Merchant category codes

MCC 5047: Medical, Dental, Ophthalmic and Hospital Equipment and Supplies

MCC 5047 is the merchant category code for medical and dental equipment, wholesale. It tells every card network what kind of business you are, and that decides which interchange rates your sales can qualify for.

Written by Robert Day, Founder and Managing Partner of weAudit.com, previously an executive at Fifth Third Processing Solutions, later Vantiv and Worldpay, now part of Global Payments, the world’s largest card processor. Published October 2026.

MCC 5047 at a glance

5047

Name: Medical, Dental, Ophthalmic and Hospital Equipment and Supplies

Distributors and wholesalers of medical, dental, laboratory and hospital equipment and supplies.

Seeing it on your own card statement?

It means the business is classified as a medical equipment and supplies distributor.

What MCC 5047 covers

MCC 5047 covers businesses that supply medical, dental, ophthalmic and hospital equipment and supplies, typically to practices, clinics and hospitals rather than consumers.

Code	Name	How it differs
5047	Medical, Dental and Hospital Equipment	Equipment and supplies for healthcare providers
5122	Drugs and Druggists’ Sundries	Wholesale drug distribution
5912	Drug Stores and Pharmacies	Retail pharmacies
8099	Medical Services, Not Elsewhere Classified	Health services

Why the code changes what a business pays

Medical supply distributors sell to practices and hospitals, which often pay with corporate and purchasing cards on large invoices. The code identifies the business as a supplier rather than a provider, and the data sent with each sale decides whether those cards clear at the lower commercial rates.

The code is set when the account is opened, usually by whoever filled in the application. Nobody checks it again unless you ask. A wrong code costs money on every sale for as long as the account is open, and it never appears on the statement as a fee.

Why the code matters more for B2B sellers

For wholesalers and distributors, the code is only half the story. Business, corporate and purchasing cards carry their own interchange, and the lower rates depend on Level 2 and Level 3 data reaching the card networks with every sale. On Visa corporate and purchasing cards, complete data can cut interchange by close to a full percentage point; on Visa business cards the gap is smaller, about a quarter of a point as of 2026. A correct code with incomplete data still leaves money on the table on every large invoice.

See Level 3 credit card processing, Visa’s Commercial Enhanced Data Program and the Credit Manager Toolkit.

Signs MCC 5047 may be the wrong code

Your statement shows a medical services code instead of a supply code
Hospital and practice purchasing cards clear at standard rates
Large invoices paid by card downgrade
You have never been asked about Level 2 or Level 3 data

See the full merchant category code list, run your numbers with the fee calculator, or read why setup matters more than the rate you were quoted.

Common questions

What is MCC 5047?

It is the merchant category code for medical, dental, ophthalmic and hospital equipment and supplies.

What is the difference between 5047 and 8099?

5047 is for suppliers of equipment and supplies. 8099 is for medical services and health practitioners.

Why do medical distributors pay high card fees?

Because their customers often pay large invoices with commercial cards, and without complete Level 2 and Level 3 data those sales clear at higher interchange.

Can a distributor change its merchant category code?

Yes, by asking its processor, as long as the code matches what the business actually does.

Can the wrong code cost a business money?

Yes. The code decides which interchange programs a sale can qualify for, so a wrong one can cost money on every sale without ever appearing as a fee.

Send us a statement. We will check your code, and everything else.

Our first audit is free and takes about five minutes of your time. We check whether your account is coded and set up correctly, including the Level 2 and Level 3 data your business-card sales depend on, and if there is nothing to find, you will know that too.

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About this page: merchant category codes are defined by the ISO 18245 standard and published by the card networks, which occasionally add, retire or rename codes and do not always use identical names. Code names here follow Visa and Mastercard published lists, checked October 2026. Whether a code is right for a particular business depends on what it actually sells; your processor and the card networks make the final assignment.