Medical and dental practices process some of the highest average tickets in merchant services. That makes processing fees one of the most expensive — and most fixable — line items in your practice budget.
Dental and medical practices spend enormous energy on billing — insurance claims, coding, collections, patient payment plans. Processing fees sit quietly underneath all of it, charging 2.5% to 3.5% on every card payment that comes through.
A practice collecting $120,000 a month in card payments is paying $3,000 to $4,200 a month in processing fees. That's $36,000 to $50,000 a year — enough to fund a front desk hire, upgrade equipment, or simply stay in your pocket.
Unlike retail environments, most practices don't post price lists on the wall. Patients are billed by invoice after services are rendered. That makes surcharging — rather than dual pricing — the natural fit.
Here's how it works in a practice setting:
Your standard fee remains unchanged. When a patient pays by credit card, a clearly disclosed fee — typically 3% — appears as a line item on their receipt. Patients paying by cash, check, or ACH pay the base amount.
It's transparent, professional, and increasingly common in healthcare billing environments. Patients who prefer to avoid the fee have clear alternatives.
For practices with patient financing or payment plan integrations, we'll review your specific setup during the analysis to make sure everything works cleanly together.
| Monthly Card Volume | Current Fees (at 2.9%) | Monthly Savings | Annual Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| $40,000 | $1,160 | ~$1,102 | ~$13,224 |
| $80,000 | $2,320 | ~$2,204 | ~$26,448 |
| $120,000 | $3,480 | ~$3,306 | ~$39,672 |
| $200,000 | $5,800 | ~$5,510 | ~$66,120 |
Savings reflect ~95% recovery rate.
Some will ask about it. Rarely will it affect your relationship with them. Patients understand that running a practice has costs — and a clearly disclosed, modest fee on a card payment is far less friction than it might seem. Practices that handle the disclosure well — clear language on the patient intake form, a simple explanation at checkout — report minimal pushback.
The surcharge applies to the payment transaction, not to the medical billing itself. It operates at the payment processing layer and doesn't interact with HIPAA-covered data. That said, we always recommend confirming with your practice attorney if you have specific compliance concerns.
Most major practice management systems support surcharge line items. We'll confirm compatibility during your analysis.
Surcharging requires 30-day written notice to your processor, cannot be applied to debit cards, and is capped at 3%. We handle the notice, configure your terminal for automatic card type detection, and provide compliant receipt formatting. You focus on your patients.
High average tickets, sensitive patient relationships, complex billing environments — we understand what practices need. When you reach out, you talk to George — someone who will give you an honest assessment of whether this program fits your specific situation and walk you through exactly what's involved.
We were paying over $3,000 a month in processing fees and just accepting it as a cost of doing business. George set us up with surcharging and we recovered almost all of it. Patients barely notice.
The setup was straightforward and our practice management system was already compatible. I wish someone had told us about this years ago.
Free analysis. Real numbers. No obligation. If it's not the right fit we'll tell you straight.
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