What happens when a patient's card declines?

The charge is retried on a schedule and the patient is notified with a link to replace the card in the portal. The order is held rather than cancelled, so when payment clears the shipment goes out on the original cycle instead of the program lapsing.

How does Connect reduce chargebacks?

Patients who can pause, cancel or update a card themselves dispute far less than patients who cannot reach anyone. When a dispute does come, the response is assembled from records the system already holds: consent captured at enrollment, order and delivery confirmation, and the patient's own portal activity.

Are compounded weight and hormone programs really high risk for payments?

It is a classification, not an opinion. General healthcare services and pharmaceutical sales sit in different merchant categories, and compounded prescription products fall in one the card networks treat as high risk. A practice dispensing medication under a physician or medical services category is usually operating outside its own merchant agreement, and the discovery event tends to be a hold on funds rather than a warning.

Platform Pharmacy Network Compliance Who It's For Pricing

Platform

Payments and recovery

Failed payment? Let Connect
run the recovery workflow

Q: Do we need our own high-risk merchant account?

No. Payments are part of Connect and already configured for compounded prescription programs, so the practice is not opening a separate account, going through its own underwriting, or explaining GLP-1s to a bank that has never heard of them.

Q: Does Connect make our practice PCI compliant?

No. Compliance is the practice's own assessment. What changes is the number of systems that ever touch a card number: patients enter their own card, cards are stored as tokens, and staff and phone recordings are removed from the path entirely.

Q: What is the platform service fee on Connect?

3.90% plus $0.20 per transaction, dropping to 2.9% plus $0.20 on Accelerate and above. It is a platform service fee, part of Connect rather than a separate merchant application, gateway subscription or high-risk setup fee layered on top.

When a recurring program payment fails, Connect can retry the charge, notify the patient, let them update their own payment method and hold the medication order while the issue is resolved. Your staff sees the outcome instead of manually running the collection process.

Automatic retry workflow

Patient updates payment information themselves

Order held while payment is resolved

Program payments built into Connect

See payment recovery in action →

Payments are part of Connect, not a system you bolt on beside it.

What a decline costs

A failed payment costs more than the transaction fee

The operational cost is what happens after the decline: someone has to notice it, contact the patient, update payment information and keep the medication order from falling out of the cycle.

Program interruption

A failed recurring charge can hold up the medication order until the payment issue is resolved.

Staff follow-up

Without an automated recovery workflow, someone has to notice the decline and contact the patient.

Card handling

Taking payment information by phone can put sensitive card data into systems your team never intended to use for card storage.

Payment setup

Medication-related transactions can be classified differently from general medical services, which is why the program-payment setup matters.

Recovery

A failed card does not have to end the medication cycle

Cards expire, get replaced and decline for routine reasons. Connect can retry the charge on a schedule, notify the patient, let them update their payment method and keep the order on hold while payment is resolved.

Automatic retry schedule tied to the order.

Patient updates their own payment method.

Medication order stays on hold instead of being immediately cancelled.

Payment recovery

Recovered

Attempt 1 declined

Mar 1 · insufficient funds

Attempt 2 declined

Mar 3 · insufficient funds

Patient updated card

Mar 4 · in the patient portal

$363.00 collected

Mar 4 · attempt 3

The order was held rather than cancelled, so it continued once payment cleared.

The recovery workflow

Payment declines

Connect retries

Patient notified

Patient updates payment method

Retry succeeds

Held order continues

Connect runs the recovery workflow. Your team sees the result.

Sent to the patient

Automatic

Your March payment didn’t go through

Your saved payment method was declined. Update your payment method and your order will continue.

Update payment method

Nobody at the practice was in this loop.

The conversation

Keep routine payment recovery out of the care conversation

Connect sends the payment notice and gives the patient a self-service path to update their payment method. Your team can see the payment state without becoming the collection workflow.

Payment notices go out on a schedule, in plain language, without anyone deciding to send them.

The patient resolves it in the portal rather than reading a card number to a staff member.

