User Guide — athenaMailbox

athenaCollector

athenaMailbox is our lockbox-like service through which athenahealth receives mail and facilitates the deposit of payments on behalf of its clients. This service replaces the need for clients to purchase lockbox services from a bank and centralizes receipt and handling of remittance documents at athenahealth. athenaMailbox clients are each assigned a unique address that is used as the pay-to address for claim submission and patient statement purposes.

 

athenaMailbox operates out of our Belfast, Maine, operating center. With the athenaMailbox service, athenahealth receives, scans, catalogs, and forwards for deposit all payments, except those collected at your locations. During Implementation, athenahealth contacts your payers and instructs them to send payments to a P.O. box in Belfast, ME, that is assigned by athenahealth but dedicated to you.

 

If you use the athenaMailbox service, your patient statements have this address printed on them: PO BOX 14000, Belfast, ME. This P.O. box is a central location for all patient statements received by athenahealth.

 

The mail from that address comes to athenahealth, is opened, scanned, and the checks are collected and passed to our banking partner, U.S. Bank, for deposit into a bank account in your name and under your control. If you receive payments via electronic funds transfer (EFT), we will contact your payers and have those funds routed to this lockbox account as well. From there, you can log in to the U.S. Bank Web portal and move the money into your operating account via an Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) transaction.

 

See also: Bank Reconciliation Workflow.

 

Your athenaMailbox Lockbox

You may not use the U.S. Bank lockbox account as an operating account, meaning that you may not withdraw cash or pay bills from that account, only transfer money to your operating account.

  • Mail received into the athenaMailbox is sorted, opened, imaged, and processed according to its contents.
  • Checks received from payers and patients are prepared for deposit into the client's own account and an electronic deposit file (containing data and images of checks) is transmitted to the bank. Our partner bank, U.S. Bank, receives the electronic deposit file and credits the client account in the amount of the deposit.
  • Credit card transactions received by athenaMailbox are processed in a similar workflow. All mail received by athenaMailbox is opened and imaged on the same day it is received from the post office, and all checks are deposited into the client's own account on that same day.

It is possible to convert your existing lockbox over to athenaMailbox. For more information, please contact the CSC by selecting Support > Create Case or Call in the Main Menu.

 

Included U.S. Bank services

The cost of the following U.S. Bank services is included in your athenaCollector Service Fee:

  • Lockbox account setup, maintenance, and assigned athenaMailbox address for each of your organization's tax IDs.
  • Unlimited deposits of funds received by athenahealth.
  • Funds are generally available within 3 business days after receipt by U.S. Bank. Returned-item fees are included.
  • Web portal to view previous-day account information and order next-day funds transfer via ACH to a linked operating account at a bank of your choosing in the U.S.

Pass-through fees

athenahealth will pass fees for other services, such as wire transfers, replacement paper statements, etc., on to you. To see the list of the most common U.S. Bank pass-through fees, ask your Sales Representative.

 

Official record

Your U.S. Bank statement is the official record of your cash deposits. The information in athenaOne is advisory.

 

 

 

U.S. Bank is our exclusive banking partner for athenaMailbox. A client that uses the athenaMailbox service opens a deposit account at U.S. Bank into which athenahealth directs electronic deposits on each day that checks are received for that client. U.S. Bank is the financial institution that processes the deposit and credits the funds to the client account.

 

 

We securely transmit batches to U.S. Bank every minute throughout the day. U.S. Bank stops accepting batches at 11:00 p.m. EST. Any batches created by athenaOne after this cutoff time will be credited the next business day to your U.S. Bank account.

 

 

 

From time to time, an error may occur that requires an adjustment to your U.S. Bank account ("Required Adjustments").

 

For all adjustments less than $10,000:

  • athenahealth notifies the client by letter of the required adjustment
  • athenahealth uses SinglePoint (U.S. Bank software) to initiate an ACH transaction to debit the client account
  • athenahealth updates athenaOne to reflect the completed transaction

For all adjustments greater than $10,000:

  • athenahealth contacts the client regarding the adjustment item or items
  • athenahealth faxes the bank adjustment form to the client requesting approval and signature
  • The client returns the signed adjustment form to athenahealth
  • athenahealth faxes the signed adjustment form to U.S. Bank
  • U.S. Bank notifies athenahealth of the completed adjustment and the client account is debited
  • athenahealth updates athenaOne to reflect the completed transaction

An adjustment may occur for two reasons.

