The days of patients writing checks or counting out cash to pay for their eye appointments are nearly gone. With the rise of contactless payments in the healthcare industry, patients can pay for their appointments and treatments with a quick tap or wave of their mobile device or payment card. There are several benefits of adopting contactless healthcare payment technology at your optometry or ophthalmology practice.
What Are Touch-free Payments?
Touch-free or contactless payments use wireless technology to transmit payment data from a device or card to another device. Examples of contactless payments include tap-to-pay debit or credit cards and digital wallets.
5 Benefits of Contactless Payments for Eye Doctors
Adopting touch-free payments at your eye care practice offers multiple benefits for you as the provider, your administrative team, and your patients:
- Increased security: Digital wallets mask a patient’s credit or debit card information by using a one-time token that can’t be reused. Tap-to-pay cards also employ a single-use token, making it much more difficult for hackers to intercept and steal a patient’s payment data.
- Faster payment processing: Touch-free payments move much more quickly than other payment methods, including inserting a card chip or counting out cash. The entire process takes just a few seconds.
- Reduced administrative burden: Accepting contactless payments means less work for your practice’s administrative staff. They will have fewer paper checks to sort and deposit and less cash to count at the end of a shift.
- Increased patient convenience: Tap to pay is more convenient for patients, as all they need to do is pull out their phone or card rather than fumble with cash or write a check — especially after having their eyes dilated for a treatment.
- Improved hygiene: Contactless payments reduce contact between patients and your payment processing equipment. Contact between patients and staff also lessens, leading to a more hygienic payment experience.
How to Adopt Contactless Healthcare Payment Technology
To adopt contactless payment technology at your eye care practice, you need a payment processing system that works with radio frequency identification (RFID) technology or near-field communication (NFC) card readers. Rectangle Health’s Practice Management Bridge® payment platform works with point-of-care payment terminals to allow patients to use their mobile devices or tap-to-pay cards.
To allow patients to pay online, your practice can adopt QR codes. Patients scan the code and are directed to a secure website where they can input their payment details.
