Apart from your monthly billing process, there are several other times you may need to provide a statement to your patient. This post will cover the following types of individual statements as well as methods to receive payment from patients:
- Walkout
- Patient payments by date range, often used for tax purposes
- Receipt
- Invoice
- Limited
- Limited (Custom)
- Customizable Statements
- Payment Portal and Message-to-Pay
Walkout
Walkout statements will immediately print the account information for today. It is useful for patients who want a summary of today’s entries.
The walkout statement includes:
- Total, insurance estimates, and total balance
- Balance Forward
- Completed Procedures for today
- Adjustments for today
- Patient Payments made today
- Claim Information created today
In the Account Module, click the Statement dropdown, then Walkout.
An email statement is useful when a patient wants a full account history. When the email option is selected, the email window will open, and the statement will be attached as a PDF.
Important: Regular email is not a secure method of sending statements because they contain Protected Health Information (PHI). Consider using Secure Email instead.
Email statements include:
- All account activity for the patient, not just today’s activity
- Total, insurance estimates, and total balance
- All completed procedures, adjustments, patient payments, insurance payments, and claim info
- If using the default Statement sheet, blank lines to enter credit card information are included in the upper right so patients can send payment information back to the office
In the Account Module, click the Statement dropdown, then Email.
Patient Payments by Date Range
Patients may request this type of statement when filing their taxes. In most cases, they are looking for a statement showing the payments they made to you during the calendar year.
This can be done by selecting the following settings from the More Options window.
- Set the desired Date Range
- Hide payment options
- Single patient only
- Receipt
Only payments made by the patient in the date range will display.
Receipt
The Receipt option immediately prints today’s payment information and is useful for patients who want a receipt for payment made that day. If you want to create a receipt for another day, use the More Options selection from the Statement dropdown menu instead.
A receipt includes:
- Total, insurance estimate, and total balance
- Payments made today
In the Account Module, click the Statement dropdown, then Receipt.
Invoice
An Invoice only shows charges for specifically selected production. It is useful for patients wanting to know account information on specific procedures only.
An invoice shows:
- Charges / Credits: the fee or amount for selected procedures, Pay Plan charges, and adjustments
- Total: The amount or fee totals for any selected Procedures, Adjustments, and PayPlan charges are calculated and shown
- Invoice Number: An automatically generated number is attached to the invoice and displayed on the statement.
In the Account Module, first, highlight any production you want to show on the invoice, then click the Statement dropdown, then Invoice. The invoice will display the full fee or amount for each selected item (i.e., insurance estimates and attached adjustments on procedures will not impact the charge shown).
In this example, we selected the completed procedures and associated adjustments for our patient.
TECH TIP: The Select Patient window includes the ability to search by Invoice Number to quickly pull up patient accounts related to specific invoices.
Limited
Limited statements show selected procedures as well as certain items associated with those procedures. If no procedures are selected, all completed procedures from today are included. Limited statements include:
- Selected procedures
- Items associated with the selected procedure include: patient payments, insurance payments, and adjustments
- If using the default Statement sheet, blank lines to enter credit card information are included in the upper right so patients can send payment information back to the office
- Total for the selected procedures, insurance estimates for the selected procedure, and total after insurance estimate
In the Account Module, first, highlight the procedures in the Account, then click the Statement dropdown, then Limited.
In this example, we only selected D2393 as the procedure. An adjustment and payment were made on this procedure, so both are included.
Limited (Custom)
Limited (Custom) statements show items you select as well as all transactions attached to selected procedures. This may include some transactions that were not selected or do not appear in the Limited Statement Select window. Limited (Custom) statements include:
- Selected procedures
- Any item associated with the selected procedure, including payments, adjustments, claim information
- Blank fields to enter credit card information are included in the upper right so patients can send payment information back to the office
- Total due, insurance estimate, and balance information based on the selected items in the statement
In the Account Module, click the Statement dropdown, then Limited (Custom). The Limited Statement Select window will open and allow you to select items before generating the statement.
Limited (Custom) statements do not include aging or payment plan information.
Customizable Statements
More Options will open a new window so you can customize the statement to match the patient’s needs.
In the Account Module, click the Statement dropdown, then More Options.
From here you can change the date range, add notes, add bold notes (shows in red bold text to note important information), choose whether to separate family members or intermingle them and more. See the Manual for more details on this window.
Payment Portal and Message-to-Pay
Payment Portal is a way for patients to make payments online by using either a dedicated link or the Patient Portal. Message-to-Pay takes it one step further and allows your office to send a text message or email to the patient, so they can quickly make payments from their mobile device.
Payment Portal must first be set up before using Message-to-Pay, see Payment Portal Setup. Once set up, you can send a Message-to-Pay from the Account Module in the Payment dropdown.
The patient will receive a customizable message that includes a link to the Payment Portal.
Payment Portal and Message-to-Pay via email are available at no additional fee for practices on support with a unique, active registration key when using an integrated credit card processor. For text messages, Integrated Texting fees apply. See Fees for Software, Support, and Services.
With many options available for generating patient statements, you can produce the information that fits your office and your patients. If you need help generating a statement, please contact us!
Want info on patient billing? Check out our post: Monthly Patient Billing FAQs.
Information in this post reflects features available in Open Dental Version 24.1. For the most up-to-date information, please visit our manual.