The Best Credit Card Processing For Dental Offices
Finding merchant services for your dental practice requires striking the right balance in terms of cost, features, and security.
Frank has been writing about payment processing and business services since 2015. He is a retired Air Force officer and a former practicing attorney. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the Ventura College of Law, and currently resides in Paso Robles, California.
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Frank KehlFrank has been writing about payment processing and business services since 2015. He is a retired Air Force officer and a former practicing attorney. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the Ventura College of Law, and currently resides in Paso Robles, California.
Senior Staff Writer
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Advertiser Disclosure: Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity.
Dental credit card processing is an important part of the “business side” of running a dental office. With credit card processing services and hardware from a reputable merchant services provider, dentists save time tracking down overdue invoices and have more time to help patients.
Here, we briefly review the best merchant services providers for dental practices and give you some important tips on choosing the best merchant account for your practice. We’ll also explain what to be aware of with setting up your processing system, including account security, patient privacy (HIPAA compliance), and integrating your account with existing dental office management software.
Why Your Dentist Office Needs Credit Card Processing
Like any other business, a dental practice needs to be able to accept payments. While the bulk of dental services will be billed to the patient’s insurance, there will be times when the patient doesn’t have insurance or their existing insurance doesn’t cover 100% of the bill.
When this happens, you can make it easy and convenient for your patients to pay you directly. Fewer people today are carrying cash or writing paper checks, so accepting credit and debit cards is a critical part of your overall payment acceptance strategy.
Pros
Convenient for patients
Less time spent chasing down unpaid invoices or bills
Offers analytical data
May integrate automatically with your practice management software
Offers security features not available with cash or paper checks
The Best Credit Card Processing For Dental Offices
With some exceptions, dentist credit card processing involves most of the same features as processing for any other retail or service business. You’ll want to select a provider that offers fair pricing, low processing rates, compatible hardware and software, flexible contract terms, and excellent customer support.
Our top choices for your dental practice include these providers: National Processing, PaymentCloud, Dharma Merchant Services, Helcim, Host Merchant Services, and Square.
1. National Processing: Best For Budget-Conscious Practices
Get a free Clover Go card reader from National Processing when you sign up. Claim your card reader.
Pros
Month-to-month billing with no long-term contract available
Offers interchange-plus and membership pricing options
Free credit card terminal available
Cons
Free terminal requires a long-term contract
Long-term contract (if applicable) includes early termination fee
Why We Chose National Processing For Dental Credit Card Processing
National Processing has long been one of the best credit card processors for small businesses, including dental practices. While it doesn’t offer a lot of bells and whistles, most dental offices won’t need them anyway. The company’s competitive pricing plans are fully disclosed on its website, so it’s easy to select the most cost-effective option for your business. While you can include a free credit card terminal with your account, we recommend purchasing it outright. That “free” terminal offer usually requires a three-year contract with an early termination fee.
The company also stands out for its excellent customer support after you’ve signed up for an account. We’ve found that this feature distinguishes the truly great merchant services providers from the merely adequate ones.
National Processing Features For Dental Credit Card Processing
National Processing serves the healthcare industry but doesn’t specifically cater to dental practices. Nonetheless, its basic features and simple price structure make it an excellent choice.
Here’s what you get:
“Free” credit card terminal available
ACH and eCheck processing as an add-on
Mobile processing with a SwipeSimple B250 card reader + virtual terminal app
Interchange-plus or membership pricing plans
No long-term contract if processing hardware is purchased outright
Cash discounting program available with no monthly fee
Exclusive Promo: PaymentCloud will give you $200 if they can't beat your current rate. Get Your Quote
Pros
High-risk specialist
Reasonable rates and fees
Free credit card terminal available
Cons
No publicly disclosed pricing
Low-risk processing rates may be higher than average
Why We Chose PaymentCloud For Dental Credit Card Processing
PaymentCloud is a top-rated high-risk specialist that also offers a very competitive package of features for low-risk businesses. Most dental practices will be classified as low-risk, with the rare exception of those that wind up in the high-risk category due to bad personal credit of the owner. PaymentCloud’s pricing doesn’t include account setup fees or monthly minimums for low-risk businesses, making it an affordable choice for a newly-established business.
