Medical practices are struggling to expand sales as people defer dental and elective procedures amid general uncertainty about the U.S. economy, the chief executive of a practice-management and payments software firm said.
Practices have seen increased appointment cancellations and no-shows this year as patients skip dental and medical care they view as optional, Rectangle Health co-founder and CEO Dominick Colabella said Thursday in an interview.
The company, based in Valhalla, New York, sells practice management and payment tools for doctors and dentists. About 25,000 practices use Rectangle’s products. Its competitors include Utah-based Weave Communications, Compliancy Group and Dental Intelligence.
“The biggest challenge we find in today’s world is revenue growth in practices,” he said. “Between inflation, tariffs, [and] interest rates through the roof, practices are struggling to grow.”
The crux of the revenue problem?
“People are unwilling to spend,” Colabella said. “They’re looking at that credit card interest rate, they're looking at student loans. They’re looking at the car lease coming up.”
Last month, the processing and acquiring giant Fiserv said it would expand its Clover point-of-sale business in healthcare by partnering with Rectangle Health to develop a new software tailored to medial and dental practices.
The partnership is aimed at helping Fiserv deepen its relationships with small and medium-sized healthcare practices by integrating Clover with Rectangle’s software. Doctors and dentists use Rectangle for their practice management and electronic medical records platforms.
The lack of integration between the point-of-sale device and practices’ software made it “very difficult to win and keep business,” Colabella said. “That's what Rectangle Health is solving for them,” he said.
The Clover dashboard will include financing options, recurring billing, QR codes, text-to-pay and online payment options, according to Fiserv’s July 21 press release. The first deployments at healthcare practices will debut in the first quarter of 2026.
Milwaukee-based Fiserv said in its press release that the new system would expand Clover from restaurant and retail verticals “into one of the country’s largest, most in-demand, and most rapidly evolving markets.” Fiserv acquired Clover six years ago with its purchase of First Data.
“If somebody has an integrated system and you have a non-integrated system, the integrated system is generally going to win, price aside,” Colabella said.
Rectangle Health seeks to reduce practices’ accounts receivable as close to zero days as possible by keeping patients’ credit or debit cards on file to be billed quickly after the service is provided, he said.
“You don't leave the restaurant and then figure out how much the steak cost, right?” Colabella said. “You pay for the steak, you leave.” The company seeks to simplify “the business side of healthcare, which has always been a very disconnected, difficult payment process.”
