Posting Patient Payments

To post a patient payment:

• Open the patient's chart then tap on the Financials tab.
• Click the Actions button in the top right corner, then select the option for Patient Payment. (Please note that you can also get to this screen from a few other places in the system, such as clicking Payments (in the left-hand menu of the PMS) -> Add Patient Payment, or by right-clicking on the patient appointment on the Schedule, and selecting Patient Payment option from the drop-down menu).

• Fill out the details of the payment, such as Payment Type, Amount, Clinic, and Provider (selecting Credit Card under Transaction Type will give you additional fields to add in Card Type and Reference Number, which can be whatever type of reference number you'd like). If you are utilizing the Square integration, you can also use the Credit Card on File functionality. 
• Select what you'd like to link this payment to by picking one or more of the following options:
  • Encounters: patient visits for which the provider has already signed the Progress Note and therefore already have associated visit codes.
  • Appointments: visits for which the provider has not signed the Progress Note and which do not yet have any associated visit codes (this is the option you will select from when documenting a patient copay amount).
  • Items: Non-billable products and services that you sell in the office (the Item must be added under the patient's profile > Financials > New Transaction > Item, before it will appear in the drop-down).
  • Balance Transfers: Any Balance Transfers that have been created in the patient's chart, used for documenting an outstanding balance the patient may have had from your previous system. 
• Once you have selected from one or more charges from the above dropdown menus, you will see them listed under the Description header (they can be deleted by clicking the "X" icon to the far right of each).

• For any amount the patient is paying off today, like a past balance or Item charge, you must click on Distribute to apply the payment which will bring the Balance column to $0.
• For payments tied to Appointments, such as copays, you do NOT need to apply the payment by clicking Distribute (this will be done by the biller once the ERA comes back in).
• Click the blue Post button in the bottom right corner to save and post this payment to the patient's chart. (Or first check the Print Receipt option before clicking Post if you would like to download a PDF receipt to print for the patient)
• You can always edit a patient payment by clicking back into that payment and making the necessary changes.

Scenarios:

1. A patient comes in on 11/1/21 and needs to pay a copay of $35 for today's visit. If I am at the front desk, I right-click on the appointment and go to Edit Patient to bring up that patient's chart, go to Financials, and select Patient Payment under the New Transaction button. I then fill in the Transaction Type (cash), the amount ($35), clinic, and provider. I then find the appointment for 11/1/21 under the Appointments dropdown because I know the provider has not yet finalized the note. I click Post because the patient does not need a receipt. Now my biller will know that the $35 I collected is earmarked for the visit on 11/1/21 and they can apply it to specific charges once the see how insurances pay on the claim. I will see the Unapplied Amount as $35.

2. A patient comes in for their appointment on 11/1/21 and would like to pay the balance on a statement they received as well as  to buy a face cream the office sells. The statement is for $70 for a visit on 10/1/21 because they had a deductible and insurance did not cover the entire cost of the visit. The face cream is $30, so the patient owes $100 for these charges. After going to the patient's profile, I go to Financials > New Transaction > Item and add an Item of $30 for the face cream. I then click New Transaction > Patient Payment, enter the Transaction Type (cash), Amount ($100), clinic, and provider. I select the Encounter for 10/1/21 (which has a balance of $70 listed next to it) and the Item for the face cream from 11/1/21. With the two items now listed under Description, I click Chronologically so that $70 of the $100 is applied to the visit from 10/1/21 and $30 is applied to the face cream. The balance column should read $0 next to each item. My Unapplied Amount should be $0.