Payment Plans

Payment plans offer patients the option to schedule regular payments, allowing them to pay off their balances in small increments. These payment plans can be easily tailored to decrease, pause, or stop payments, giving both the provider and the patient more flexibility when paying their balance. 

Workflow

Let's review how to generate a Payment Plan.

1. In the Patient's profile, navigate to Patient Billing > Collect Payment. 
2. Under Payment Plans, select Create Payment Plan.
   
3. First, identify the Facility where the treatment was rendered. 
4. Next, update the Amount of the payment plan. This can be either the Outstanding Balance or an Other Amount determined by the user.
    
5. Under Schedule, select the Start Date to instruct the system when to pull the first payment.
    
6. Next, select the Frequency of the payments made.
    
7. Enter the # of Payments or the Amount per Payment to calculate how many payments will be made and the date of those payments.
    
8. Select the Auto Apply to billables option to automate the posting process. For more information about applying payments to billables, click here.
    
9. Next, select the Payment Type. Select the desired payment method.  Any previously used and saved payment methods can be assigned to the plan. If the payment type has never been used before, select New Card or New ACH and enter the information accordingly.
    
10. Add any pertinent Note(s) to the plan before selecting Create Payment Plan.
    

Managing the Plan

Once a payment plan has been created, it can be viewed under the Collect Payment > Payment Plans section of the Patient profile. Selecting the Details quick link allows a user to see the make-up of the payment plan and make any adjustments as needed.
 

Updating Dates

Users can modify individually scheduled payment dates within a payment plan by selecting Change under each date. To change all payments based on the new payment date, they can select Auto-adjust remaining scheduled dates.

Updating Amounts

Users can modify individual payments within a plan by selecting Change under each amount. To modify all payments scheduled based on the new payment date, select Auto adjust remaining payments.

Updating the Payment Method

The payment type for the plan can be updated by selecting Change Payment Method. Users can select a previously saved method or opt to add a new one.

Pausing the Plan

To temporarily stop the payment plan, a user can select Pause Payment Plan. When the plan is ready to be restarted, a user can select Un-Pause Payment Plan to resume the collection process.

Canceling the Plan

To completely stop a payment plan, the user can choose the Cancel Payment Plan option. If the plan has had a successful payment made, canceling the plan will remove any remaining scheduled payment dates. However, if the plan has never had a successful payment made, canceling the plan will completely remove it from the patient's profile.

Payment Plan Statuses

A system is in place to re-check payment plan transactions made in the last 7 days to confirm that they still have the same payment status in both Waystar and AveaOffice. If a previously declined payment plan transaction is later changed to accepted, the payment plan's status will be updated accordingly.

Note: Payment plans that use Cash/Check as the Payment Method will require a user to manually notate when a scheduled payment has been made.