Transferring or Changing Payment Responsibility for a Charge Entry

Transfers Start with an Accurate Payer (Charge Splits) List on the Charge

At the bottom of every Charge entry, on the first tab (“Charge”) is a short list that includes a line for every configured insurance and non-insurance payer that is, or was, available for the patient on the date of service. If the patient has insurance coverage and is seen over a period of time, the payers shown in the list are likely to change from time to time. The following screenshot shows a Charge, with the payer list at the bottom. This list is created at the time that the charge is initially entered, but it can be refreshed at any time to reflect relevant payers added after the Charge itself.

Insurance payers are included in the list based on the coverage dates specified in each patient’s insurance policies. Policies are found in the patient screen:

If you see more or less insurance payers in the charge split list than you think you should, it is probable that:

• The coverage dates in the patient’s policies are missing.
• The coverage dates in the patient’s policies are incorrect .
• The service date specified in the charge is incorrect.
• The payer list for the charge needs to be refreshed..

Manual Transfers of Payer Responsibility

In most cases, you will have some idea of how the responsibility for payment should be divided up among the patient’s payers. To adjust the amounts expected from each payer…

1. Open the Charge entry from the Daysheet or, if already posted, from the patient’s ledger.
2. Take note of the total fee amount in the upper portion of the Charge screen.
3. By definition, a transfer means that you will be reducing the amount due from one payer and increasing the amount due from another payer by the same amount. In the payer list at the bottom of the Charge, open each of the payers involved one by one, change the Amount, and save. Be sure that the sum of the split amounts still matches the original total fee amount. If they do not match, the fee amount will change to match the total of the splits when you save the Charge.

Automatic Transfers

Under certain conditions, SOS will automatically make transfers for you, adjusting amounts expected from payers based on a Credit entry that you make. See, for example, Handling Larger than Expected Payments: The Auto-Transfer Feature.

See related article:

How to Refresh the Payer List on a Charge Entry