Telemedicine and telehealth have made healthcare more accessible by bringing professional care into patients’ homes. It shouldn’t have to be a challenge to obtain a telemedicine merchant account for the compassionate work that virtual health clinics do. Revitpay recognizes the expansive benefits of virtual healthcare and assists in securing telemedicine credit card payment processing merchant accounts for them in no time. 

The world has entered into a new era of house calls and home physicians.  Now, doctors and health professionals are back in patients’ homes, but on screens. 

Understandably, any brick-and-mortar industry that takes on a virtual form of business makes financial institutions question the participating businesses’ stability. The involvement of diagnoses, prescription orders, and insurance coverage also make telemedicine’s credibility and dependability controversial. 

Not only do banks often turn away from virtual healthcare companies, patients often file disputes for unique reasons specific to the industry. 

Types of Virtual Healthcare 

• Telemedicine involves doctors who have the ability to prescribe medication. 
• Telehealth may not have doctors but have licensed health professionals instead. These clinics cannot prescribe medication. 
• Urgent Care Telehealth may have doctors and health professionals treat non-life-threatening conditions and situations remotely. 
• Telepsychiatry is a form of telemedicine specifically for psychiatry practices. Telepsychiatrists may prescribe medication.
• Teledentistry primarily uses images to diagnose and develop a plan for patients without having to see them physically. This method of treatment is also known as store-and-forward.
• Telenursing may not prescribe medications but could facilitate referring patients to the right doctor or treatment. 
• Telepharmacy includes ePrescribing, which uses the internet to send information about prescriptions. Medications can be picked up at a physical pharmacy or delivered to patients’ homes. 
• Telerehabilitation uses technology to connect physical rehabilitation professionals with patients and go through rehabilitation exercises with them remotely. 
• Store-and-forward involves diagnosing with medical images instead of a physical examination.
• Remote monitoring is when a monitoring device is used to measure certain health aspects of a patient, such as heart rate. 
• Interactive services are performed in real-time and can be done through video calls, text messaging, apps, and more. 

For simplicity purposes, this article will be interchanging the words telemedicine, telehealth, and virtual healthcare to cover the variety in teleservices. 

Here’s Why your Telemedicine Business is High-Risk (And What We Do About it) 

High Likelihood of Chargebacks Due to Virtual Limitations

Chargebacks happen when customers file a dispute with their bank because they didn’t receive the service they expected. Telemedicine and other virtual companies use different business models to charge their customers. Charging per visit or subscription membership payments are common. However, traditional banks see recurring-based charges as more of a risk. The high volume of a monthly subscription price disputed by a client is more harmful than disputing a single visit. 

Unsatisfied Customers 

Virtual healthcare is not brand new but still unfamiliar to many patients. It’s more likely that patients will walk away feeling like their diagnosis or care was inconclusive due to physical limitations. In those cases, they may bypass customer service and file a dispute.

Technical Issues 

Doctors, health professionals, and patients only have so much time to communicate thoroughly and come to a conclusion or plan. When technical complications arrive, there can be much frustration on the patient’s side who paid for the visit. The virtual visit may be cut short because of breaks in clarity on-screen or audibly. 

Prescription delays or errors 

ePrescribing is utilized by some hospitals but depended on by virtual healthcare businesses. In lieu of handwritten prescriptions, telemedicine clinics may rely on third-party or in-house systems to communicate with pharmacies. Additionally, some clinics have given patients the option of receiving their prescriptions by mail. 

These new and developing prescribing methods are bound to have hiccups and leave some patients without their proper medication. 

Revitpay’s Solution 

Our specialized team and tools allow us to provide preventative measures for high-risk merchants. Our chargeback alerts feature gives businesses a heads up on an incoming chargeback so that they have a leg up on resolving the issue promptly. We’ve proudly helped telemedicine and other merchants keep their chargeback rates to as low as 1%.

Additionally, we and our network of banks are equipped with servicing high-risk companies like yours and know how to work with the risk that your industry comes with. 

Insurance Coverage Confusion 

Not every aspect and service that telemedicine businesses offer can be covered by insurance. Even more befuddling are the numerous parity laws that vary across the country, affecting the affordability of virtual healthcare. Many are fighting to require insurance companies to offer covering virtual and in-person care at the same rates. Some predict that parity laws will continue to grow and wean based on the added circumstances of the pandemic. Traditional banks try to avoid industries with unstable legalities, making it more challenging for telemedicine and telehealth clinics. 

Revitpay’s Solution 

Having been in the merchant services industry for a while, Revitpay has connected with numerous banks that will work with telemedicine merchant accounts. You can skip the frustrating search for banks and utilize our network of trusted partners. 

Our vast web of connections enables us to provide lower pricing for merchant accounts and the ability for merchants to open up multiple accounts to use as a backup. 

We Serve Subscription-Based Businesses 

Revitpay is happy to help subscription-based telemedicine businesses obtain high risk merchant accounts. With the help of one of our specialized payment gateways, securing patients’ information and invoicing them has never been easier. 

Conclusion

Revitpay is a credit card processor specializing in working with high-risk merchant accounts, including those in the telemedicine industry. You can overcome any barrier to obtaining a telemedicine high risk merchant account with our expertise, experience, and tools. We keep our solutions up to date as industries change and grow. 

Ready to take your telemedicine business to the next level and serve your patients with ease? Contact us today, and we’ll show you how.