Credit Card Plus — Add Payment Plan

On the Patient Actions Bar, click Billing, and then click Patient Account View. On the Patient Account View, click Add Payment Plan (next to Outstanding Charges)

On the patient's Quickview, click the Add payment plan link next to Insurances

Your practice must have the Credit Card Plus feature enabled, and you must have the Credit Card Plus: Payment Processing user permission or role, along with one of the following roles:

• Administrative/Clerical Staff — Collector
• Billing Staff — Collector

You can establish an automated payment plan with a patient from the patient Quickview or the Patient Account View page.

Note: Make sure that you set up payment plan dunning messages on the Dunning Messages page.

1. Display the Add Payment Plan page: On the Quickview, under the Insurances heading, click Add payment plan.
   

2. Select medical group — Select the medical group where the balance was incurred.

3. Plan name — Enter a name for the payment plan.

4. Payment plan type — Select a payment plan type from the list.
   Note: The list of payment plans is administered using the Payment Plan Types page.

5. Payment method — Select Charge credit card. The on day field appears.
   
6. Frequency — Select a recurrence option for this payment plan. Monthly is the default recurrence.
7. Select the day for the recurring payment. This is the day of the month (1 — 31) for monthly recurrences or a day of the week (Monday — Sunday) for weekly or every-two-week recurrences.
8. Start date — Enter the date for the payment plan to begin automated payments. This date defaults to the day after the current date, but you can enter a date in the future to delay the start of the automated charges.
9. Down payment amount — Enter a down payment amount.
   Note: This field is disabled if the Frequency is set to One-time charge.
10. Per payment amount — Enter the minimum dollar amount due per payment cycle. Any prior payments for charges on the plan, as well as overpayments, are applied against the total outstanding balance (instead of the amount due for that cycle), so that the amount due every statement cycle should stay constant until the outstanding balance is paid off. To the right of this field, information in parentheses reminds you that this amount is x% of the total selected.
11. New charges — Select Do not add new charges to plan or select Put claim into HOLD (athenaOne automatically puts new patient charges into HOLD for review).
12. Deactivate — This option is selected by default. The payment plan is automatically deactivated when the patient responsibility for the claims covered by the payment plan is $0. You cannot uncheck this box for payment plans paid by credit card.
    Note: When the Frequency of the payment plan is set to One-time charge, athenaOne deactivates the plan automatically after the charge occurs, even if the balance on the plan is not paid down to $0 with the single payment. This ensures that the remaining patient responsibility balance is eligible for future payment plans.
13. Notes — Enter any notes about this payment plan.
14. Claims Covered by Payment Plan section — Select every line item to include in this payment plan.
    Note: Only charges for claims with a total outstanding amount greater than $0 appear in the list.
    The charges belonging to the selected claims are removed from the normal statements/collections cycle and are not considered overdue unless the patient is delinquent on the plan payments.
15. Click Save and Create Agreement.
    Note: A warning appears if you attempt to save a patient payment plan with a balance of $0 that does not have an open claim associated with it. You must associate at least one open claim with the payment plan.
    
    The secure electronic payment application login window appears.
    
    1. Enter your athenaOne username and password.
    2. Click login. The Create Payment Plan Contract page appears.

Note: If you are using the Ingenico credit card terminal, you do not need to re-enter your athenaOne username and password when you process a credit card payment.

On the Create Payment Plan Contract page

16. Patient email — Enter the patient's email address if it is not already on file. Patients receive receipts at this address when athenaOne executes a BEOB transaction.
17. Reenter email — Enter the email address again.
18. Payment type — Select Card Present.
19. Swipe the card.
    The required fields are autopopulated.
    Note: If you are using the Ingenico credit card terminal and you are processing a chip card, the patient must insert the card and leave it inserted until the transaction is complete (the terminal prompts the patient to remove the card).
    
20. Security code — Enter the security code on the credit card.
21. Enter the Billing address information.
22. Click Create Contract.
23. Click Print.
    Two copies of the contract print.
24. Ask the patient to sign and initial the contract.
    Keep the signed copy on file for 18 months.
25. Give the second copy to the patient.
    A message confirms that the claim is now in DROP status.
26. Click OK.
    The Quickview page appears. The amount due appears at the top of the page, the payment plan information appears in the Insurances section, and the payment plan created date appears to the left of the plan details.

To establish a payment plan in athenaOne, you must have the patient's credit card (for a swipe authorization) and the patient's signature on a payment plan contract.

After you establish an automated payment plan, monthly payments occur automatically without additional action by you or the patient. If the card balance is not sufficient to cover the contract amount, a purchase is made for the remaining available balance in the current month. The patient's account is updated with the actual amount collected, and the update is reflected on the receipt. No additional attempt will be made in the current month because of the short payment.

How payment plans work

 

After you establish a payment plan arrangement with a patient, the future payment transaction will occur without additional action by you or the patient. The following events take place:

1. The credit card authorization is stored by Elavon, our athenahealth partner.
2. athenaOne executes a payment transaction for the amount defined by the payment plan contract on the date you and the patient selected.
3. athenaOne delivers via email the receipt for the payment plan payment transaction.
4. If the transaction fails, athenaOne generates a patient statement with balance due for delivery to the patient.
5. The payment plan contract expires when the defined series of payments is completed.

Managing payment plan contracts

 

After you establish a payment plan contract with a patient, you can manage that contract on the Manage Credit Card Agreements page.