User Guide — Credit Card Plus — Overview

athenaCollector

athenaOne for Hospitals & Health Systems

With Credit Card Plus, you can process all your credit card payments directly through athenaOne. To use Credit Card Plus, your practice must have this feature enabled, and you must have the Credit Card Plus: Payment Processing user permission.

 

athenahealth processes credit card and other payment data in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

 

Credit Card Plus offers the following features:

 

 

Using a desktop check scanner and athenaOne, your front desk staff can process and deposit check payments. athenaOne verifies the validity of the check and availability of funds while the patient is still in the office.

 

 

 

The athenahealth partnership with U.S. Bank allows us to auto-reconcile all of these electronic payments.

 

 

 

Credit Card Plus gives you a simple way to obtain preauthorization to bill your patient's credit card automatically, based on the EOB amount. Credit Card Plus automatically sends the patient an email notification, charges the patient's credit card, and then sends the patient a receipt.

 

 

 

With Credit Card Plus, you can establish an automatic payment plan by putting a patient's credit card information "on file" with our partner Elavon. After the payment plan is established, athenahealth will charge the credit card automatically every month until the balance is paid. See Add Payment Plan.

 

 

 

 

You can see whether a charge is covered by a Card on File Credit Card Plus contract on the Collect Payment page. For charges covered by a single-appointment contract or a one-year contract, the Collect Payment page also indicates the date when the contract will go into effect and how much of the charge will be covered by the contract. For more complex payment plans, review the terms of the original contract via Quickview > View Active Contracts > details > reprint.

 

 

 

Credit Card Plus (CCP) supports point-to-point encryption (P2PE) and the EMV chip card for credit card transactions with the Ingenico Lane/3000 credit card terminal. P2PE and EMV are important security improvements that reduce the risk of credit card data leaks and fraud.

Note: Because of the enhanced security of the Ingenico device, you no longer need to re-enter your athenaOne password when you collect payments using the Ingenico device.

 

To learn more about the credit card security improvements made by athenahealth and the impact on your practice, please read the detailed FAQ.

 

 

Since October 2015, major credit card brands require that EMV cards in "card present" point-of-service situations be read via the chip instead of the magnetic stripe. Practices that do not have EMV-enabled terminals can still process credit cards with traditional magnetic stripes using the older MagTek and RDM machines. However, if a fraudulent transaction is processed with these older machines when a patient uses a chip card, your practice may be liable for the amount of the fraud.

 

The Ingenico Lane/3000 credit card terminal accepts the following payment methods:

  • EMV (chip) credit cards
  • Magnetic stripe credit cards
  • Near-field communication (NFC) capable credit cards
  • Contactless payment methods (such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay, and Google Wallet)

Note: If your organization purchased the Ingenico iPP320 credit card terminal, you can continue to use this device (Ingenico will continue to support the iPP320 device through December 31, 2030).

 

 

 

For information about purchasing the Ingenico Lane/3000 device, see the Lane/3000 Device Pricing and Order Instructions. You can find detailed installation instructions for Ingenico Lane/3000 terminals on the Success Community.

 

Depending on how your organization is billed for Credit Card Plus, you may be able to order Ingenico Lane/3000 devices on these athenaOne pages:

 

 

After you install the Ingenico device, you can continue to use RDM check scanners to scan checks, but the credit card swipe function is disabled. Also, you can leave the MagTek credit card swiper plugged in to your computer, but you can no longer use it.

 

Because the RDM device lacks EMV and P2PE support, we recommend using the following devices:

  • Ingenico Lane/3000 for credit card transactions. This device includes the latest EMV and P2PE and security features.
  • Burroughs SmartSource Micro Elite device for check and ID card scanning. The Burroughs device does not scan credit cards. No device currently exists that supports both EMV credit card capture and check scanning.

Note: The Burroughs device is not required. You can continue to use the RDM device for check payments.

 

For more information about the Burroughs check and ID card scanner device and how to order one, see the Burroughs Check Scanner Installation, Testing, Usage, and FAQ guide on the Success Community. To learn more about the credit card security improvements made by athenahealth, the impact on your practice, and how to order new credit card terminals, see the detailed FAQ.

 

 

 

You can choose to enforce secure device use in athenaOne when processing credit card payments. With this functionality enabled, practice users must use the Ingenico Lane/3000 device to make all Credit Card Plus (CCP) credit card payments. Practice users cannot make payments using keyboard entry or any other device, such as the RDM 7011f or MagTek Dynamag. If a practice user attempts to make a credit card payment without the Ingenico device connected, an error message appears.

 

Enforcing the use of the Ingenico Lane/3000 device does not affect the following:

Enforcing secure payment device use restricts CCP payments entirely to Ingenico devices. In the case of a device or network malfunction, you will be unable to accept credit card payments with a backup method. Carefully consider the ramifications of enforcing secure payment device use before you ask athenahealth to enable it.

 

This functionality is not recommended for all organizations. Please contact your CSM if your organization needs this functionality enabled.

 

 

 

 

If your practice uses athenaCollector or athenaCommunicator, you can use the Online Statement-based Experience (formerly QuickPay Portal) to improve the collection of patient self-pay balances. There is no additional fee for using the Online Statement-based Experience beyond the monthly and transaction payment processing fees paid to Elavon for Credit Card Plus.