Insurance payments

Most payer payments arrive as remittances and post themselves. Use New Insurance Payment on the Payments page for a paper explanation of benefits (EOB) or a payer that sends no electronic remittance. You need permission to post insurance payments. To work from an uploaded copy of the EOB, start from EOB review, which fills this dialog for you.

Post a payment#

1. Choose the Payer and the Method (check or EFT), and enter the check or trace number, the Amount and the date it was Received. Self-pay is not listed: money from a patient or responsible party is a patient payment, so its credit stays with that person.

2. Narrow the open lines with Dates of service from and to if the payer has many.

3. For each line on the EOB, enter what the payer reports:

   • Paid and Allowed;
   • Deductible, Coinsurance and Copay, which move to the next payer or the patient;
   • Write-off, the contractual amount. Leave it empty to write off the charge minus the allowed amount;
   • a denial reason code when the line was denied. A denied line takes no paid, deductible, coinsurance, copay or write-off amount.

   Amounts are dollars and cents, zero or more. To take money back, reverse the payment instead.

4. The row menu fills common cases for you: Paid as Allowed, Deductible, Denied and Clear Line. Each one replaces the whole line, keeping only the allowed amount you typed.

5. Check the summary at the bottom of the dialog. It totals every line you filled in, including lines the dates hide: how many lines, the amount paid, the amount adjusted (write-offs), the patient's share (deductible, coinsurance and copay) and what stays unapplied out of the payment's amount. The lines cannot pay more than the payment.

6. Choose Post Payment. Every line posts together, or none of them do.

Deposit shows where the payment lands. By default it opens a new deposit for this payment; to add it to a deposit you already created, pick one of the open deposits for the payment's method (see Deposits). A denied line opens a denial to work.

Lines outside the dates#

A line you filled in keeps its amounts when you change the dates, and it still posts. When some are hidden, the lines heading says how many; choose that text, or the Edited chip next to it, to show exactly the lines you filled in, whatever their dates. Choose the chip again to go back to the dates.

If a hidden line has a mistake, Post Payment switches to the edited lines and puts the cursor on the first problem. The summary says how many lines need attention.

Check before posting#

When some lines are hidden by the dates, or the lines do not use the whole payment, NeatPractice lists every line about to post, grouped by claim (chart number, date of service, code, paid and adjusted), and says how much stays unapplied. Choose Post Payment to post them all, or Cancel to keep editing.

Changing the payer#

Lines belong to one payer's claims. If you change the Payer after filling in lines, NeatPractice asks first: Clear and Change empties the lines and loads the new payer's, Keep Entries puts the payer back.

Apply the rest later#

You can save a payment before every line is entered, for example when the EOB has more pages to come. The money not yet applied stays on the payment: it shows as Unapplied on the payment and in the payments list (use the Unapplied money filter), and as an unapplied payer payment in Credit balances.

To post more lines, open the payment and choose Apply Payment. Pick the lines as before; they can pay up to the amount still unapplied. Lines already posted stay as they are. To correct one, reverse it from the payment's Lines tab; its money returns to the payment to apply again. Payments from an electronic remittance are posted from the remittance instead.

Files#

Open the payment and use the Files tab to upload a scan of the EOB or the check. Files are checked for malware before anyone can open them.