Which processors require LegitScript certification?
The requirement is not specific to one acquirer. It follows the program across the processors that serve healthcare merchants, which is most of the market for compounded medication. Switching processors relocates the requirement rather than removing it.
Is certification required by every acquirer?
Certification answers a question the whole card-processing chain has to answer: is the business behind this offer legitimate and verifiable. Because every processor in the chain needs that answer, each one asks for it independently.
The practical result is that shopping for a processor who does not ask is shopping for one who has not noticed.
How do you check your own processor?
- Read the healthcare or pharmacy section of their underwriting terms, not the general terms.
- Ask directly whether telehealth programs require certification, and get the answer in writing.
- Ask whether your current account covers compounded medication, or needs a second account.
- Ask what they require beyond certification, so you are not solving one gate twice.
What happens with a processor that does not ask?
You end up processing a business line your account was not underwritten for. That is the same condition that produces a funds hold during review, and it is covered on the payments side of this site.
What does certification not cover?
Certification does not guarantee approval, and it does not set your pricing. The processor still underwrites the account on its own terms, and it may still decline or price the risk heavily.
What it does is remove the objection that cannot be argued around. That usually moves the conversation from whether the program is legitimate to what the terms will be.
How should you ask your processor?
Not whether they like telehealth. That question gets an opinion. Ask about the account instead, because that gets a fact.
What to ask
- Is the account approved for prescription medication shipped from a pharmacy?
- Does the approval require certification, and whose name does the certification need to be in?
- What has to be disclosed to underwriting if the service list changes?
- Who is the contact if underwriting asks a question after launch?
What to do with the answer
Write it down, with the date and the name of whoever answered. If the program is later reviewed, a written answer from your own processor is worth more than a public statement about telehealth in general.
Where the answer is vague
Treat a vague answer as an unapproved one. Underwriters make decisions from what is in the file, and a supportive conversation that never reached the file does not protect the account.
What does a good answer look like in writing?
| Answer | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| "Approved, and certification is in the file." | The account covers the program. Keep a copy. |
| "Approved, certification not required for your model." | Confirm which part of the model they assessed. |
| "We will review it when it comes up." | The account does not cover it yet. Apply first. |
| "That is not something we support." | A different processor, or a different model. |
The third row is the common one. It is not a refusal, and it is not an approval. It means the decision has not been made, and the account will be assessed on transactions rather than on an application.
What changes if you switch processors?
The certification follows your business rather than the processor, so it usually carries across. What does not carry across is the underwriting, which starts again from nothing.
Expect the new processor to ask the same questions and to take as long the second time as the first. Switching mid-review is the worst of both, because neither account is settled at the point where money starts moving.