Mid-Atlantic Health Law TOPICS

Beginning October 1, 2015, merchants (businesses that obtain payment by credit/ debit card), including health care providers, will face greater counterfeit card loss liability if they take credit card payments but have not migrated to chip-enabled technology.

"EMV" is the term used by the major card networks for chip-enabled smart cards that can generate one-time PINs at terminals. EMV cards can significantly reduce the card-present fraud that has occurred with traditional magnetic-stripe credit/debit cards.

Currently, if a counterfeit credit/debit card is used at a merchants payment terminal, the card issuer (bank or other financial institution) bears liability for the resulting fraudulent activity. Starting on October 1, 2015, for most card-present transactions, if a merchant has not adopted EMV standards or doesn't process an EMV card using EMV standards, the merchant will be responsible for any related counterfeit card losses.

Health care providers that accept payment by credit/debit card that have not already taken steps to adopt EMV should contact their merchant processors to determine EMV requirements/costs in light of the coming liability shift.