Procedures for Paying Research Participants

Payment Options <$200 per individual in a given year:

Payments to participants in research studies may be paid without collection of SSNs/ITINs for the options below if they do not exceed $200 per individual per year except for ClinCard that always requires SSN or payment is subject to 30% withholdings.

• ClinCard (Greenphire): ClinCard is a Study Participant specialized management and payment solution providing a virtual, single use or reloadable card as payment options. The study must first obtain IRB approval to use ClinCard and also obtain verification from the appropriate Departmental/Divisional financial approver that there is a valid IO and Fund# to support the use of the program. Once IRB approval is obtained, the Study can be set up within the ClinCard solution and administered locally by the department. ClinCard always requires a SSN from the payee even for amounts less than $200 otherwise the payment amount is subject to 30% IRS tax withholdings. ClinCard is subject to card and load fees. Note: ClinCard is in the process of being rolled out and will soon be available to all divisions/departments.

  • Study teams seeking to use the ClinCard as a participant payment option must first obtain IRB approval using the instructions available here.

  • For studies that use the ClinCard all participants must be provided with a Greenphire ClinCard Information Sheet.

• Petty Cash: The study must reach out to JHU’s Office of the Treasurer (AKA “Treasury”) to request creation of a petty cash account with Bank of America. Once created, the study will disperse the funds to the participants and submit monthly replenishment requests to the JH Accounts Payable Shared Service Center (APSSC). See the contact information for Treasury and APSSC below. Once APSSC reviews and posts, the money is directly deposited back into the study’s Bank of America account for further distribution. Please refer to the Petty Cash Policy.

• Gift Cards: Requests for gift cards in amounts under $200 from retail outlets will be handled in accordance with the Petty Cash Policy. Note: gift cards normally have an acquisition cost

• Anonymous Prepaid Visa Cards: Studies can choose this option by contacting JHSPH.BSPHSponsored@jhu.edu. They must provide the prepaid card application which includes: internal order number for expense booking, number of participants, and amount per card. Treasury will request the cards from Bank of America and provide to the study for disbursement. These cards are not reloadable or cash-accessible and may not be issued in amounts greater than $200. These cards will be replaced by Clincard once this program is fully rolled out.

Payment Options >$200 per individual in a given year:

 Payments to participants in research studies that exceed $200 must manually collect SSNs/ITINs for the options below and report annually all payments made to each individual.  ClinCard always requires SSN or payment is subject to 30% withholdings but reporting requirements are all automated.

•  ClinCard: See description above for ClinCard. Note: ClinCard is in the process of being rolled out and will soon be available to all divisions/departments within the SOM.

  • Study teams seeking to use the ClinCard as a participant payment option must first obtain IRB approval using the instructions available here.

  • For studies that use the ClinCard all participants must be provided with a Greenphire ClinCard Information Sheet.

•  Direct Payment from APSSC: Studies can choose to have their participants set up as vendors via the vendor management portal, PaymentWorks. Once created, the study will submit online payment requests (FV60) through SAP with all necessary supporting documentation. After the transaction is reviewed and approved by APSSC, the payment will be issued to the participant via check or electronic funds transfer, per their vendor record setup. See the APSSC Vendor Management page for details regarding PaymentWorks: http://ssc.jhmi.edu/accountspayable/vm/dept/dept_home.html

•  Anonymous Prepaid Visa Cards >$200:  Studies will need to coordinate with both Treasury and Accounts Payable Shared Services (APSS) for this option. Studies can choose this option by contacting JHSPH.BSPHSponsored@jhu.edu. Each participant will first need to be set up as a vendor within the Johns Hopkins vendor master portal by sending PaymentWorks enrollment invitations to each of the participants. SSNs should be captured through PaymentWorks, and studies should comply with the Johns Hopkins Personally Identifiable Information Policy in handling participant data.

Once the participant is set up in PaymentWorks/SAP, the next step is to submit an online payment request in SAP and simultaneously contact Treasury (copying APSS) to order the cards providing the study name, SAP codes for expense booking and amount.  Note: this payment option is being phased out and will be fully replaced by ClinCard once fully rolled-out.

https://ssc.jhmi.edu/accountspayable/index.html

Accounts Payable Shared Services: 443-997-6688 or apssc@jhmi.edu
Treasury: 443-997-8122 rcarter@jhu.edu or kbrowne@jhu.edu

SAP Online Payment Requests