 

An encoding error occurs when a deposit is made in your bank account for an incorrect dollar amount. When this happens, a remittance record/unpostable is created in athenaOne and set to PEND status. athenahealth personnel fill out an adjustment form to send to the bank with details of the debit or credit adjustment. For any adjustments greater than $1, the practice is notified beforehand. After the bank makes the adjustment, athenahealth creates an additional deposit batch in athenaOne to counteract the encoding error and the remittance record/unpostable is closed.

 

A misapplied payment error occurs when payments are deposited in an incorrect account. When this happens, a remittance record/unpostable is created in athenaOne. In addition, a support case is opened on the practice's behalf to inform you of the error. An adjustment request form is created by athenahealth and forwarded to U.S. Bank, after written authorization from the practice has been secured. After the bank makes the adjustment, a deposit batch is created in athenaOne to offset the adjustment, and the remittance record/unpostable is closed.

 

 

 

A returned item will generally result in a chargeback in the client's U.S. Bank account. When this occurs, a copy of the check is sent to the practice for resolution. After the practice resolves the issue (usually a phone call to the payer and confirmation of funds availability), the practice can contact athenahealth to electronically resubmit the returned items to U.S. Bank on behalf of the client. Note that until fund availability is confirmed, resubmitted, and reconciled, a remittance record/unpostable item appears in your athenaOne deposit batch. It is the responsibility of the practice to notify athenahealth of the returned item. With this information, we can delete the original posting in athenaOne and verify that the claim has not been successfully paid. Upon resubmission of the check to U.S. Bank, another posting occurs and the process is repeated.

 

 

 

A payer may have sent an EFT to your U.S. Bank account without athenahealth having received an ERA or EOB. athenahealth must receive an ERA or EOB to create a deposit batch in athenaOne. With some payers such as Medicare, an EOB can take 3-4 weeks to arrive after the EFT has been sent. It is also possible that we received an ERA or EOB from a payer, but that an EFT has not yet been sent to U.S. Bank. Another instance could occur where the organization issuing the EFT does not have the correct bank account coinciding with your athenaMailbox address. If this is the case, immediately contact the CSC by selecting Support > Create Case or Call in the Main Menu.

 

 

 

Each practice maintains its own relationship with U.S. Bank and controls its own account. U.S. Bank shares information and data about client accounts with athenahealth as per the athenaMailbox service specification to help facilitate quality control and reconciliation.  

 

U.S. Bank, through its merchant processing subsidiary Nova, also provides services to support credit card payment handling.

 

 

Commercial Customer Service

 

Mailing Address:

 

ML: CN-OH-L2CS
5065 Wooster Pike
Cincinnati, OH 45226

 

Toll Free: 800-377-3053

 

Fax: 513-979-1019

 

email: commercialcustservicecincinnati@usbank.com

 

 

 

SinglePoint — the U.S. Bank Web-based account management system — offers flexibility, control, speed, and ease of use. It allows U.S. Bank clients to monitor account activity, prevent fraud, transfer money, control access, and stay informed.

 

SinglePoint can be accessed via the Web at https://singlepoint.usbank.com.

 

Access to SinglePoint should coincide with an online demo from U.S. Bank after your account has been set up through athenahealth. U.S. Bank will issue a username and password, which can be changed after initial use. If you have not received a username and password, please contact U.S. Bank Treasury Management.

 

SinglePoint provides three balances:

  • Ledger Balance = Total of everything that has posted to your account.
  • Collected Balance = Amount that has cleared and is considered ready to transfer.
  • Opening Available Balance = Collected Balance plus any funds becoming available today.

When you transfer funds, you can move collected or opening available balances, but not ledger balances. Also, if a balance was transferred yesterday but has not been settled yet, you must subtract that amount from the balance shown. We do not deduct the funds until settlement date.

 

 

 

 

 

Payments collected by your staff at your office locations are your responsibility to track in athenaOne and deposit into your bank.

 

 

 

Patient refunds should be processed on a weekly basis. If you use athenaMailbox, we suggest that any patient refunds issued with a Payment Method Type of Check be issued from your local/TOS bank rather than U.S. Bank. 

 

 

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