546- Maximize Chiropractic Profits by Cutting Payment Processing Fees with Practice Pays

Welcome to The Evidence Based Chiropractor, where each week we deliver the latest chiropractic research and marketing strategies, all in the time it takes to get to your office. Now here's your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid.

Hello and welcome to The Evidence Based Chiropractor. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. On today's episode, we're gonna talk all about payments, specifically Practice Pays, a company I am personally invested in because I realize how important payments are in a chiropractic practice and the problems in my own practices over the years that I've had with the existing payment companies out there. This is gonna take place in the form of an interview with Jacob Lowe, who's one of the strategic partners over at Practice Pays. We're gonna dive into the flaws flaws that are probably happening in your current payment system, the benefits that PracticePayz can offer, and how they make it super easy to get paid while basically increasing your revenue by 3, 4, 5% right off the bat. That sounds too good to be true. It is not, and stay tuned to this interview to find out why. There. So for a doc who's never heard of PracticePayz, what's PracticePayz in a couple sentences?

Yeah, we're dual pricing model specifically for the healthcare niche. We eliminate any and all processing fees with a dual pricing model. We shift the transaction fee to the patients and we're absolutely free for doctors. It's that simple.

I love it. I love it. So tons of docs out there have been using the payment processing that just like kind of comes bundled with, with their EHR. They never think about it again. You talk to docs like this all the time. Uh, what are most missing by doing that?

So a lot of the time I've been talking to some startups recently, a cardiologist, he bought— I want to say it was Jane, and then it just came with the payment processor kind of underneath, right? So he paid for it, didn't really know. He paid for it, got one of our terminals as well. And he's like, well, I just kind of want to use Jane since I paid for it. And so they don't realize how much money they are losing per year. I recently just helped a chiropractor in the Orlando area. They did half a million in processing volume. They spent $20,000 in processing fees alone, 4%. Of every dollar that came in went to Clover. They were using Clover at the time. And so doctors are not aware that there are other options out there. They just kind of go with whatever and they think they have to pay these processing fees, which in reality they don't.

So, yeah, that's super powerful. And I'll ask like kind of a silly question, but just like super basic math, like when a patient pays $100 in a practice, how much of that actually lands in the provider's account with PracticePay? And rough estimate, how much lands in an account that doesn't use PracticePay?

With practice pays, you're getting every single penny. So it'd be $100. For example, I talked to a chiropractor in South Florida, won't name any names, but they were paying 8% across the board for processing fees. It was insane. And how this provider, this merchant provider presented it was, we're going to give you 1.79% per transaction. And so they thought they were only losing $1.79 per $100. What actually was going on was they were on the backend being charged settlement fees, which, you know, to get the money settled into their bank account and then risk fees. Fees as well on every single transaction. And so it just kept adding up and adding up. Eventually it came out to 8% per transaction. And so one thing I think doctors need to be aware of, if you're getting a health fee, right, a healthcare fee, you need to be aware of what's on the back end or how much of a subscription you're paying as well.

Yeah, yeah, that, that's really important. And for docs out there that might be listening for different things, different docs have different practices. Some are, you know, going one visit at a time, others are using care plans, memberships, recurring billing. Uh, I Correct me if I'm wrong, PracticePays will save the doctor that percentage on all billing, even if it's recurring billing. That, that could be money every single transaction, every single month that adds up over time. Am I right about that?

Correct. If you have 100 subscriptions, right, you're losing a few of those subscriptions to processing fees. If you think about it, right, if you have, you know, $99 a month for a chiropractor to come in, you get, let's say, like one adjustment a week. Yeah. Right? You're losing about $2.50, $3. And if you add all the other fees, which could be statement fees, PCI compliance, a normal subscription fee, it could be about $4 for every subscription, right? So if you have 100 of those, you could be losing 4 subscriptions just to process those payments alone.