Your team sees the current payment state on the patient record without having to ask for it.

Card handling

Let the patient enter the card instead of your staff

For Connect program payments, patients enter or update their own payment information through the payment flow. Staff does not need to hear, type or repeat the card number just to resolve a decline.

Patients enter their own payment information.

Cards are stored as tokens against the patient, so a repeat charge never re-handles the number.

Staff and phone recordings stay out of the card-number path.

Where the card number goes

Tokenized

In Connect

The patient enters it in the payment flow

Stored as a token against the patient

Reused for the next charge without re-entry

Never in the path

Read aloud to your front desk

Captured in a call recording

Keyed in by a staff member

Fewer systems ever touch the number.

Connect does not make your entire practice PCI compliant. PCI scope depends on your environment and your own assessment. The value here is reducing the people and systems handling card data in the Connect workflow.

How Connect is set up

Approved

Merchant category

MCC 5912 pharmacy, not 8011 physician

Credential

LegitScript Enterprise Certification Partner for Healthcare

Products covered

Compounded weight, hormone, peptide

Payouts

On a published schedule

Configured for the category before your practice starts selling in it.

Payment setup

Medication-program payments need the right payment setup behind them

Medication-related transactions can be classified differently from general medical services. Connect's program-payment infrastructure is configured for the pharmacy-related category identified on this page, so your practice does not have to open a separate program-payment account.

Program payments configured for the pharmacy-related category from day one, under DrWell's LegitScript Enterprise Certification Partner for Healthcare credential.

Payouts to your practice on a published schedule.

When a dispute occurs, relevant transaction records such as enrollment consent, order and delivery information and patient portal activity can remain connected to the workflow.

What changes

What your team no longer has to manually run

Failed-payment follow-up

Connect runs the retry and notification workflow whether or not someone remembers to check a list.

Patient outreach

The system sends the payment notice and the patient can resolve the issue in the portal.

Card updates

Patients enter their own payment information instead of giving card numbers to practice staff.

Platform service fee, starting at

2.9% + $0.20

per transaction on Accelerate and Apex. Growth is 3.25% + $0.20 and Starter is 3.9% + $0.20. It is a platform service fee, part of Connect rather than a separate merchant application you fill out and wait on.

Questions

Payments, answered

Do we need our own high-risk merchant account?

No. Program payments are part of Connect, so your practice does not open a separate account for these Connect transactions or go through its own underwriting for them.

What happens when a card declines?

Connect can retry the charge, notify the patient and let them update the payment method. The medication order remains held while payment is resolved rather than being immediately cancelled.

Does Connect make our practice PCI compliant?

No. PCI compliance depends on your environment and your own assessment. What Connect changes is the amount of card handling in this workflow: patients enter their own payment information, cards are stored as tokens, and staff and phone recordings stay out of the card-number path.

What happens if a patient disputes a charge?

Connect keeps relevant consent, order, delivery and patient portal records connected to the patient workflow, so that information is available for the response process.

Why is the payment setup different for medication programs?

Pharmaceutical sales and general medical services use different merchant classifications. Connect's program payments are configured for the pharmacy-related category described on this page, so your practice does not have to open and maintain that setup itself.

What is the platform service fee?

Rates start at 2.9% + $0.20 per transaction on Accelerate and Apex. Growth is 3.25% + $0.20 and Starter is 3.9% + $0.20. There is no separate merchant application, gateway subscription or setup fee layered on top.

Watch a failed payment move through recovery

In the demo, follow a declined program payment through retry, patient notification, payment-method update and recovery. Then see what your staff sees while the order waits.

See payment recovery in Connect →See all features

Failed payment? Let Connect run the recovery workflow

A failed payment costs more than the transaction fee

A failed card does not have to end the medication cycle

Keep routine payment recovery out of the care conversation

Let the patient enter the card instead of your staff

Medication-program payments need the right payment setup behind them

What your team no longer has to manually run

Payments, answered

Watch a failed payment move through recovery

Failed payment? Let Connect
run the recovery workflow