Issue Patient Refund

 

You can issue a refund in cash, via check, or via a non-athenaOne payment system (e.g., an alternative MasterCard/Visa payment system, PayPal, Intuit) regardless of how the original payment was made. For example, you can refund cash to the patient even if the patient paid with a credit card via athenaOne.

 

Important: athenaOne cannot issue actual refund checks for you. You must generate the refund check from the relevant practice bank account checkbook or using another refund method that you manage within your practice. If you use athenaMailbox, in most cases, patient refunds issued with a Payment method type of Check can be issued from your local/TOS bank rather than U.S. Bank. A Cut Refund Check Remittance Record will be created for refunds using U.S. Bank.

1. Display the Issue Patient Refund page: On the Patient Actions Bar, click Billing, and then click Issue Patient Refund.
2. Credit — This read-only field shows the total amount that the client has paid by any method (credit card, cash, check, etc.) and that is currently unapplied.
3. Refund as — Select one of these options:
• Refund directly to credit card — Select this option to refund the amount to a credit card.
  Note: If the credit card has expired or if the merchant ID (MID) is inactive or deleted, athenaOne provides instructions for submitting the refund.
• Cash, check or non-athena system refund — Select this option to refund the patient via cash, check, e‑check, or a non-athenaOne payment system, such as PayPal, Intuit, or an alternative credit card payment system.
  Note: You can select this option even if the patient paid with a credit card.
  

The amount shown in parentheses next to each option is the total amount that you can refund using the selected method, and is the total amount of unapplied payments of any kind. This amount always matches the amount in the Credit field.



4. Unapplied — Select one or more transactions to refund. If you do not want to refund the full amount, enter the amount to refund. You cannot refund more than the amount of the transaction.
5. Method — If you selected the Cash, check or non-athena system refund option in the Refund as field, select the refund method. If you select a method such as Checks, Electronic Check, or Money Order, the Check #, Deposit location, and Bank account fields appear. Enter the required information in these fields. (The Method menu is administered using the Payment Methods page.)
   
6. Refund total — This read-only field displays the total amount of the refund transaction.
7. Date of service — Specify the date of service for which this refund is being issued. This field appears if you selected the Cash, check or non-athena system refund option in the Refund as field.
8. Refund for department — Select the department from which to issue the refund. The refund will be executed from the merchant ID associated with the selected department.
9. Note — Enter a comment explaining the refund (optional). This field appears if you selected the Cash, check or non-athena system refund option in the Refund as field.
10. Click Post Refund. The patient outstanding amount is updated on the Quickview page. The refund appears on the Patient Activity page.
11. If you selected a physical refund method, give the patient the refund (that is, the cash or check).
    

How athenaOne handles refunds

For refunds with a Method of Check, athenaOne automatically opens and closes a new payment batch and deposit batch for the one refund for the bank account specified. This is done because each check will clear separately on the bank statement.

 

For refunds with any other payment method, athenaOne records the refund within the appropriate payment batch based on the bank deposit type. For example, if you refund the patient on their MC/Visa credit card, that refund is reflected in your MC/Visa totals and bank deposit amount for the day.

 

 

You can issue a refund directly to a patient's credit card if the patient paid using that same credit card and the charge was recorded in athenaOne. E‑check transactions must be manually refunded via cash or a check written to the patient from your practice account. See Issue Patient Refund for information about issuing a cash or check refund.

Note: If you need to refund a credit card payment immediately after you complete the transaction, see "To refund a credit card payment at the time of sale."

1. Display the E-Payment Activity page: On the Patient Actions Bar, click Billing, and then click E-Payment Activity.
2. Locate the transaction that you want to refund. Make a note of the card type and the last four digits of the card number.
3. Click refund patient.
   A pop-up message appears.
4. Click OK to display the Issue Patient Refund page.
5. Credit — This read-only field shows any refundable E-payment credit.
   Note: If the funds appear in the Unrefundable E-Payment Credit field, the transaction has not been fully processed yet, and you must wait until it moves to the E‑Payment Credit field before you can refund it back to the credit card.
6. Refund as — Select Refund directly to credit card.
   The amount shown in parentheses is the total amount that you can refund to the patient's credit card, and is the total amount of unapplied credit card payments made via athenaOne. This amount may not match the amount in the Credit field.
   Note: If the credit card has expired or if the merchant ID (MID) is inactive or deleted, athenaOne provides instructions for submitting the refund.
7. Unapplied — Select one or more transactions to refund. If you do not want to refund the full amount, enter the amount to refund. You cannot refund more than the amount of the transaction.
   
8. Refund total — This read-only field displays the total amount of the refund transaction that you are processing.
9. Refund for department — Select the department from which to issue the refund. The refund will be executed from the merchant ID associated with the selected department.
10. Click Post Refund.
11. Print the patient's receipt.
    If you refunded money to multiple credit cards, there will be a receipt for each refund.

Note: If you process a refund to a credit card that is now closed, the patient must contact the card issuing bank for assistance. If the patient has thrown the card away and does not know the account number, we can retrieve that information for the patient by working with Elavon.

1. Display the Issue Patient Refund page: On the Patient Actions Bar, click Billing, and then click Issue Patient Refund.
2. Refund as — Select Cash, check or non-athena system refund.

3. Unapplied — Click the checkbox next to Refund Amount and enter the amount to be refunded. The maximum amount that you can refund is equal to the patient's credit balance.

4. Method — Select the payment method of the refund. This method is most commonly a check.
   Important: athenaOne cannot issue actual refund checks for you. You must generate the refund check from the relevant practice bank account checkbook or using another refund method that you manage within your practice. If you use athenaMailbox, in most cases, patient refunds issued with a Payment method type of Check can be issued from your local/TOS bank rather than U.S. Bank. A Cut Refund Check Remittance Record will be created for refunds using U.S. Bank.

5. Check # — Leave this field blank.

6. Deposit location — Select the deposit location where the check will be deposited. The Bank Account menu selection is updated automatically.
7. Refund total — This total reflects the amount that you entered under Refund Amount (in Step 3).
8. Date of service — Enter the date of service that the money is being refunded for (if applicable).
9. Refunded for department — If the refund is attached to a particular department, select the department.
10. Note — Enter a note regarding the refund.
11. Click Post Refund. The posted refund appears in the list on the Refund Checks In Process page. (After the accounting department issues the check, you can fill in the check number on the Refund Checks In Process page.) The refund also appears in the patient's Billing Summary as a transaction of type UNAPPLIED CREDIT with a reason REFUND.

 

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. 

 

 

If your practice uses Credit Card Plus and you see the following message at the top of the Issue Patient Refund page, you cannot make a direct refund to a credit card:

 

The original payment's Terminal ID (ID_number) is not currently active.

Please use Cash to refund this transaction. Please contact CCP Operations for additional assistance.

 

You can still refund the patient with cash, check, or another non-CCP payment method by selecting the Cash, check or non-athena system refund option from the Refund as field.

 

The terminal ID is directly tied to your CCP merchant processing account, also known as the merchant ID or MID. If you want to reactivate the associated terminal ID to enable card refunds on the payment, please contact the CSC by selecting Support > Create Case or Call in the Main Menu.