5 Things You Need to Know About EMV Chip Cards in Healthcare

Didn’t September 30 feel like NYE of Y2K? October was an intense time in the healthcare industry with the ICD-10 deadline. But did you realize another race started this month? Say hello to EMV.

Check your wallet. You may notice that some of your credit cards may have a chip embedded in it. This my friend, is an EMV chip. It’s designed to be more secure than the magnetic strip which can be easily duplicated.

There’s a lot of information out there about EMV but not a lot about how it affects the healthcare industry. How are you supposed to know what’s accurate? Do you even have time to research it? Have no fear, we’ve done the work for you. We’ve compiled a list of the top 5 things you need to know about how EMV chip cards affect patient payments.

EMV compliance is mandated by the credit card brands – not a law set in place by the government.
EMV only applies to point of care / card present transactions.
October 1 was the start of the race, not a deadline, to get up to speed with the new technology.
Cards need to be dipped into the terminal, not swiped, in order to be considered EMV compliant.
Liability shift applies only for counterfeit cards – NOT lost or stolen cards.

Remember, October 1 was just the start of the race to the EMV card acceptance. Don’t get left in the dust.