Payments
Payments overview
Where money comes in: patient and payer payments, deposits, remittances, credits and refunds.
Payments is where your clinic records every dollar it receives and applies it to charges. Open Payments in the main menu. You need permission to read payments; posting, closing deposits, reversing and approving each need their own permission. If your access is limited to some locations or a caseload, you can open, reverse, move or annotate a payment only when every patient it was applied to is within your access.
The pages#
Click Billing in the main menu: each page is listed under Payments in the Billing panel. Denials is listed with the billing pages above it.
| Page | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Payments | Every patient and payer payment, newest first. Post a patient payment or an insurance payment. |
| Deposits | Bank deposits and how far their posting has come. See Deposits. |
| Remittances | Electronic remittances (835) from payers, matched and posted automatically. See Remittances. |
| ERA exceptions | Remittance claims that need a person before they post. |
| Payment variances | Insurance lines the payer allowed below or above the expected allowed amount. See Payment variances. |
| Credit balances | Unapplied money and overpayments. See Credits and refunds. |
| Refunds | Refund requests, approvals and issued refunds. |
| Approvals | Adjustments waiting for an approver. See Adjustments. |
| Payer suspense | Amounts a payer reports for a whole remittance, such as recoupments and interest. |
| Denials | Lines a payer denied, to appeal or move on. See Denials. |
Pages that list patients honor the patient panel: pick patients there to narrow the list.
How balances work#
Each charge starts with the payer that is billed first, or with the patient when there is no coverage. Payments, adjustments and moves change who owes what:
- a payment lowers the balance of whoever paid;
- an adjustment writes part of a balance off, such as the contractual difference between the charge and the allowed amount;
- a move hands a balance to the next payer or to the patient, such as a deductible or a copay.
Open a charge's Payment History to see every one of these entries and what each payer and the patient still owe.