There is no arguing the fact that patient payments and the revenue that results are critical in today’s dental industry. A recent survey indicates that 88% of dentists are concerned about their patients’ ability to pay, and their second biggest concern (86%) was practice revenue. With dental industry revenue expected to come in around $137.7 billion in 2019, ANYTHING that results in increased payments efficiency and operational enhancement can be worth a significant amount of revenue. Enter recurring payments and the impact they can have on your operation.

OpenEdge – one of Open Dental’s payments partners – is the integrated payments division of Global Payments, one of the largest payment processors in the world, with considerable experience with payment processing in the dental industry. This article will focus on how you can utilize recurring payments technology – and OpenEdge’s Decline Minimizer feature – to increase your cash flow while virtually eliminating a process you’re likely doing manually.

The ability to charge a patient’s credit or debit card on a routine basis is clearly a payment choice that can be attractive to the patient, and it has significant benefits to your practice. You can set up integrated Recurring Charges for reliable payment collection that saves you time. But what if the patient’s card expires? Or they have a card compromised requiring a replacement? How do you deal with that hassle?

The Answer Might Be Easier Than You Think

Eliminating that hassle is exactly the motivation behind Decline Minimizer, the unique card updating feature provided within the OpenEdge processing solution. When a patient’s card information changes, the negative impacts include credit card declines, manual information hunting, and a nice dose of frustration. That is – unless this is all handled for you. And that is what Decline Minimizer was designed to do in your practice.

So How – Exactly – Does This Work?

Using Decline Minimizer is virtually effortless for the practice when using the OpenEdge solution within Open Dental. But there is a lot going on behind the scenes:

1. When a patient signs up for recurring billing, their card information is securely stored within OpenEdge’s Token Vault, where the information is encrypted.
2. This card information is updated nightly within the Token Vault.
3. Any impacted transactions are processed with the updated card information.
4. Your Open Dental software is updated with the new card information.
5. Your practice receives a notification if patient contact is required.

Fewer card declines mean more approved transactions and additional cash flow for your practice. And when it comes with a reduction in manual work and the resulting operational costs – that’s a bonus few practices can afford to ignore.

Ready to integrate Open Edge recurring payments within your Open Dental Software? Click here to find out more.