When entering payments to patient accounts, office managers sometimes incorrectly assume that splitting payments between providers adds an extra step to the payment process without benefiting the practice. However, splitting payments is extremely important when you are tracking individual provider collections. Viewing collection amounts by provider is essential for practices that base productivity bonuses and salaries on collection figures. While you may not use collection information in your practice management today, you may need to do so in the future. To track collection amounts by provider accurately, you must use the Split Payment option. The following scenario illustrates how the failure to split payments can cause difficulties in an office:
Mary Brown visits the office and has $300 in charges posted to her account. When the charges are entered in the Ledger, $150 is posted to DDS1 and $150 is posted to HYG1. Mary makes a payment of $300 before she leaves the office. However, when the office staff enters the payment in the Ledger, the payment is credited to DDS1 only. Mary's balance appears as $0, and the practice’s accounts receivable shows no balance owed.
The following week, the office staff runs a report to show collection according to each provider. The report shows that DDS1 has a credit balance of $-150.00, while HYG1 is still owed $150.00. So, even though Mary’s balance and the A/R total balance are correct, the individual provider collection balances are inaccurate.
While this example uses only one patient and a few hundred dollars, failing to split payments by provider throughout your entire database can generate collection discrepancies in excess of thousands of dollars. To avoid creating this collections imbalance, we recommend that you use the Split Payment option consistently.
You can also split payments by family members. If you select this option, a payment is split automatically among the members of a family according to the procedures performed. For example, if you received a $500 payment for Mary Brown and her children and chose to split the payment by family members, the payment would be split among the Brown family according to the procedures applicable to each family member.
To split a payment by family members
1. With a patient selected in the Ledger, click Transaction, and then click Enter Payment.
The Enter Payment dialog box appears.
2. Use the following options to enter a payment:
· Date - If necessary, type a date or click the calendar and select a date to change the payment date from the current date.
· Payment Types - Select the appropriate type from the list.
· Amount - Type the payment amount in dollars.
· Check Number - Type the number, if applicable.
· Bank/Branch # - Type the number. (If you want it to appear on the Dentrix Deposit Slip.)
· Provider - Select a provider from the list. (Default is to split the payment by provider.)
· Patient - Select the appropriate patient from the list, or select Split By Family Members. (Default is to apply the payment to the selected patient in the Ledger.)
· Split Method - Select one of the following options:
· Percentage Payments - Divides the payment among the providers according to the provider’s percentage of the total amount owed.
· Guarantor Estimate - (Default) Applies the payment to providers who have balances as guarantor estimates and ignores provider balances that Dentrix estimates insurance will pay the remainder of.
· FIFO (First In First Out) - Applies the payment toward the oldest completed procedures first.
· Equal Payments - Splits payment amounts equally among all providers with debit balances.
Note: You can also change the default payment settings by clicking the Settings button.
· Details - Click to add one or more providers and to split a payment manually.
· Note - Type a note to document any unusual circumstances related to the payment.
· Apply To Payment Agreement - (Selected automatically if the account has a payment agreement.) Clear the option if the payment should not be applied to the payment agreement.
3. Click the Details icon.
The Details pane appears in the Enter Payment dialog box.
4. To add a provider, click Add Provider.
The Select Provider dialog box appears.
5. Select the providers you want to split the payment with, and then click OK.
The providers are added to the list in the Enter Payment dialog box.
Note: To change the default payment priority, select the providers you want to pay first, and then click Give Payment Priority to Selected Item.
6. To edit the amount paid to each provider, double-click the provider amounts in the Pay column, and type the amounts that you want to pay each provider so that the Remaining Amount is $0.00.
Note: The Provider Balances pane shows the patient's Account Balance. The New Balance column lists the primary provider's balance minus the amounts paid to any additional providers.
7. Click OK.