The company also offers a free credit card terminal with each account, which will probably be the only one that most dental practices will need. A virtual terminal — paired with a compatible card reader — can turn your office computer into a credit card terminal capable of accepting keyed-in or card-present transactions.
Be aware, however, that the company’s high-risk pricing is highly variable due to the number of acquiring banks and back-end processors it works with to get you approved for an account. On the other hand, low-risk pricing is both transparent and competitive with what other providers offer.
PaymentCloud Pricing
No account setup fee
No monthly minimum (low-risk accounts)
Interchange + 0.05%-0.30% + $0.08-$0.10 per transaction (low-risk accounts)
Processing rates vary by acquiring bank/back-end processor (high-risk accounts)
$15/month account fee (low-risk accounts)
Account fees vary by the acquiring bank/back-end processor (high-risk accounts)
PaymentCloud Features For Dental Credit Card Processing
PaymentCloud is primarily a high-risk specialist, but it also offers a full range of services to low-risk businesses.
Highlights include the following:
“Free” credit card terminal available with each account
Month-to-month billing with no long-term contracts
Outstanding sales transparency and highly ethical business practices
Cons
Only available in the US
Not recommended for practices processing less than $10,000 per month
Why We Chose Dharma Merchant Services For Dental Credit Card Processing
Dharma Merchant Services stands out from its competitors by offering clear pricing disclosures, flexible contract terms, and excellent customer support. The company provides several specialized services for healthcare providers, including a fully HIPAA-compliant processing solution, support for payments from HSA and FSA accounts, and technical assistance with integrating dental practice management software into your payments system.
Dharma also has an excellent reputation among users and is one of our top-rated merchant services providers.
Dharma Merchant Services Pricing
$25/month account fee
Interchange + $0.15% + $0.08/transaction ($100K/month or lower)
Dharma Merchant Services Features For Dental Credit Card Processing
Dharma Merchant Services is one of the best and most ethical providers we’ve found, offering a complete line of products and services for dental practices.
Here are the highlights:
Free virtual terminal for keyed-in transactions (or dipped with optional USB card reader)
MX Merchant payment gateway included with your account
Supports invoice payments via your website
Desktop terminals are available for purchase, starting at $229
Why We Chose Helcim For Dental Credit Card Processing
Canadian-based Helcim offers one of the most affordable credit card processing services we’ve found anywhere. The company doesn’t charge application fees, account setup fees, or a monthly account maintenance fee. There’s also no monthly minimum, making it a great choice for very low-volume practices.
Helcim’s very affordable Helcim Card Reader and Helcim POS software are all you need to accept credit cards, debit cards, or ACH payments online or in person. All users are on a transparent interchange-plus pricing plan, with lower rates available as your monthly processing volume increases.
While its features aren’t as advanced as those offered by some providers, Helcim has everything a dental practice would need to accept payments from patients.
Month-to-month billing with no early termination fees
No monthly minimums
Good customer support
Cons
It can be expensive for some low-volume merchants
Why We Chose Host Merchant Services For Dental Credit Card Processing
Host Merchant Services specializes in serving healthcare/medical practices, including both low-risk and high-risk businesses.
All accounts come with interchange-plus pricing, and free basic website hosting services. A variety of mobile card readers, terminals, and POS systems are also available for accepting in-person payments. All processing rates and account fees are fully disclosed on the company’s website, making it easy to estimate your processing costs in advance. This transparency also simplifies the account setup process, as you won’t have to haggle with a sales agent over contract terms, rates, or fees.
Host Merchant Services offers true month-to-month billing with no long-term commitment to all low-risk businesses. High-risk merchants are underwritten by a separate back-end processor and may require both a long-term contract and an early termination fee if the account is closed prematurely.
Host also has a positive reputation among users and excels at providing high-quality customer support.
