Hidden Fee Finder for Chiropractic Offices
Chiropractic offices run many small copays, prepaid visit packages, and monthly care plans billed to cards on file. That mix makes per-item fees and card-on-file surcharges easy to miss. Enter last month's statement totals to see what your office really pays per visit and which lines are worth questioning.
Your statement check
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
The fees you ticked
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
About your pricing model
Bring this statement. A payments specialist can walk through it line by line with you. Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
How this works: the assumptions behind your numbers
Every number above comes from the totals you enter plus the assumptions below. Assumptions are estimates, not verified rates.
- Industry average effective rate by segment: retail 2.55%, restaurant 2.75%, ecommerce 3.15%, services 2.90%, healthcare 2.65%, b2b 2.80%, high_risk 4.25%. Source: TouchSuite pricing assumptions file (estimates only; replace with verified figures before launch).
- Comparison tolerance band: ±0.25 percentage points counts as 'close to average'. Source: Tool design assumption to avoid flagging trivial differences.
- Last month is representative: Monthly fee amounts are multiplied by 12 to annualize. Source: Tool design assumption; seasonal businesses should treat annual figures as rough.
- Annual fee frequency: Annual fee entered as a once-a-year amount, multiplied by 1. Source: Tool design assumption.
- Early termination fee: Treated as a one-time cost, not annualized. Source: Tool design assumption.
- Fee classification tags: Interchange and card brand fees tagged 'typically pass-through'; listed account-level fees tagged 'typically processor-set'. Source: General industry structure; actual billing varies by processor and contract, so tags read 'typically'.
- Sanity check bounds: Warn if effective rate is above 15% or below 0.5%. Source: Tool design assumption to catch data-entry mistakes.
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
How card payments flow through a chiropractic office
Most chiropractic offices take payments in a few distinct ways. Patients pay copays and visit fees at the front desk with a card present. Patients prepay adjustment packages up front at a larger ticket. Wellness or care plan members are charged monthly to a stored card. Some patients pay a balance online or over the phone after a statement goes out. Each path can be priced differently by your processor, so one blended rate can hide a lot.
Many patients pay with HSA or FSA cards, which usually run as debit cards. On an interchange-plus statement, debit and credit interchange show up as separate lines, so you can see the difference. On a tiered statement you usually cannot. That is one reason the pricing model question in the tool matters for your office.
Ticket size matters too. A $25 or $40 copay carries the same per-transaction, batch, and gateway charges as a $600 package. When fixed per-item fees are spread across small tickets, cost per transaction can look high even when the percentage rate seems fine. Check both numbers the tool returns, not just the effective rate.
Fees chiropractic offices should look at first
Non-qualified or mid-qualified surcharges: under tiered pricing, monthly care plan charges to a stored card, phone payments, and keyed-in cards are candidates for a higher bucket. Look for lines labeled Mid-Qual, Non-Qual, or EBT/RQ on care plan billing days.
Gateway fees: if your practice management or scheduling software takes payments, there may be a monthly gateway fee plus a per-transaction gateway charge. These can sit on a separate invoice, so add them to total fees if they are billed apart from the processing statement.
PCI non-compliance fees: small offices often pay these month after month because no one finished the annual self-assessment questionnaire. If you see one, ask what you need to complete to have it removed. Also check whether you are paying a separate PCI program fee on top of it.
Equipment lease and monthly minimums: a leased front-desk terminal can keep billing long after it has paid for itself. A monthly minimum can trigger in slow weeks, such as around holidays, when visit counts drop. Tick both if you see them, and look up the early termination terms in your agreement before making any change.
Worked example: a hypothetical chiropractic office
These numbers are made up for illustration. A two-doctor office processes $30,000 in card volume across 600 transactions in one month, a mix of copays, a few prepaid packages, and monthly care plan charges. Its tiered statement shows $960 in total fees. The tool returns an effective rate of 3.20%, a cost per transaction of $1.60, and an average ticket of $50.00. The healthcare industry average used by the tool is an assumption of 2.65%, so the office is 0.55 percentage points above it. That lands in 'Above the industry average', since the gap is larger than the tool's 0.25-point band.
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
The office ticks five lines: non-qualified surcharges, PCI non-compliance ($29.95), statement fee ($9.95), batch fees ($5.50 for 22 business days), and a terminal lease ($45). Four are tagged 'Typically processor-set' and the lease is a contract term, so five fees deserve a question. In the full breakdown, those entered amounts annualize to $1,084.80, assuming last month is representative. Annual total fees come to $11,520. The cost above the assumed industry average comes to $1,980 per year.
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
What a good result looks like for a chiropractic office
A healthy result is an effective rate close to or below the 2.65% healthcare assumption, a cost per transaction that makes sense for your average copay, and few or no fees tagged 'Typically processor-set'. You also want a statement where you can split interchange and card brand costs from markup. If you are on interchange-plus, compare your markup lines to your contract.
Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
Context matters. An office that bills mostly care plans to stored cards may run a bit higher than one that collects nearly everything at the front desk. Months when deductibles reset can shift your average ticket. If your rate is above average, the deeper report lists the exact questions to bring to your processor. You can also talk to a payments specialist at TouchSuite for a second look.
Frequently asked questions
A lot of our patients pay with HSA and FSA cards. Does that change how I read my results?
HSA and FSA cards usually process as debit cards, and debit interchange is categorized separately from credit. On an interchange-plus statement you can see those lines and tick them as interchange. On a tiered statement they are usually blended into buckets, so you cannot see what they actually cost you. The tool still calculates your overall effective rate the same way.
Why might our monthly care plan charges cost more than front-desk copays?
Charges to a stored card without the card present are often priced differently from a tapped or inserted card. Under tiered pricing, they may land in a Mid-Qualified or Non-Qualified bucket with an extra surcharge. Compare the statement lines from your care plan billing days to a normal clinic day. If the surcharge lines spike, tick non-qualified surcharges and ask how those transactions are categorized.
Can we add a surcharge or convenience fee to cover processing on patient payments?
Rules on surcharges, convenience fees, and cash discounts vary by card brand and by state. Some practices also check their payer agreements. This tool does not say whether any practice is allowed for your office. Confirm with the card brands and your state before changing how you price patient payments.
Which month should we enter if our volume swings with deductible resets and holidays?
Use a typical month where the volume, fees, and transaction count all come from the same statement. The gated breakdown multiplies monthly fees by 12, so an unusually slow or busy month will skew the annual figures. If your months vary a lot, run the tool twice, once for a slow month and once for a busy one, and compare. A monthly minimum fee that only shows up in slow months is worth noting.
Our practice management software handles payments. Can we still use this checker?
Yes. Use the processing statement from whoever settles the funds to your bank, plus any separate software or gateway invoice. Add those gateway charges to your total fees and tick the gateway fee. Otherwise your effective rate will look lower than what your office actually pays to accept cards.