After an aggressive advocacy effort by MGMA, CMS released guidance on the issues of Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payments and the use of “virtual” credit cards (VCCs). Health plans sending VCCs must stop if a provider requests to receive payments via EFT. Most importantly, health plans (or their payment vendors) must not charge providers unsanctioned fees for the use of EFT. Permissible fees are limited to banking fees, typically around $.034 per transaction. In addition, practices are not required to contract for additional “value added” payment services from vendors and signing up for EFT does not automatically allow the plan to deduct funds from a provider’s account unless contractually authorized by the provider to do so. Access the MGMA member-benefit EFT/ERA Guide for more information and our sample letter to request payment via EFT.