Host Merchant Services Pricing
No application or setup fees
$14.99/month account fee
Interchange + 0.25% + $0.10/in-person transaction
Interchange + 0.35 + $0.10/online transaction
$5.00/month gateway fee (optional)
$15/incident chargeback fee
No PCI compliance fee
No early termination fee
Host Merchant Services Features For Dental Credit Card Processing
Host Merchant Services offers a variety of hardware and software options, allowing you to choose the products that are best for your practice. Here’s what’s available:
Full-service merchant accounts
Accepts most high-risk industries
Full line of countertop and mobile credit card terminals
Free terminal available to merchants processing over $20,000/month
Get a free card swiper from Square at no cost when you create a free account. Claim your card reader.
Pros
No monthly fees
Predictable flat-rate pricing
Ideal for low-volume merchants
All-in-one payments system
Cons
Account stability issues
Does not accept most high-risk industries
Why We Chose Square For Dental Credit Card Processing
Perennial small-business favorite Square is HIPAA compliant and offers a wide range of features with no monthly fee and fully transparent pricing. The Square POS includes great security, reporting, invoicing, patient profiles, and more at no cost. Plus, with healthcare-focused data integration options such as IntakeQ, you can add more functionality by going paperless and automating both the intake and payment process.
While Square can be a great choice for credit card processing for dental practices, it’s not for everyone. Square is a third-party payment processor — instead of opening up a dedicated merchant account for each user, Square aggregates all of its users under one account. This setup makes payment processing accessible to almost anybody, but it comes with some account stability issues.
Square uses month-to-month billing exclusively, and you can close your account at any time without penalty. Be aware, however, that all of Square’s hardware and software features are proprietary and will not work with any other credit card processor.
Square Pricing
No setup or application fees
$0/month for Square Free account ($29+/month for Square Plus accounts)
2.6% + $0.10/card-present transaction
2.9% + $0.30/online transaction
3.5% + $0.15/manually keyed-in transaction
2.9% + $0.30/invoice paid via credit or debit card
3.5% + $0.15/invoice paid via card on file
1%/ACH transaction (minimum $1 charge)
No ACH reject or chargeback fees
Square Contactless & Chip Reader — $49 each
Square Stand With Contactless & Chip Reader — $169
Square Terminal — $299
Square Register — $799 (or $39/month for 24 months)
Square Features For Dental Credit Card Processing
Square offers a full range of products and services for accepting in-person and online credit card payments. Here are the highlights:
Aggregated account for credit and debit card processing
Mobile card reader (magstripe-only) included with an account
EMV and NFC-capable card readers are available
Square Register POS system available
ACH processing included with every account
Square Online for eCommerce transactions
Basic Square Invoices feature included at no extra cost
Analytics and reporting available through Square Dashboard
Why We Don’t Recommend These Merchant Services For Dental Practices
In the payments processing industry, name-brand recognition never guarantees high-quality service or affordable pricing. While generally good choices in their own right, some providers may not be the best options for a dental practice. You’ll probably want to approach this well-known merchant services provider with caution:
Chase Payment Solutions
Despite its huge size and general big-business focus, Chase Payment Solutions is a surprisingly good overall payment processor. It’s also recommended by the American Dental Association (ADA), and many dental offices sign up with the company for this reason without doing any further research into competing options.
So, why don’t we recommend Chase for dental credit card processing? Unfortunately, Chase uses expensive tiered pricing plans for the merchant accounts it sets up for dental offices referred by the ADA. Unless you’re willing to negotiate aggressively for a more affordable interchange-plus pricing plan, these plans will cost your practice a lot of money unnecessarily. While it can still be a good choice for a large, established dental practice that can negotiate for a better deal than the standard offer, most small dental offices will be better served by a provider specializing in serving the needs of the small business community.
6 Features To Look For In A Good Dental Credit Card Processor
Low overall costs are an important factor in choosing a provider for credit card processing, but pricing should never be your only consideration. Many other factors go into selecting the best provider for your practice, including the following:
Processing Hardware
Most dental offices don’t need anything fancy when it comes to processing hardware. Getting an expensive POS system with many additional functions is usually overkill, as you’ll be using a separate dental practice management program to run your office and manage appointments.
