At a Glance

Sometimes you need a record of an external payment to balance an encounter without charging a patient again. This is particularly useful if your organization has recently transitioned to Athelas from another billing company.

Here’s How to Do It

The short version:

1. Create available credits in the exact amount that was previously paid.

2. Create a miscellaneous charge in that amount.

3. Apply the credits you just created to that charge to balance it out.

Full Walkthrough

Navigate to the patient’s profile.

Switch to the ‘Credits’ tab, then select Edit Credits.

Fill in the exact amount previously paid, then add a note explaining why you’re creating these credits. Be sure to check the box for Available Credits so that you can use them now, and they’re not tied to a date of service.

The credits will appear in the patient’s ‘Credits’ tab. You can click the arrow next to them to see the details you filled in.

Now, switch to the ‘Charges’ tab and click +Miscellaneous Charge.

A modal will appear with fields for you to input information.

You’ll notice the warning at the top of this modal indicating how it can and cannot be used. Fortunately, this situation requires that both a payment and corresponding charge are created, so we’re good to go!

Fill in the patient’s facility and current provider.

For the ‘Line Item’ section, you may need to create a line item for recording external payments.

Here's a walkthrough on how to do that. Feel free to skip ahead if you've already set this up.

1. Navigate to PR Settings. You’ll land on the ‘General’ tab by default.

2. Scroll down to the ‘Custom Payment Types’ section.

   

3. Click the + to create a custom payment line.

4. Enter a name like ‘Record of payment taken externally,’ set the Type to ‘Standard,’ and leave the default charge amount at 0. Click Create.

   

5. You can see your new line item in the list in PR Settings.

   

Done! Now you can select this option in the ‘Line Item’ menu of the Miscellaneous Charge modal.

If you already have the line item described above, great!

Select it and enter the exact amount of credits you created in the ‘Pay Amount’ field.

Next, check the box to Apply Credits and the option to Pay with Patient Credits will select automatically.

You can add a note to this payment if you like.

Once everything looks correct, click Confirm.

Confirm the transaction once more, and then you’ll have the opportunity to download, print, or send a receipt to the patient via text or email. We advise against sending a receipt in this case, as that would cause the patient some confusion and it might look like they were just charged twice.