Take payments at the front desk and online, offer patients flexible payment plans, and keep every transaction secure.
Get a free quoteHealthcare and wellness practices deal with a payment problem most other industries don't: the amount owed isn't always known at the time of service, and patients often need more flexibility to pay than a single upfront charge allows. Harbour Payments handles both sides of that — front-desk terminals for the copays and payments collected at check-in, and recurring billing tools for larger balances that make more sense spread across a structured payment plan. Because practices increasingly collect payment before or after a visit rather than only in person, secure online payment links and portals let patients pay a balance without a phone call, while keeping the transaction on infrastructure that protects sensitive payment data alongside the sensitive health information practices already handle carefully.
Larger procedures, ongoing care programs, and elective treatments rarely get paid off in one charge, which is why recurring billing sits at the center of Harbour's healthcare offering — structured payment plans that spread a balance across a defined schedule instead of asking a patient to cover it all upfront. Reporting spans every location a practice operates, so a multi-provider group or a practice with several offices can see collections performance across the board rather than location by location, making it easier to spot where billing is falling behind before it becomes a cash flow problem.
Compliance matters more in healthcare than almost anywhere else, and our underwriting process for healthcare merchants reflects that — reviewing how a practice collects, bills, and stores payment information before approval, not just approving based on card volume alone. Payment infrastructure is PCI-DSS compliant by default, with encryption and tokenization protecting card data across every channel a practice uses. Whether it's a solo practitioner's office or a multi-location wellness group, the goal is the same: make collecting payment feel like a natural extension of patient care rather than a separate, clunky process bolted on afterward.
Interchange-plus passes through the card network's actual interchange cost plus a fixed markup, which is usually cheaper for practices with higher average tickets, while flat-rate bundles everything into one rate that's simpler to budget but often costs more at volume.
HSA/FSA cards run through standard card rails, but Harbour's reporting flags them separately so practices can track qualified medical spending for patient recordkeeping.
Harbour helps practices assemble dispute evidence, such as signed consent forms, visit notes, and itemized charges, to represent the transaction to the card network within the required response window.
Payment data and health data are governed by separate standards, PCI-DSS and HIPAA respectively, and Harbour's infrastructure is built to keep payment processing isolated from protected health information.
Tokenization replaces a card number with a randomized token for storage and future billing, so the actual card data never sits on the practice's own systems.
Yes. Harbour can route settlement from multiple locations into a single consolidated deposit while still reporting revenue by location.
Typically a business license, provider or practice credentials, a voided check or bank letter, and a few months of processing history if the practice has processed before.
If a practice uses an EMV chip-capable terminal and a counterfeit card is used, liability for that fraud generally shifts to whichever party did not support chip processing, so practices are protected by processing chip transactions correctly.
A rolling reserve holds back a percentage of processing volume as a buffer against future disputes; most standard healthcare practices don't need one, though it can apply to higher-risk sub-categories or new merchants with no processing history.
Refunds can be issued directly against the original transaction from the practice's dashboard, and funds typically return to the patient's card within 5-10 business days depending on their card issuer.
Surcharging rules vary by state and card network, and some healthcare categories face additional restrictions, so Harbour reviews applicable state law and network rules with each practice before enabling it.
Harbour provides itemized settlement and transaction exports that practices can match against practice management or EHR billing records for daily reconciliation.
Submitting Level 2/3 data, like tax amounts and line-item detail, can qualify certain transactions for lower interchange rates, primarily benefiting practices processing corporate or insurance-related cards.
The practice is notified of the dispute, has a window to submit evidence supporting the charge, and Harbour's team helps compile documentation before the card network issues a final ruling.
Underwriting weighs the provider's credentials, business structure, and projected volume rather than past processing data alone, and may start with modest volume limits that increase as a track record builds.
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