The Create Payment screen is designed for admins to submit payments for a bill, time of service or insurance reimbursement. It is also helpful if a patient wants to make a partial payment, use more than one payment method to pay a bill, or if there are multiple bills that need to be paid for members of the same family (i.e., spouses, children, etc.). If the user chooses a Payee Type of Insurance or Other, we automatically select a Payment Type of Now Payment.
 

Bill Payment

To pay one or more bills, choose the Payment Type of Bill Payment and search for the patient using Patient ID, Date of Birth, Phone, Email, Statement ID or Name.

Figure 110 - Create Payment > Bill Payment

If you wish to use more than one criterion, choose + Search Criteria and enter the info on the second line. To remove this line, use the trash can icon. When searching by Name, you can use Last Name only, or Last Name, First Name (e.g., Jones, Will) to get more precise results. If you enter Last Name only, it will be a partial search. If you enter both Last Name and First Name, the Last Name will be an exact match, and the First Name will be any values that start with that criterion. Below we’re using both phone and patient ID to get more precise results.

Figure 111 - Create Payment > Bill Payment Multiple Criteria

A listing of bills will be shown with columns for the Patient Id, Patient Name, Date of Birth, Statement Date, Status, Amount Due, and Payment Amount. The bills listing should include bills in status DUE or SUSPENDED, as well as bills actively enrolled in a payment plan. You can check the box next to each row to add the bill to your payment or the Select All checkbox to add all bills. The Total Payment Due will auto-calculate your payment amount based on the Payment Amount for each bill. You can make a partial payment by adjusting the Payment Amount.

NOTE: You can only select/pay bills for a single guarantor so you will be prevented from selecting more than one guarantor in the listing.

If you wish to add a Now Payment (i.e., co-pay), you can click Add a Now Payment. The popup will prompt for the Now Payment details including First Name, Last Name, Patient ID, Due Amount, Payment Amount, Date of Service, Invoice Number and Description.

Figure 112 - Add Now Payment

The Payment Information section captures payment information before allowing the user to submit payment. If the selected guarantor has any cards or ACH on file, those are listed here. The user can also enter a new Credit/Debit card or choose ACH to use a bank draft (if these payment methods are configured with a valid MID configuration).

Figure 113 - Payment Information

The Payment Summary section summarizes the bill payment and allows you to select a payment location (if locations are defined) before finalizing the transaction. If the organization has the Service Fee feature flag enabled, the Technology fee line item will be calculated and displayed here for full transparency.

Figure 114 - Payment Summary

Now Patient Payment

A Now patient payment is ideal for payments like co-pay where they are not tied to a specific bill. This screen defaults to searching for a returning patient so you can save time and use card on file. If your patient doesn’t already have a record in our system, you can choose New Patient to enter a new record.

Returning Patient

If you choose Returning Patient, you are given the option to search by DOB (default), Patient ID, Name, Email or Phone. Note that this search will not be restricted to the selected practice so that you can utilize the patient match algorithm, reduce duplicate records and card on file. The search results will list all patient/guarantor records that match for practices to which you have permissions. The columns displayed include Patient ID, Patient Name, Date of Birth, Email and Phone. You can sort the results by a given column in ascending or descending order by clicking the column header.

Figure 115 - Now Payment Returning Patient

If you want to refine your search, you can choose + Search Criteria to add additional criteria. To remove the line, select the trash can icon.

Below we are using a best practice of two forms of identification to locate the correct patient – date of birth and last name. When searching by Name, you can either enter Last Name only (partial search), or provide Last Name, First Name (last name exact match and first name starts with). For example, “Jones, Will”.

Figure 116 - Now Payment Returning Patient Multiple Criteria

Once you select a patient/guarantor record, the rest of the Now Payment screen is shown including Patient Information, Bill Information, Payment Methods and Send Receipt sections.

The Patient Information block is prefilled with the selected patient/guarantor name and Patient ID. You can change the Patient ID if you want to create a Now payment for a different practice. The regular rules apply as to which fields are required under Patient Information and Bill Information based on Admin Configuration.

