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A closer look at payments

Payments involve more than just swiping a credit card. With every swipe, many moving parts work together to process a patient payment, and ultimately, deposit funds into your organization's account.

How does Phreesia fit in?

Phreesia Merchant Payments Processing

FAQs

Phreesia is proud to offer our clients simple, flat processing rates. That means no hidden fees, no rate fluctuations—and more money in your pocket.

patient satisfaction with the Phreesia intake experience

patient self-service utilization

languages supported

specialties with tailored solutions

Cardholder = Your patient

Merchant = Your organization

Acquirer = Your bank

Issuer = Your patient’s bank

Card networks = Visa, Mastercard, etc.

Merchant services provider = Your credit card processor

Phreesia is a special type of merchant services provider known as a payment facilitator. We provide the technology to process transactions and we maintain the merchant account with an acquiring bank. This means we offer a simplified onboarding process for our clients.

Being a full-service merchant services provider, we cover in-house support, account management and risk management. When you use Phreesia, all of your payment-processing needs and questions are handled through a single, centralized solution.

Why Phreesia’s merchant onboarding process is different

After you complete the Phreesia digital merchant application, we won’t forward you to a third-party company like most banks and other organizations.

We assume responsibility for merchant account underwriting, and we open and maintain your merchant account, saving you time and money. We also provide you with the software and hardware you need to process transactions!

We manage funding, chargebacks, fraud monitoring and more.

You will always work directly with Phreesia.

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Tiered pricing vs. interchange-plus pricing vs. flat rates

Transactions are placed into one of three tiers: qualified,

mid-qualified and non-qualified. Each tier has different fees

Processors choose the tier rate and criteria for each transaction and can change them at any time

Tiered pricing

(what they offer)

Get to know Phreesia’s merchant services!

Interchange-plus pricing

(what they offer)

Billing statements are often confusing and contain hundreds of vague interchange categories that are hard to reconcile

Merchants (your practice) pay interchange fees (i.e., credit card processing fees), in addition to a set processor markup

Interchange fees are subject to change bi-annually, so your costs may increase

Flat Rates

(what Phreesia offers)

Rates are pre-determined and do not vary like tiered pricing, so you know exactly how much you’re paying

Invoices are simple and concise

Lower overall processing costs save you money

We accept all major credit, debit and HSA cards—all in one place

Our solutions are Level 1 PCI-compliant and P2PE-validated, which helps you mitigate risk, remain compliant and reduce your PCI scope by more than 80%

Our software and hardware are specifically designed and purpose-built to support healthcare organizations

Our streamlined PCI-compliance validation service is provided free of charge (unlike other companies that charge a monthly fee)

Why should you use Phreesia Payments?

It’s simple. Our robust payment tools help you save time and collect more, faster.

From zero-cost, real-time eligibility and benefits (E&B) verification to point-of-service payments and charging patients’ cards on file, Phreesia automates key parts of the payment experience—before, during and after the patient visit.

We provide end-to-end enterprise support by:

Automatically running E&B for your patients and providing a response within seconds

Streamlining all patient payments, whether in-office or out-of-office, through a single platform

Providing a dedicated Phreesia team member to support you

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why does the merchant application require my social security number (SSN)?
A: All financial institutions, including Phreesia, are legally required to identify the “beneficial owner(s)” of legal entities applying for a merchant account. Your SSN is used to confirm the beneficial owner identity. This requirement is a federal regulation designed to prevent tax evasion, money laundering and the financing of terrorist organizations.

Q: In the past, I haven’t been asked to provide my SSN when applying for a merchant account. What changed?
A: After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the federal government established the USA Patriot Act. Section 326 of the Patriot Act introduced regulations that define how financial institutions must collect and review customer information and perform a “Know Your Customer” (KYC) review. In 2016, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) introduced further regulations under the Bank Secrecy Act. Effective starting in 2018, those additional regulations now legally require financial institutions to identity the beneficial owner(s) of any legal entity attempting to open a merchant account. Therefore, if you opened a merchant account before 2018, you may not have been asked to provide this information. All payment companies are subject to these revised FinCen regulations.

Q: Is my data safe with you?
A: At Phreesia, privacy and security are our top priorities. All sensitive merchant account application data is securely encrypted using PCI DSS recommended standards and best practices. Phreesia is a PCI DSS Level 1 Service Provider and holds SOC 2 certification, which recognizes that we have industry-leading security, availability and confidentiality protocols. We never store sensitive cardholder data and use industry best practices to tokenize all data after it has been collected and processed.

Q: Can I use my own card swipes?
A: No. Phreesia’s card swipes contain Phreesia-issued encryption keys that only we can decrypt on our secure network. Any other type of third-party hardware would use encryption keys that our platform would not be able to decrypt, which would not allow us to process your payment transactions. Phreesia Payments processing ensures that sensitive cardholder data is maintained with the same high level of security as personal health information.

Q: Are certain transactions more expensive to process?
A: With Phreesia, no. Our flat rates are straightforward and do not change every time interchange fees increase. With most merchant service providers in the industry, every credit card transaction is subject to interchange fees, which are credit card processing rates set by the card networks. They vary by the type of card, how the payment was made, the location where the card was issued, etc. These fees are subject to change twice a year.

Q: Why are card-present and card-not-present transaction rates different?
A: With card-not-present transactions, the cardholder and card are both absent, which increases the risk of fraudulent transactions. As a result, the card networks (Visa, Mastercard, etc.) set higher interchange fees to process these riskier transactions, per industry standards.

Q: What is the difference between P2PE and E2EE card-processing machines?
A: Both P2PE and E2EE card-processing machines securely encrypt card data at the point of sale when a card is swiped. This data remains encrypted until it has securely reached Phreesia’s services. Data is then forwarded to the payment processor where it is safely decrypted. Both of these device types are PCI-compliant, and Phreesia offers both options. P2PE devices require additional device-management certification to validate that they are deployed using a secure chain of custody from deployment to installation at the practice's location.

Q: Does Phreesia offer EMV?
A: Phreesia offers encrypted P2PE and E2EE card swipes, which are PCI-validated payment solutions. EMV was designed to prevent counterfeit cards from being used in card-present transactions, but in the healthcare sector, it is incredibly rare for a counterfeit card to be used at the point of service. You may have heard about the 2015 EMV liability shift, through which merchants can be held responsible for fraudulent transaction chargebacks. With Phreesia Payment processing, you are protected from fraudulent EMV chargebacks. We offer free EMV-chargeback loss protection. If a cardholder initiates a chargeback, and it’s deemed EMV-liable, we pay the chargeback on your behalf.