Payment processors play a key role in a hospital’s finances, as well as the organization’s ability to meet minimum requirements and maintain PCI compliance.
To ensure that your medical center is ticking all the correct – and critical – boxes on the PCI compliance checklist, it’s important that your payment processor is able to answer some key questions regarding processes, systems and your organization’s ability to respond to a changing digital payment environment.
So grab a pencil and schedule a meeting with your payment processor, because here are the 4 questions you should be asking:
- How can we mitigate our risk exposure AND ease the process of PCI compliance? It’s important to recognize that easy PCI compliance and a secure institution are not mutually exclusive ideas. Keeping threats at bay does not have to be painful or onerous. Make “work smarter, not harder” your mantra. Streamline your processes in accordance with PCI requirements to create a sustainable system. This will ensure your hospital can protect its valuable data and sail through PCI compliance requirements at the same time.
- How does our growth in credit card volume impact our merchant services program? Growth is generally a good thing, it’s the growing pains that are hard. Increased credit card volume can sometimes change terms, limits and other aspects of a merchant services relationship. Areas such as minimum transaction, chargeback maximum and other elements may be impacted. Knowing the answer to this question is key to understanding how to position your organization for success and ensure the continued safety of data.
- What payment industry changes are going to impact us? What, if anything, can we do about it? It’s doubtful that your payment processor has a crystal ball (if they do, please contact us…we have a few predictions to confirm). But what he or she does have access to is information and trends that can help adjust practices and prepare for industry changes. For example, in October 2015 the EMV liability shift took effect, transferring counterfeit fraud liability from the credit card issuers to the party that had not enabled the chip – the merchant. Then in June 2016, both Visa and American Express extended temporary modifications to the EMV liability shift. As evidenced by this example, the industry is constantly changing. It is critical that your payment processor has a pulse on the industry and is keenly aware of developments and rule changes.
- Beyond having transactions passed through the system, what value should we expect from our merchant services provider and how do we quantify this value? Measuring expectations is a key component of your organization’s relationship with a merchant services provider. Asking this question will allow you to determine how the provider will be evaluated and what defines value at your hospital. It’s important to not just blindly trust that your provider is delivering. Minimum transaction, chargeback maximum, availability of EMV terminals – these are all elements of the merchant services relationship with which the payment processor should be intimately familiar. If your payment processor cannot speak to these areas or provide numbers, it’s time for him or her to get on the phone with your merchant services provider.
Need help?
Wind River Financial (WRF) can help you ask these questions and assess your systems and processes for opportunities. But it doesn’t stop there – we have the experience and know-how to turn questions into answers, opportunities into action.
Contact one of our relationship managers or sales associates today to learn more and discover what the WRF advantage can mean for your hospital.
