Manage Patient Payments

Managing patient payments is a crucial step in completing the revenue cycle. Avea offers multiple options to manage and track patient payments, making the process easy and flexible based on the user's preferred workflow.

Where can I manage Patient Payments?

Let's review the five places in Avea where patient payments can be managed. 

• The Management Center provides an overview of all pending tasks for a Managing Organization. This includes two tiles to help users track and manage Credit Card payments. The Patient Credit Cards Expired/Expiring Soon tiles help a user monitor when a patient's credit card is expired or close to expiring, allowing them more time to get a new card on file. The Failed Credit Card Payments tile provides a user with a notice of any failed/declined credit card transactions triggered by a payment plan. Selecting either tile will redirect you to the Work Center to complete the next steps.
  

• The Work Center can be utilized to monitor expiring/expired credit cards as well as failed payments from scheduled payment plans. Users can access this information by navigating to the Work Center > Patient Billing > Patient Payments. These results can be filtered by the Organization Name, Patient Name, and Reason. There are two potential reasons a user will have results in this section: Failed Patient Payments and Expire/Expiring Credit Cards.

  • Failed Patient Payments are notifications of a scheduled payment that has failed. These notifications can be acknowledged and removed using the Remove quick link.
  • Expiring or Expired Credit Cards can be updated by selecting the Update quick link. Once the card has been updated, the notification should disappear from the queue upon refresh. These notifications can also be removed using the Remove quick link.

  

• For an overview of all payments made by a specific patient, navigate to Patient > Patient Billing > Payments. This section allows a 

  Once there, select View to open the details of the payment. In this window, the system can provide a user with additional details of the transaction. 

  • Date: The date the payment was collected. 
  • Facility: This is the facility where the service was rendered.
  • Amount: Total amount of the payment.
  • ID: This is the Transaction ID assigned by the merchant. 
  • Payer Name: The Cardholder/Accountholder information associated with the method of payment.
  • Authorization Number: The authorization number is an indication the transaction has been approved by the issuing bank. 
  • Payment Source: This is the payment method used to collect the payment. 
  • Source: This is the origin of the collection such as a Payment Plan, Payment Request, etc.
  • Notes: This details any notes added during the collection. Notes can be added post-collection by selecting Edit Note. 

• The Record Center allows a user to view, refund, or apply payments for multiple patients without needing to go into each patient profile. This information can be accessed by navigating to the Record Center > Patient Billing > Patient Payments. The results in this section can be refined by selecting a Start Date and End Date and filtering to only include payments that were pulled within the date range specified.

  

• The Patient Payments Report can be used to track patient payments at an Organization and Managing Organization level. Click here to learn more. The Patient Collection Report allows a user to track the Patient's A/R by comparing the Good Faith Estimate with any patient payments collected. Click here to learn more. 

Refunds

All patient payments recorded in Avea can be refunded. Refunds using Cash/Check/Money Order can be recorded for all methods of payment including ACH and Credit Cards. However, electronic refunds for Credit Card or ACH payments can only be refunded to the same account where the payment was originally pulled. Refunds can only be issued within 1 year of the payment date and may take 3-5 business days to fully process. 

1. To refund the patient payment, navigate to the Patient > Patient Billing > Payments section.
   
2. Locate the payment you wish to refund. 
3. Next, select Refund.
4. In the refund window, select the Amount you wish to refund.
    
5. The system will default to refunding the payment using the same method the payment was collected with. Update the Payment Method to change the method of refund.
   1. Note: When a payment is refunded with a different method than the original payment, the payment source displays the original payment method in the details.
6. Add any Refund Notes you may have.
   
7. To send an electronic receipt of the refund, toggle on Send Email and enter to recipient's email.
    
8. Finally, select Refund Payment to complete the refund process. 
   

Voids

A credit card transaction can only be voided on the same day as the original authorized transaction. The patient will not see the original transaction or the void on their monthly credit card statement. 

Receipts

The Payment section of the patient profile provides a user with two ways to view a receipt from a transaction.

Receipt

Select Receipt to open a new browser window and view proof of the transaction as well as the contact information for the practice. 

A new browser window provides proof of the transaction and contact information for the practice.

Email

Select Email to forward a copy of the receipt