Figure 117 - Now Payment Returning Patient Workflow

If the selected patient/guarantor has any card or ACH payment methods on file, they will be shown under the Payment Methods section. This allows faster processing of time-of-service payments. You can also enter a new payment method if one is not listed, and they will be saved for the current patient/guarantor.

Figure 118 - Now Payment Payment Methods
 

New Patient

If the patient/guarantor cannot be found under Returning Patient, choose New Patient to enter a new record.

Figure 119 - Now Payment New Patient

The top half of the screen prompts for the Patient Information including Location (if Payment Locations are set up for the selected organization), First Name, Last Name, Patient ID, Date of Birth, Social Security Number and Drivers License Number / State. Additionally, you can enter the Address, Mobile and Email for the patient and have a more complete patient record.

Pay Now

The “How would you like to pay?” section gives the admin payment options depending on which features are enabled. By default, the Pay Now option is available to make an immediate Now payment. The Bill Information section prompts for Due Amount, Payment Amount, Date(s) of Service, Invoice Number, and Description. NOTE: Payment Amount cannot be greater than the Due Amount.

Figure 120 - Now Payment Pay Now
 

Payment Plan

If the provider has enabled NOW Payment Plans in configuration, the “How would you like to pay?” option list will include a Payment Plan option. This allows the admin to set up a payment plan to pay off a balance that is not related to a bill. If the user chooses Payment Plan, the Bill Information section will hide the Payment Amount and the Send Receipt? checkbox, as the receipt is generated once a payment is made. The admin will be asked to confirm the Email and/or Mobile Number for the guarantor/patient so plan communication can be sent. At least one form of communication is required.

Figure 121 - Now Payment Plan Communication Preferences

After confirming communication preferences, the admin can choose an installment and start date for the plan based on the Due Amount. The start date must be set within 60 days (same as payment plans tied to bills). NOTE: If the guarantor’s email or phone is valid and PatientPay has already communicated to the patient through that email/phone (dunning communication or previous payment plan), we do not display the Communication Preferences dialog.

Once Submit Payment is pressed, and the user confirms via the optional Review and Confirm Payment dialog, PatientPay sets up a payment plan to pay off the balance in full. The same communication is sent to the patient/guarantor as with bill payment plans around plan set up, installment drafts (3 days advanced notice), payment method changes, or plan cancellation. The admin and/or patient have access to this Now payment plan via the Patient Portal in case they need to cancel or update the plan at any time. Each payment plan installment is recorded as a Now payment and displayed in the Bill History for the patient account.

Figure 122 - Now Payment Plan Set Up

Send Payment Link

If the provider has enabled the Send Payment Link feature flag in Admin Configuration, the “How would you like to pay?” option list will include a Send Payment Link option. This allows the admin to queue up a Now payment for the patient to complete at their convenience (helpful for pre-reg or reduce wait times at check-in). If the user chooses Send Payment Link, the Bill Information section will hide the Payment Amount, Payment Methods section and Send Receipt? checkbox, as the receipt is generated once a payment is made. The admin will be asked to confirm the Email and/or Mobile Number for the guarantor/patient so that a secure bill link can be sent. At least one form of communication is required.

Figure 123 - Send Payment Link Email/Mobile Confirmation

The admin will enter a Due Amount and any additional/required Bill Information before pressing Submit Payment. The Due Amount will be used to create a bill for the patient/guarantor. Once Submit Payment is pressed, and the user confirms via the optional Review and Confirm Payment dialog, PatientPay will send an email and/or SMS text message to the patient/guarantor using the Initial Bill templates defined for the organization. This will include a secure link to the bill with the same Date of Birth validation used for regular bills. Once the patient authenticates, they can enter their credit card or bank information to pay the balance in full. This transaction is recorded as a Now payment against the patient’s account.

