Wayne: how do you get them to allow automatic charging of a card?
I assume by "them" you mean the patients. We REQUIRE it. Other doctors do this (not All Others, but many do), at least in major metro areas.
Did you go through the process to register Braintree with your merchant account? You have to do this before it will store credit cards. Once that process is started, I'd recommend that you begin telling patients that come in on the upcoming policy change that will begin in about 30 days. Once your begin date begins, you should email a consent form/agreement to patients who schedule appointments. Be sure to provide fairly specific circumstance when it would ever be used (EOB says patient responsibility, no-show fee, etc.) and put a written limit (say, $110) on the maximum amount that would ever be charged at a single time. Also provide examples of other times when people already leave a card on file (rent a car, rent a hotel room, sometimes online shopping, etc.)so they understand they probably have done this someplace before.
We have lost some patients due to this, but really not that many. In NYC, you can't really tell what's going on sometimes between personal references, internet gossip, etc. So I only count people who specifically say they don't want to do it, or who cancel their appointments right after I email them the registration and policy forms which include the agreement as a separate attachment. I want them to see it as soon as possible, not at the last minute. If an established patient comes in without it (sometimes a same-day appt. and I didn't send it to them) and they say they do not wish to do it, AND we have had no collections issues with them, I'll tell them we can see them today but to think about it because we will not be able to see them in the future. New patients who refuse of course have their appointments cancelled. Sometimes, if there is time, I'll discuss things further with an established patient concerning why we started doing it. I've had some established patients happily agree agree after this 2 min discussion, when at first we they want to.
