Payment Methods

1. Display the Payment Methods page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Practice Manager. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Miscellaneous, click Payment Methods.
2. ID — Enter the short name (for example, AMEX).
3. Name — Enter the full name (for example, American Express).
4. Payment method type — Select a payment method type for this payment method.
5. Bank deposit type — Select the bank deposit type for this payment method.
6. Click Save. The payment method appears in the list below.

1. Display the Payment Methods page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Practice Manager. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Miscellaneous, click Payment Methods.
2. Locate the payment method in the list.
3. Click the update link.
4. Edit fields as needed.
5. Click Save. The updates appear in the Payment Methods list.

1. Display the Payment Methods page: On the Main Menu, click Settings > Practice Manager. In the left menu, under Practice Links — Miscellaneous, click Payment Methods.
2. Locate the payment method in the list.
3. Click the delete link.
   A warning message appears.
4. Click OK to delete the payment method or Cancel to keep it.

Note: The payment method remains in the list with an undelete option next to it. You can click undelete to restore this payment method.

 

 

The standard athenaOne payment methods are Cash, Check, MC/Visa, AmEx, and Discover. During payment posting, an additional payment method, UnAppCr (Unapplied Credit), appears in the Method menu on the Post Payment page, when applicable. This payment type is defined by athenahealth and cannot be administered from this page.

 

 

You can create additional payment methods for tracking purposes.

athenahealth recommends that you not include a number when you create additional payment methods. However, if you want to include a number, we recommend that you begin numbering at 6.

 

For patients with prepayment plans, the Method menu on the Post Payment page also contains a prepayment plan option for each plan where the patient has a credit. Those prepayment options cannot be administered from the Payment Methods page.

 

 

Each payment method is mapped to a bank deposit type. The bank deposit type determines how deposits appear on your bank statement. When you collect a TOS payment, you select a payment method. The bank deposit type that is mapped to the payment method automatically determines the TOS payment batch assignment. This automatic assignment allows you to create deposit batches of the appropriate category and include only payment batches of that bank deposit type in the deposit batch.

 

To ensure that the TOS batch assignment feature works correctly for your practice, practice managers must verify and update the mappings that athenahealth created for you on the Payment Methods page.

 

Bank deposit types

Bank deposit types are maintained by athenahealth. They are as follows:

• Cash & Checks
• MasterCard & Visa
• American Express
• Discover
• Electronic Check
• Other

Payment methods for credit cards

If you have only one payment method for all credit cards, use the Payment Methods page to create a separate payment method for each type of credit card that you accept. You may need two or three payment methods for credit cards:

• MasterCard and Visa
• American Express
• Discover

Health Savings Account (HSA) cards should have a bank deposit type that represents the vendor that will clear the payment.

Note: When you collect a time-of-service payment and you select a payment method that is mapped to the "Other" bank deposit type, the payment appears on the View Deposits Created by athenaOne tab of the Manage Time-of-Service Money page.

 

For example, if you accept cash, checks, MC/Visa, American Express, Discover, and Health Savings Accounts cleared through the MC/Visa or American Express networks, you should create the following payment methods:

 

Payment Method	Bank Deposit Type
Cash	Cash & Checks
Check	Cash & Checks
MC/Visa	MasterCard & Visa
AmEx	American Express
Discover	Discover
HSA MC/Visa	MasterCard & Visa
HSA American Express	American Express

 

Electronic check conversion

Electronic check conversion is a technology that converts paper checks to electronic transactions, so that payments reach your bank account faster and check acceptance risks are minimized. Vendors that offer electronic check processing solutions include TeleCheck and EnCircle.

 

To support electronic check processing, create an e‑check payment method with "Electronic Check" as the bank deposit type. Any payment method with the Electronic Check bank deposit type automatically creates an Electronic Check payment batch, which you can add to an Electronic Check deposit batch.

 

To process a check electronically, you must run the check through a machine. After the check is swiped, most machines indicate whether the check was accepted electronically, denied due to a known bad check writer, or whether it needs to be deposited physically at the local bank (for example, some foreign checks).

 

Because some checks cannot be processed electronically, you should have both a regular check payment method that maps to Cash & Checks and an e‑check payment method that maps to Electronic Checks. Your list of payment methods may look similar to this one.

 

Payment Method	Bank Deposit Type
Cash	Cash & Checks
Check	Cash & Checks
E-check	Electronic Check
MC/Visa	MasterCard & Visa
AmEx	American Express
Discover	Discover
HSA MC/Visa	MasterCard & Visa
HSA American Express	American Express