Setting up payment defaults

When you enter a payment in the Ledger, you can apply it to the family balance or an individual patient’s balance within that family. When you apply a payment to the family, the payment is applied to the oldest balance. You can select the current patient or family as the payment default. When you make a payment or an adjustment in the Ledger, this default is selected automatically. You can always change the patient assignment when entering a transaction.

Note: Even though you can allocate payments and adjustments to an entire family, we recommend that you allocate payments and adjustments to a specific patient instead.

To set up a payment default

1.   From the Maintenance menu in the Office Manager, point to Practice Setup, and then click Preferences.

The Preferences dialog box appears.

2.   Click the General Options tab.

3.   From the Payment/Adjustment Options list, you can set the default for payment allocations and adjustments. The following options are available:

·        Provider –

·        Split By Provider – (Default) Splits payments by provider.

·        To Patient's Primary Provider – Allocates payments to the patient's primary provider.

·        To Guarantor's Primary Provider – This option only appears if you select Family Account under Patient.

·        Patient –

·        Current Patient – (Default) Applies payments or adjustments to the current selected patient.

·        Split By Family Members – Splits payments by family member. Adjustments are allocated to an individual patient and are not split.

·        Family Account – Applies payments or adjustments to a family's account.

Important: We recommend that you allocate payments and adjustments to a specific patient and not the entire family.

·        Split Method –

·        Guarantor Estimate – (Default) Allocates payments or adjustments according to the guarantor estimate.

·        Percentage Payments – Allocates payments or adjustments on a percentage basis.

·        FIFO (First In First Out) – Allocates payments or adjustments on a first-in first-out basis.

·        Equal Payments – Allocates payments or adjustments on an equal payment basis.

4.   Click OK.