How to Create a Payment Plan

You can create payment plans for patients to allow them to pay off their balance on a periodic basis. This might be particularly useful in emergency cases where treatment is needed immediately and the patient incurs a large balance unexpectedly.

Payment plans can be created and managed from the patient's Payment Plans screen (Patient > Financials > Payment Plans). A patient must have an existing balance to have a payment plan created and activated.

Payment plans are also location-based. A patient can have a payment plan for a location in which they have an outstanding balance. Patients can have one active payment plan per each location in which they have a balance.

The maximum value of a payment plan is the calculated Patient Share balance for the location. 

Payment Plans do not move the patient balance into a separate container, nor do they affect balance aging, and they do not create transactions automatically. Rather, payment plans create a schedule of anticipated payments that can be communicated to the patient through their billing statements. The patient can then make payments based on this schedule (e.g., payments set to be made monthly, semi-annually, etc.) to chip away at their existing balance.

To create a payment plan:

1. From the Patient tab, select Financials > Payment Plans.
2. Under Actions, click New Payment Plan. The Payment Plan is displayed.
   
3. Under Payment Plan Summary:
   --Enter the plan description. Note: When choosing a description, keep in mind that the payment plan description is displayed on payments in the patient ledger and within statements.
   --Select a location. Note: To select a location, the patient must have a balance for that location. The patient can have one active payment plan per each location in which they have a balance. 
   --Confirm the payment plan amount (this defaults to the total Patient Share balance for the location but can be decreased).
4. Under Payment Plan Schedule:
   --Confirm the Guarantor (this can be updated in the patient record as needed).
   --Select a payment frequency of Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annually, or Annually.
   --Enter the first payment date (this defaults to a month from today's date, but you can also select a future date). Note: If you select the 31st of the month, the Payment on Last Day of Month option is automatically selected, and every payment is scheduled for the last day of each month. However, if you select a last day of the month that is less than 31 (e.g., February 28), then this option needs to be manually selected. If deselected, the payments are made on the 28th of each month. 
   --Confirm or change the payment plan amount or the number of payments (if one is changed, the other adjusts accordingly).
5. Review the proposed payment plan installation schedule. This schedule is automatically generated based on the selections in the previous fields, and you can adjust these selections as needed.
6. Click Save Payment Plan. You are prompted to activate the plan now or later.
7. Click Activate Now to activate the payment plan right away and begin the payment plan schedule or click Activate Later. The plan is saved.
   Note: 
   --To activate a pending plan, select the plan, and then from the Actions menu, click Activate Payment Plan. 
   --A patient can only have a single, active Payment Plan associated with each location. You can create as many payment plans as you want, but they will only be at a Pending state since you can only activate a single plan per location. Any other pending payment plans (associated with that same location) have to be manually cancelled. 
   --It is a good idea to cancel any Pending payment plans associated with a location when a payment plan has been activated for that location.

You can view existing payment plans by clicking on them from the left side panel.  When you click on a plan, you can view details such as the number of remaining payments, the remaining amount due, and the status of each scheduled payment. 

You can also perform the following from the Actions menu:

• Print Schedule: Create a PDF of the schedule for the selected payment plan, and you can then print or email it to the patient
• Activate Payment Plan: Activate the selected pending payment plan
• Edit Payment Plan: Edit the selected payment plan
• Cancel Payment Plan: Cancel the selected pending payment plan
• Close Payment Plan: Close the selected active payment plan
  Note: If a payment plan is closed, the Pay By (due now) amount on the next billing statement reflects the patient's associated balance based on the Statement settings (e.g., Current Balance or Patient Share). 

The payment plan list can also be filtered to display Active, Pending, Inactive, or all plans. 

Important: If a patient has an active payment plan for a location, it is important to associate a patient payment with the payment plan when you are posting a payment to that location. This association is needed to properly update the payment plan schedule and its balance (which is used and displayed on statements). For information on how to allocate a patient payment to a particular payment plan, see How to Post Charges and Payments From the Patient Ledger. 

As payments are made, the payment plan installment status and schedule is updated for the payment plan. The remaining amount updates as the scheduled payments are made, and the patient also has the option to pay ahead on the payment plan.

The status of the payments update from Scheduled to Paid or Partially Paid depending on the payment amount.

Payment plans are also reflected on the patient's billing statements. See How to Print a Patient Billing Statement for more information.

View all of the payment plans for a location by navigating to Location or All Locations > Financials > Payment Plans. See How to Manage Payment Plans for a Location for more information.