All you really need is a way to accept credit and debit cards in person. It can be a simple countertop terminal, a mobile processing system, or a virtual terminal on your computer that’s connected to a card reader. To future-proof your setup, we recommend a device that will accept EMV and NFC-based payment methods (such as Apple Pay and Google Pay). You might also want a “smart” terminal that includes a customer-facing display, especially if you live in a state that now requires them.
Installment Payments & Recurring Billing
If you’d like your customers to be able to pay for expensive procedures over time, be sure to include a recurring billing feature in your setup. This will usually require a payment gateway, but as the payments processing industry increasingly moves to the cloud, you’ll probably be using a gateway anyway.
Be aware that some providers charge an additional monthly fee for recurring billing, while others include it at no extra cost.
Alternate Payment Methods
Interest in alternate payment methods has surged in recent years due to the high cost of accepting credit and debit cards. The COVID-19 pandemic also increased interest in contactless payment methods, which are particularly important in a healthcare setting. The processor you select should support as many of these methods as possible, including ACH transfers, eCheck payments, invoice payments, and QR code payments.
HSA & FSA Acceptance
One unique requirement for dental offices and other healthcare professionals is the need to support payments made from a patient’s Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Spending Account (FSA). These accounts come with cards that function similarly to debit cards but are tied to the patient’s HSA or FSA account rather than a traditional bank account. Your provider should be able to reprogram your terminal to accept these types of payments.
Another requirement is that your merchant account must be assigned one or more of the following Merchant Category Codes (MCCs):
8011: Doctors and physicians (not elsewhere classified)
8021: Dentists and orthodontists
8062: Hospitals
8071: Dental and medical laboratories
8099: Health practitioners, medical service (not elsewhere classified)
Customer Information Management
If you’d like your patients to be able to pay their bills online through your website, your payment gateway or integrated payments platform should include a customer information management (CIM) feature. A CIM securely stores your patient’s payment information (credit card numbers, etc.) on your processor’s server, keeping the data off your website and simplifying your PCI compliance scope. Also, HIPAA requirements dictate that your patients’ payment information be kept separately from their dental record information.
Almost all modern payment gateways include a customer information management feature, but some providers make it easier than others to export that data if you switch to a different gateway provider.
Dental Practice Management Software Integration
Most dental offices today use specialized dental practice management software. While it would be extremely convenient to use the same practice management software to keep track of payments, this isn’t always a good idea in actual practice.
Here’s a brief rundown of the major dental practice management programs and how they integrate with payment processing:
Dentrix
Dentrix is the most popular dental practice management program, and it offers fully integrated payment processing through a third-party provider. Using the Dentrix Pay feature, you can establish a merchant account, and your payment information and patient records will be fully integrated. The only downside is that you’ll have to manually copy the payment information into Dentrix after accepting a patient’s payment.
Unfortunately, Dentrix Pay is offered through FIS Worldpay, a huge direct processor with a reputation for high prices and poor customer support. Dentrix Pay uses the overpriced tiered pricing model, and you’ll have little or no opportunity to negotiate for a better deal before you sign up. No matter how happy you are with Dentrix, we recommend skipping Dentrix Pay and signing up with a better provider. You’ll save a lot of money and frustration in the long run.
Open Dental
Another popular dental practice management software suite, Open Dental offers integrated credit card processing through X-Charge, a subsidiary of Open Edge.
Open Edge is owned by Global Payments, another large, direct processor. Like FIS Worldpay, Global Payments is known for overcharging small businesses for its services and providing lousy customer support. You’ll invariably be set up with an expensive tiered pricing plan, and you probably won’t be given a chance to negotiate the terms of your contract during the account setup process.
Sensei Cloud/Carestream Dental
Sensei Cloud is a popular dental practice management program offered by Carestream Dental. Carestream Dental previously featured integrated payment processing through TSYS Merchant Solutions, but is now preparing to launch a re-branded service called ‘Payment Solutions for Sensei Cloud.’
