Splitting payments

When posting payments to patient accounts, sometimes office managers 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.

To split a payment

1.   With a patient selected in the Ledger, click Transaction, and then click Enter Payment.

The Enter Payment dialog box appears.  

2.   Do the following:

·        Date – Type a date to change the procedure date from the current date.

·        Type – Select the appropriate payment type from the list.

·        Amount – Type the payment amount (up to 10 characters) in dollars.

·        Cheque/Payment # – Type the number (up to 20 characters).

·        Bank/Branch # – Type the number. (Appears 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. If you select Split By Family Members, Dentrix applies the payment to the oldest family balance and posts it to the guarantor’s ledger.)

·        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.

·        Note – Type a note to document any unusual circumstances related to the payment.

3.   Click OK.