Yeah, that's a big deal. And from a patient perspective, does this change things? If I'm a patient, can I still pay with a credit card, for example? Is my bill, uh, normal and customary, or is it totally different? How does it work for docs that are really unsure of how this works in any capacity, can you still tap a card? Can they pay online or in person or both? And then from a statement perspective, any big changes docs need to be aware about?

Great question. So PracticePay's terminals accept any and all payment types except for crypto. So tap to pay, chip, swipe, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Apple Pay. We also connect Zelle, Venmo, PayPal. There's one other service I can't think of off the top of my head. To your bank account. And so you can print off a sheet with QR codes and just leave that next to your terminal. In terms of patient pushback, I have about 15 merchants right now using PracticePayz. I haven't had any of them come to me and say, we're having patient pushback. If the patients do not want to pay that processing fee, they can use Zelle, they can use Venmo, they can write a check, they can use cash, right? They are not forced to pay that transaction fee.

That's fantastic. So there's, there's definitely options there. When a doc considers switching, sometimes this can be It can be a little intimidating, a little fearful. Man, my livelihood runs through the rails of my payment processing. How long does it take to switch and what are the disruptions at a front desk that a doc can expect?

Great question. So for my local providers, I can do everything for them. So for example, we put in a bank application, bank sends an agreement. Sometimes I've even had the terminal delivered to my house and I'll go set it up for them, teach them how to use it, and they're ready to go day one. I've had doctors set up as quickly as 3 or 4 days. We overnight our terminals once they're ready to go. But the transition, we make it as easy, as easy as possible. I do onboarding calls if doctors need it. We also have 24/7 customer support through our processing partner, which is Axpay. And so I connect our practices to our representative there, Brian Council.

So. Great. For docs that are exploring different payment companies, and there's quite a few out there and they're shopping around. What are— maybe I'll, I'll ask you to touch on two things. One, I think it might be pretty obvious, but I think it's worth going back to, which is what makes PracticeSpace different. The second one would be what's something docs should look out for when they're looking at a variety of different companies?

Great question. Obviously, outside of the fees, one of our co-founders is a doctor, Dr. Ray Lopez. He understands workflow. He understands being stressed. He cuts feet for a living. He's a podiatric plastic surgeon. And so he's very stressed. He's on a time limit. He's in South Florida, so he's obviously cutting some big names, right? And so He understands what it takes to be a doctor. So we simplify the system to the best of our ability. So it's easy to use and not just so advantageous on the fee side.

For docs that are out there looking at different providers, what are things that you'd recommend with that where you say, this is a question you're going to want to ask these other providers that you might be talking to?

If you have a lawyer, have them read it because the underwriting can just be all over the place. They'll send you 40-page agreements, right? With just a little bit of, you know, paragraph here Oh, we charge this on the backend if you do this, right? Understand what you're signing into. If you decide not to go with PracticePayz, understand what you're getting into because a lot of these payment processing providers, and we don't do contracts, they'll put you in for 3 to 5 years and you don't want to be stuck with something you don't like for 3 to 5 years. And that could add up to tens of thousands of dollars.

Yeah, that can add up over time for, for sure. Uh, let's talk EHRs a little bit. Can this run alongside existing EHRs or are there some EHRs where this is an absolute no-fly zone?

ECW and ChiroTouch are our two main focuses right now that we're working on full integration with. Our technology does a really good job right now with import and export. We've added a patient ID feature so you can export data from PracticeSpace— PracticeSpace, excuse me— and then import it straight into your EMR. We've tried— people have had success with Epic, Eclipse, I think JANE, and a little bit of ChiroHD as well. So I think Athena too.

Great. Great. Who is this not a good fit for? What type of practice would Practice Pays not be a great fit for?

Anybody who does not take credit cards.

