Patient payments

Post patient payments from Payments with New Patient Payment, from the Payments section of the patient's chart (under Insurance, then Billing), or with Collect Payment when you check a patient in. You need permission to post patient payments.

Post a payment#

1. Choose the patient. Search finds discharged and inactive patients too, marked with their status, so a past patient can still pay a balance. From the chart or the check-in the patient is filled in and shown, but cannot be changed.
2. Enter the Amount, the date it was Received and the Method: cash, check, card, money order or other.
3. For a check, enter the check number in Reference. For a card, run it on your own card terminal and enter the approval code; NeatPractice never asks for or keeps the card number. Deposit shows where the money lands: the automatic deposit for the day and method, unless you pick an open deposit you created for the same method. Switching to a method that deposit does not take moves it back to the automatic deposit.
4. Choose what the payment Applies to:
   • Oldest balances first pays the patient's oldest open balances until the money runs out;
   • Chosen charges lets you enter an amount for each open patient balance. Only this option sends them. If you change the patient after entering amounts, NeatPractice asks first: Clear and Change empties them, Keep Entries puts the patient back. Only what the patient owes is listed, not what insurance still owes; when the patient owes nothing, click Keep it on account in the empty list;
   • Keep on account keeps the money as a credit to apply later.
5. Choose Post Payment.

Money left after applying stays on the payment as an unapplied credit. It shows in Credit Balances.

Copays at check-in#

A copay taken at check-in is held for the visit. When the visit's charge is created, the copay applies to it on its own. If the visit ends up with no charge, the money stays as a credit.

Collect at check-out#

The visit screen shows a Patient estimate to people who post patient payments: what the patient is expected to owe for the visit before insurance decides.

• Before billing has the visit, NeatPractice prices each treatment line from the payer's allowed amounts in your fee schedules (the charge amounts for self-pay). Once the charges exist, it uses their expected allowed amounts.
• The patient's coverage on file splits it into Copay, Deductible (what is left of it) and Coinsurance, capped by the out-of-pocket maximum. A self-pay visit shows its price and the self-pay discount.
• Already paid counts patient money on the visit's charges and copays held from check-in. Due now is what is left of the estimate.
• A code no fee schedule prices on the date of service is named and left out of the estimate.

Click Collect to take the payment for the visit with the amount filled in. A receipt for a payment on an insured visit prints the same estimate. The payer's decision on the claim settles the real amount.

Receipts#

Every patient payment gets a receipt as soon as it is posted. NeatPractice saves the receipt as a PDF in the patient's chart documents, under the Receipts category (created the first time it is needed), and emails it to whoever paid: the responsible party chosen on the payment, else the patient.

• The email names your practice and carries a secure link, nothing about the patient, the amount or the services. The reader opens the receipt after entering the patient's date of birth. The link works for 30 days; five wrong dates lock it.
• No email goes out when there is no email address on file for whoever paid, or when that address opted out of email. The receipt is still saved in the chart.
• Moving a payment to another patient gives the new payment its own receipt on the right chart.

Open the payment to see the receipt's status (Emailed, Opened, No email on file, Opted out of email, Email failed or Link locked). Choose Email Receipt to send it again: leave the address empty to use the one on file, or type another address. Each send starts a fresh link.

Corrections#

Open a payment to see where its money went. From its header you can:

• print a Receipt (a PDF);
• Email Receipt for a patient payment (see Receipts);
• Apply Credit to put unapplied money on the patient's oldest balances;
• Edit Notes;
• Move to Another Patient when it was posted to the wrong chart: the payment is reversed and posted again to the other patient;
• Reverse Payment when it bounced or was entered by mistake.

On the Lines tab, Reverse Line undoes what the payment posted on one charge and keeps the money with the payment as a credit. Every reversal asks for a reason. Reversing needs its own permission.

A reversed payment and its reversal both stay in the list for the record, but neither holds credit: their Unapplied amount is zero, and the payment shows None, reversed.