Chiropractic, physical therapy, IV therapy, massage, acupuncture, and wellness centers operate outside the insurance complex for a reason — margin control. Surcharging keeps that margin intact by shifting the processing cost onto the patient who chose to swipe a rewards card, not the clinic trying to keep the lights on.
Figures are directional. Eligibility, ceiling, and actual recovery confirmed from your statement.
The 10-visit chiropractic adjustment plan. The quarterly IV membership. The 6-session massage package. All billed month after month to a card on file — and month after month, 3% walks out the door before the first appointment is scheduled.
An $85 adjustment is below most wellness operators' attention threshold for fees — until you multiply by 40 visits a day. That's a four-figure processing bill a month on adjustments alone, before add-ons, before retail, before supplements.
Supplement sales, topicals, orthotics, take-home wellness products — small tickets, interchange-plus-per-transaction pricing bites hardest here. Surcharging on the credit swipes and routing loyal patients to ACH for recurring plans cleans up the leak in one pass.
Front-desk signage, intake-form language, and invoice line-item disclosure that reads like a clinic — not a retail store. Patients understand; they don't feel charged.
Card-on-file recurring bills with the surcharge correctly applied to credit-card rebills and skipped on debit/ACH — configured once, runs without intervention.
At membership sign-up, the default payment method is ACH. Patients who prefer credit can switch — they just see the surcharge and make the choice themselves.
HSA and FSA debit cards are treated as debit — no surcharge, correctly classified — so patients using pre-tax dollars are never charged a fee on top.
Works with the common clinic platforms (Jane, ChiroTouch, WebPT, Mindbody, Vagaro and similar). No second database; no duplicate patient files.
Surcharging is not permitted in every state (notably CT and MA, with specific disclosure rules elsewhere). We verify your service area and configure cash-discount instead where surcharging isn't available.
Composite drawn from outcomes across chiro, PT, and IV therapy clinics post go-live. Actual recovery depends on membership-plan share of revenue, retail/supplement ratio, and HSA/FSA card mix.
Annual credit volume
$1.1M
Surcharge applied
3.0%
Annual recovery (est.)
$33,000
Net cost on credit
≈ 0%
A specialist returns a written program design — eligibility, ceiling, PMS integration, patient-facing disclosure — within 48 hours.