Well said. So well said. And if a doc watching and listening, I'm going to encourage everybody, if you're listening and watching, please click on down below, connect with Jacob and the team and just ask your questions. This is something that could impact your bottom line to the tune of literally over your career, millions of dollars. Tens of thousands per year, and for some docs, probably approaching 6 figures over a 1-year and 18-month period. So this is a really massive issue. And I think about it just doing my own P&L, looking at my own OpEx expenses, and, you know, having 3, 4% off the top before you've done anything else— you haven't paid rent, you haven't paid utilities, you have not paid your team, you have not paid yourself, uh, off the top— does not need to be that way. For far too long, I think docs out there have felt as though, oh well, this is just the way it is, and it has been, but it's not the way it is today. So if you're on an archaic system that's costing you 3%, 4%, in some cases it might be 7, 8% in the fine print, this is a massive opportunity for you to increase. There are very few opportunities that you have to increase profit and bottom line without seeing more patients or charging more money. This is one of the very few opportunities that, that do that. So Jacob, I got a question for the docs that are interested in their own numbers. Uh, are they able to hop on and have a conversation with you and sort of run some of these numbers? Is that a possibility?

Of course. I want to help doctors become more aware. Besides just saving you money, I want you to be aware of where you're losing money too, because like you said, this is one of the easiest areas outside of hiring an agency or hiring a marketing company. This is one of the easiest areas to increase your P&L in the snap of a finger. There's not a lot of things that you can probably do in your practice besides raise, raise prices where you can get 3 to 4% back right away.

Yeah, yeah, it's a big lever. So you've spoken to a lot of docs over, over, over the last year, getting an understanding of their practice and seeing some of the challenges and pitfalls as well. What's the one thing you wish every chiropractor understood about how they're getting paid?

There's always a different option. There's always an easier option. I think the biggest problem isn't necessarily knowing about the options, is doctors having the opportunity to explore those options. What's the chiropractor— funny enough, today my chiropractor And he was back to back to back to back. He doesn't have time to go look at other options. And so knowing somebody who specializes in this space, you can book a call on my calendar and just become aware, right? It doesn't mean you have to switch. Just become aware of what you're paying, right? And what that can— and what opening up 3 to 4% can do for your practice in the long run. I talked to a chiro earlier this year. They're 7 figures. They're losing $60,000 a year. That's a whole nother employee that you can hire. Those are a couple vacations. And if you want another car through your company, that could be another car, right? So $60,000 can be a lot of dollars if you're above that million-dollar mark top line.

Yep. That is powerful. Let's talk about benefits outside the realm of that 3 to 4%, which is massive on its own. But a lot of docs start thinking about, well, what are the other ramifications? What are some of the other benefits? Uh, you know, chargeback insurances, things like that. How does PracticePayz approach a holistic aspect of bringing a payment system into a practice?

I'll answer that in a couple ways. We offer $1,000 in chargeback insurance per year. We also have a feature. Normally doctors will log into practicepayz.com and the software will communicate with the terminal. We have one of our chiro— one of my chiropractors, he just bypasses it on the terminal, types in what he wants to pay, and then accepts credit cards. And so if you don't want to use our website, Totally fine. You could just use the terminal and you're getting that money tomorrow. So that's 24-hour settlements with Practice Pace.

Yes. And this can be utilized for cash pay, insurance, à la carte visits, modalities, memberships, concierge services. Is this applicable across all the different payment types that might happen in a chiropractic practice?

Correct. If it's happening through a credit card, debit card, pretty much anything you can think of outside of crypto, we take it.

So I love it. Love it. So for docs listening and watching that want to learn more, what's the best place for them to connect with you and have this conversation that I think is one of the most powerful they can have?

Yes. Book a call on my calendar below. I'll show you how we can help you save 3 to 4%. If you're not interested in passing the fee along, but you still want to save money or become aware of where you're losing money, we can keep the fee on your practice and eliminate any other fees that are— that you're paying right now and still save you money.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of The Evidence Based Chiropractor. If you want to grow your practice, come back for next week's episode. If you want to grow faster, visit TheEvidenceBasedChiropractor.com and join our MD marketing membership today.