When a balance is outstanding, their will be a financial note in the account section of OD explaining why and what DOS the insurance did not pay, or there will be a note on whatever that situation is. See below for an example:
As you can see, Cathy put a note in saying that the reason for the balance is that the fillings this patient had on 04/02/2024 were downgraded so the insurance left a little more for the patient to pay. Usually, Cathy is to put what exactly the balance would be.
If Andrew had more than one person on the account (wife or children), Cathy would put who the balance was for. For example: $30.20 balance for Andrew due to filling downgrade on DOS 04/02/2024.
When a patient checks in, they are given a gentle nudge about their balance. Our job in Check out is to try and get a full payment of today’s services and then any past due balances. A lot of our success in getting the full payment is how we present ourselves and our verbiage.
How you say things has a great impact on the actions of the person you are speaking to.
When checking a patient out, you can these words:
“Hi Jessica! Today, our total balance is . Today’s estimated balance was and we had a past due balance of __. Would you like to pay with cash or card?”
This prompts them to pay everything off to keep in good standing.
Today’s balance is non-negotiable. We need to take that day of service.
When a past due balance is on the account, there are many ways we allow it to be paid. We can take a full payment, put it on one of the financing plans, or we allow a pay plan in house for the higher amounts due. Sometimes, if our estimates are off and insurance’s won’t take care of everything, they could still owe a hefty amount. We don’t want them to get discouraged in coming back so we allow for some leeway. Typically, I offer a payment plan in monthly, biweekly or weekly installments that will have the balance paid in 3 months.