These accounts will most likely be underwritten by Global Payments, which acquired TSYS several years ago. Given Global Payments’ poor reputation within the small business community, we highly encourage Sensei Cloud users to get a detailed price quote and compare it against other non-integrated providers before signing up. In many cases, using a separate merchant services provider (like the ones recommended above) will cost less overall and provide far better customer support when you need it.
HIPAA Compliance, Payment Security, & Credit Card Processing For Dentists
Healthcare credit card processing has the same requirements that apply to any other business regarding security and privacy. Additionally, dental offices must ensure compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Here’s a brief overview of these requirements and how they relate to credit card processing for dentists:
HIPAA Compliance Requirements
According to the Department of Health & Human Services (DHS), basic credit card processing falls outside the scope of HIPAA requirements. As such, your credit card processor isn’t considered a “business associate,” and you won’t need to have a HIPAA agreement with them. The main reason for this is that your credit card processor usually won’t have access to protected health information (PHI). However, most processors today offer many services beyond simple credit card processing, and some of these services necessarily involve gaining access to PHI. Invoicing, billing, patient management, and accounting are examples of services where PHI could be passed to your processor, bringing it within HIPAA compliance requirements.
One way to protect yourself is to strictly limit the interaction between your office and your payment processor to payment information only. By doing this, your processor will remain outside the scope of HIPAA requirements, and you won’t need a business associate agreement with it. This can be very impractical, as you would have to establish strict procedures to ensure that PHI is never inadvertently passed on to your processor. Invoices, Explanations of Benefits (EOBs), and even patient notes in online payment forms would all have to be kept away from your processor. This approach might work for some very small practices that are only going to use basic credit card processing services and not integrated invoicing or other features.
However, for most practices, we recommend including your processor as a business associate and obtaining an agreement to secure HIPAA-protected information at all times. With many providers offering a HIPAA-compliant solution out of the box, there’s no reason not to take advantage of this feature. Having these agreements in place can also protect you in case of a data breach, where both payment and patient information could be compromised.
PCI Compliance Requirements
Since dental practices have the same PCI compliance requirements as any other business, it’s good to be familiar with them and ensure that your practice is taking all appropriate steps to maintain compliance. While some providers charge discrete PCI compliance fees for services such as security scans, others include this cost as part of your monthly account fee or subscription. Also, most providers will charge you a monthly PCI non-compliance fee if your account is determined to be out of compliance. You can usually avoid these fees by ensuring that your Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) is kept up to date.
If you’re using a customer information management database to store card-on-file information, it’s also a good idea to enable tokenization and encryption features to ensure that you have the highest level of security available.
Payment Security
Your payment security requirements will be fairly minimal if you just use a credit card terminal in your dental office for in-person payments. However, online payments through your website should be protected using every security measure available. This mostly means using tokenization and encryption, which virtually all credit card processors now offer. You might also want to consider using anti-fraud programs to protect against the chance of inadvertently accepting a stolen credit card.
Which Credit Card Processor Is Right For Your Dental Practice?
Whether you want a simple setup to accept the occasional credit card payment or you’re interested in integrating credit cards and other payment methods into your overall dental office management, a good payment processor can offer you the tools you need.
As with any other business, selecting the best provider comes down to three critical factors:
Compatible products and services that meet your needs
Fair, transparent pricing
Flexible contract terms
The providers we’ve profiled above offer all of these features, although some will be a better fit for your practice for one reason or another.
We also highly recommend considering a provider that offers a HIPAA-compliant processing solution with adequate security and privacy protection features included. Online fraud is surging these days, and even dental offices aren’t immune from becoming targets of cybercriminals.
Unfortunately, we can’t recommend any of the payment processors that integrate directly with the major dental practice management software suites at this time due to high costs and a poor reputation for customer support. Manually entering payment information into your practice management software won’t be very labor-intensive for most dental offices and could save you a significant amount of money in processing costs if you sign up with a reputable provider. Good luck!
In Summary: The Best Credit Card Processing For Dental Offices
Frank has been writing about payment processing and business services since 2015. He is a retired Air Force officer and a former practicing attorney. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the Ventura College of Law, and currently resides in Paso Robles, California.
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The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.
Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships.
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone.
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