In the past we have written a number of posts (including one about Broadspire) warning providers to not accept credit card payments issued by payers such as claims administrators and TPAs. Accepting these credit cards places a significant — and pointless —  financial burden on providers, with no discernible improvement in payment times or security.

Providers who accept credit cards for payment are needlessly sacrificing revenue equal to 2%, 3%, or even 5% of an entire workers’ comp bill. While payers cannot force providers to accept payment in the form of a credit card, many providers accept these credit cards without knowing the full cost of doing so.

In California, if a provider submits bills electronically, the law already states that a payer must send payment to the provider within 15 working days of receiving the electronic bill. Accordingly, if a payer promises faster payment in exchange for a provider accepting credit card payments, it's a paltry incentive when compared to the percentage revenue that is sacrificed.

In other states, where payment is not guaranteed as quickly, consider that when a provider accepts a 3% fee to receive payments 14 days quicker, each day of faster payment costs just over .002%. Not much, by itself. But extrapolated over 365 days, the fee paid by the provider is equivalent to a 78% annual fee!

Recently a number of DaisyBill clients sent us announcements from entities such as Paradigm and HomeLink, entities that are somehow affiliated with workers’ compensation, but are not claims administrators themselves. Like so many of the relationships among payers, vendors, and middlemen, the connections are not obvious and certainly not spelled out.

These entities either offer the option of payment by credit card or frankly strong-arm providers into accepting credit card payments.

But providers, the math just doesn't add up in your favor. So demand payment by check or EFT.

Protect your practice. Harness the power of daisyBill software, data, and expertise for faster, better workers’ comp billing. Reach out to learn how we can help.

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