Application to Person (A2P) Registration FAQs

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Updated: 06/06/2025 | Views: 917

Tebra supports SMS functionality across our platform modules and wants to ensure the practice’s messages remain reliable, compliant, and patient-friendly. Patients expect fast, convenient communication — but rises in spam messaging have led to stricter telecom regulations. Patient expectations are constantly evolving and becoming more complex - one of those expectations is how patients communicate with their businesses, including their healthcare providers. With 86% of US consumers opting in to receive SMS notifications and SMS open rates at 98%, ensuring patients receive texts from their provider is more important than ever. However, with greater consumer accessibility, there has been increasing difficulty in not only receiving texts, but also providing valuable brand interactions with them.

To protect patient messaging and ensure texts are not blocked or filtered, practices must register for Application-to-Person (A2P) messaging. Transitioning Tebra messaging communication to A2P compliance, ensures better deliverability, improved patient trust, and compliance with industry regulations.

Answers to the most common A2P registration questions.

Question	Answer
What is A2P?	A2P messaging, also known as business SMS, enables practices to send registered text messages to patients with a dedicated 10 digit long code (10DLC).
What is 10DLC?	10DLC is the registered text number associated with A2P compliance.
Why do I need to register for A2P messaging?	The increasing volume of spam text messages has led to stricter industry regulations that now require businesses that use SMS for patient communication to register their messaging traffic with The Campaign Registry (TCR) and adhere to A2P compliance. This ensures that messages sent from practices (e.g., appointment reminders, billing notifications, patient communications) are delivered reliably, not flagged as spam, and compliant with industry standards. This builds the patient's trust and awareness with a dedicated practice 10 digit text number for clear sender identification. Without registration, your practice may experience message filtering, delivery failures, or even service disruptions in addition to potential violations and associated penalty fees. Providing quality solutions and staying up to date with the latest regulatory developments, Tebra is planning on requiring A2P compliance for customers utilizing messaging services. In time, this will impact the following within the Tebra platform relating to Clinical, Tebra Patient Collect (Stripe) and/or Tebra Payments, Telehealth, and Engage offerings: Appointment reminders Patient Surveys for reputation management Two-Way Text Broadcast SMS GoodRx SMS when prescribing Automated Patient Billing Text Balance Reminders
Who should register?	All practices directly communicating with patients should register for A2P.
What information is required for registration?	A2P registration consists of two parts: Brand Registration (Business Identity Verification) For customers who are either publicly traded, privately owned, or a non-profit, Tebra needs the following information: Legal Company Name: The official, registered name of the business. Public Facing Name: If applicable, any alternative name under which the business operates. Business Type: Publicly traded, Private, Sole Proprietor, Non-profit. Tax ID/EIN: Employer Identification Number (EIN) for verification (Sole Proprietors may not have one). Website: A publicly available website that verifies the legitimacy of the business. Legal Business Address: Physical/legal address of the company (no P.O. boxes). Primary Contact Name: The name of the person responsible for the registration. Contact Email: A valid email address for official correspondence. Contact Phone Number: A business phone number for verification. Campaign Registration (Messaging Purpose & Compliance With simplified registration, Tebra handles campaign registration on behalf of practices and only requests the essential information needed for brand registration with TCR. This includes defining how your practice will use messaging, including: Campaign Use Case (e.g., appointment reminders, patient surveys, billing alerts) Sample Message Content (with opt-in and opt-out language) Opt-in Mechanism (how patients consent to receive messages) Opt-out Instructions (e.g., "Reply STOP to unsubscribe") Business Name Identification in messages
How do I register?	The registration form will be available in Tebra's web platform by the end of July 2025. Tebra recommends the practice gather all required information to prepare for registration. The A2P Registration form will be accessible in Practice Settings and throughout the message center for System Administrators or Providers to complete.
What happens after registration?	After completing the registration form, your business information will be submitted through Tebra’s coordination of A2P compliance with several entities including TCR and major telecommunication carriers. The status of your registration will be available in the web platform along with submission details. This coordinated effort is aimed to: Provide your practice with dedicated, verified phone numbers for SMS messaging within the Tebra platform. Improve messages reception with higher deliverability rates and be less likely to be flagged as spam. Provide compliance with carrier regulations, avoiding disruptions or penalties.
How long does registration take to complete?	Once the registration information is submitted to Tebra and submitted to telecommunication carriers by Tebra, carrier review can take 4 weeks or more. However, incomplete or incorrect submissions may cause delays and require resubmission. Additional carrier fees may apply for resubmission due to incorrect information.
Will the practice be charged a fee for A2P?	Beginning this year, practices will be charged a recurring annual A2P registration and compliance fee. The “Telecom Messaging Compliance” fee associated with A2P is an annual compliance fee set according to the number of practices and number of providers, indicating the level of technical coverage necessary for compliant messaging, including technical maintenance requirements, as well as costs to maintain service. Review the Pricing Policy to learn more about Tebra's pricing and billing policies.
Why is the number of providers relevant to my compliance fee?	The number of providers in your practice directly impacts how many text messages are sent, more providers typically means more patients and higher messaging volume. To keep those messages compliant and reliably delivered, Tebra maintains a robust technical infrastructure that scales with volume. That’s why the A2P compliance fee is based on provider count—it reflects the level of ongoing maintenance and oversight required. This approach allows Tebra to offer simple, predictable pricing without charging per message, so you can text patients confidently without worrying about fluctuating fees.
Our providers aren’t using SMS, why are you charging me?	If your practice isn’t actively sending messages today, registering your practice and campaigns is necessary to unlock the feature for future use that might involve messaging (e.g., appointment reminders, billing notifications, etc.). Compliance must be in place or message delivery will fail and can trigger carrier penalties. This fee ensures your account is set up for compliant messages and minimized risk. The A2P compliance requirement applies to the entire Tebra platform due to the deep integration of messaging across Clinical, Payments and Engage offerings. Even if specific SMS features are not actively used, the underlying capability necessitates platform-wide compliance, making the fee applicable regardless of individual feature utilization or registration. It's a platform-level requirement, not a feature-specific charge tied to usage.
Other vendors don’t charge a fee, why does Tebra?	Most vendors charge for A2P compliance, either as a flat fee or baked into higher text message rates. Tebra is committed to staying transparent by separating the fee while keeping text messaging itself unlimited. This approach provided better long-term value without additional usage charges.
How much would my practice be charged?	Review the Pricing Policy to learn more about Tebra's pricing and billing policies.
When will charges start occurring on the invoice?	The 2025 annual Telecom Messaging Compliance fee will appear on standard invoices beginning August 1, 2025 and throughout our customer base in September 2025. Beginning July 2025, new customers will be charged the fee.
Who do I contact if I have additional questions?	Contact Customer Care for assistance.