time by not having to pick up the phone, stop by your office, or mail in a payment.  

Cost-Saving Memberships  

Any way to help patients feel comfortable with managing their payments is beneficial to your practice in the long run. It lets patients know you’re prioritizing your care, and it ensures you get paid on time.  

By offering subscription-based care through memberships, you can package your services into a cost-saving bundle that patients can afford. Then, they can choose which memberships suit their needs and make monthly payments towards them.  

It’s also an effective way to bypass the burdensome insurance process. This not only makes receiving payments more predictable and less stressful for your practice, but also removes the troubles patients may encounter with their insurance.  

Also, it’s worth considering how common memberships have become today. If modern society has proven anything, it’s that subscriptions are dominating the market and transforming how businesses offer goods and services. Your patients are already paying monthly fees for razors and groceries, so it’s likely they’re willing to do the same for their health.  

How to Offer Patient Memberships  

To start offering memberships, it’s easier to rely on an integrated system that stores patient information for you. Otherwise, you’re manually keeping up with details that you don’t have time to monitor.  

With a platform like ChiroSpring, your practice can customize memberships to include certain services, quantity of services, costs, and more. And since patient records and payment information are already captured within the system, your practice doesn’t have to manually enter data into a spreadsheet.  

ChiroSpring Pay: Effortless Transactions for Better Patient Experiences  

Overall, the best way to manage your practice’s payments is to implement a software solution like ChiroSpring. Its payment processing tool, ChiroSpring Pay, offers reliable features that give you everything you need to ensure faster payments and improve patients’ experiences:  

• NFC terminals designed to accept fast and easy one-tap payments  
• A payments kiosk that integrates with patients’ records and speeds up the checkout process  
• Online payments with virtual statements and an in-app payments functionality  
• Customizable memberships that make your services more affordable for patients, helping them pay on time  ‍
• Automated payments for easy, hands-off payment processing  

With ChiroSpring Pay’s essential payment features, your practice can improve the patient experience, be more productive, and establish a business that patients want to visit. And with predictable revenue and happier patients, you can finally start improving care delivery and growing the practice you’ve always wanted.    

References  

How to Become a Membership-Based Chiropractic Practice. (2023, January 4). ChiroSpring. https://www.chirospring.com/articles/becoming-a-membership-based-chiropractic-practice  

McCarthy, D., & Fader, P. (2017, December 19). Subscription Businesses Are Booming. Here’s How to Value Them. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/12/subscription-businesses-are-booming-heres-how-to-value-them  

Norton, C. (2022, December 5). Why Your Chiropractic Practice Needs Billing & Payment Software. ChiroSpring. https://www.chirospring.com/articles/why-your-chiropractic-practice-needs-billing-payment-software