Figure 124 - Send Payment Link
 

Subscriptions

If the provider has enabled the Subscriptions feature flag in Admin Configuration, the “How would you like to pay?” option list will include a Subscription option. This allows the admin to set up a recurring Now payment for memberships or repeating services (e.g., athletic trainer). If the user chooses Subscription, the Bill Information section will be swapped out for Subscription Information to prompt them for the information required to set up the subscription. If the organization has created any subscription presets, the Subscription drop-down list will present these options. Users can either manually enter the subscription details or choose from the list. All information is required. A subscription can be perpetual (runs until manually cancelled by admin or patient) or a fixed number of payments. Like payment plans, the subscription start date must be set in the next 60 days.

Figure 125 - Now Payment Subscription Information

Below we’ve set up a subscription for pool use that bills the card or bank account monthly for $25 starting on 10/25/2024. This would draft every month on the 25^th at noon like payment plans.

Figure 126 - Example Subscription

The Payment Method section prompts for new Credit/Debit, ACH or Card Reader depending on the provider's configured payment methods.

Figure 127 - Now Payment Payment Method

The minimum required fields are First Name, Last Name and Payment Amount. Admins can control whether Patient ID, Due Amount, Invoice Number and Service Dates are required via configuration. If Save card information or Save ACH information is checked, you are opting to save card / ACH on file for the new patient and the Patient ID, Date of Birth, and Address are required. Mobile and Email are strongly encouraged to give communication options for the patient and improve the accuracy of our patient match.

Figure 128 - Now Payment Required Demographics

Check Send Receipt? if you wish to send a payment receipt via Email, SMS or Print and the Send Receipts dialog will present to capture the necessary information. If we have the patient/guarantor Mobile and Email, they will be prefilled in this dialog. NOTE: This checkbox is hidden when choosing Payment Plan, Send Payment Link or Subscription as receipts are sent out when each payment is drafted.

Figure 129 - Send Receipts Dialog

The Payment Summary section summarizes the Now payment totals that will be charged before the user presses Submit Payment to confirm the transaction.

Figure 130 - Now Payment Payment Summary

Upon pressing Submit Payment, the user is showing the Review and Confirm Payment dialog (if Display Submit Payment Confirmation for NOW payment is enabled in Admin Configuration) whereby they can confirm they have entered the correct amount before confirming payment. If the Patient ID is provided, it will be displayed on this dialog so that admin can be sure they have the correct value.

Figure 131 - Review and Confirm Payment Dialog

Once a payment is made, we display a confirmation. If you choose to print the receipt, a download link is provided to download a PDF receipt to your browser.

Figure 132 - Create Payment Confirmation

Now Insurance Payment

A Now insurance payment is used for reimbursement from the insurance company via virtual credit card (vCard). This card is single use so once the funds are exhausted from the card it is disposed of. There is no reason to save card on file for these transactions, so we only show the New Credit/Debit Card payment method.

Users are required to enter Location (if payment locations are configured), Patient ID (if required in Admin Config for NOW payments), Insurance Name and Payment Amount. Description is optional.

Figure 133 - Now Insurance Payment

Once the user enters the vCard information into the New Credit/Debit Card section, they can opt for payment receipt via Email, Text or Print before pressing Submit Payment.

Figure 134- Now Insurance Payment Method

Technology Fee

If the Service Fee feature flag is enabled for an provider, and the bill or payment amount exceeds the configured threshold, the Create Payment screen will automatically calculate a technology fee and apply it to the payment when paying with credit/debit card. This includes cards on file. A fee is not calculated when using Bank Account/ACH. Providers use this feature to pass on card processing fees associated with higher bill balances.

Below the New Credit/Debit Card payment method, a message is displayed to the admin explaining the fee (configurable in Admin Config). Additionally, a “Technology fee” line item is added to the Payment Summary section so the admin is aware of the fees included. The fee percentage is also configurable in Admin Config). Below we show the Create Payment screen when Service Fee is enabled.

Figure 135 - Admin Create Payment Technology Fee