Charges and payments

A service charge belongs to an encounter. It records the service description, amount and state: Draft, Approved, Invoiced or Voided. A payment belongs to a patient and records received date, amount, reference and state: Pending, Confirmed or Refunded. The Clinical Coordinator prepares charges and reads patient payments. These two record types have different references and different decisions, so the team should review them separately during a pilot.

For a completed visit, the coordinator can enter a draft charge that identifies the service and amount. Approval moves the charge into a reviewed state; invoicing marks the next stage. If the charge should not stand, Voided keeps that decision visible. A patient payment record shows its source reference, received date and current state when the coordinator reviews it. The patient link lets staff find receipts for that person, while the encounter link lets staff find the charge that arose from a visit.

• Service charge. The encounter, service description, amount and status describe the billable work.
• Patient payment. The patient, receipt reference, received date, amount and status describe money recorded.
• Separate review. The coordinator approves charges and compares recorded payment states with source receipts.

Identify who may prepare and approve a service charge. Agree who supplies payment records and the source document behind each receipt reference. The coordinator reviews payment states against those source records. Determine whether a separate billing system owns invoice issuance and how staff reconcile its invoice numbers with charges here.

Agree a currency and rounding policy before comparing amounts. Charge status does not itself prove that a payment was received, and a patient payment does not identify a specific charge. Reconciliation between these records should therefore follow the organization’s billing process and any separately connected system. Keep this distinction explicit when reading financial reports.

Choose an encounter whose service description and amount can be checked against the care record. Enter a Draft charge and have the coordinator review it. Move it to Approved, then to Invoiced under the agreed operating procedure. Confirm that a Voided charge remains visible as a distinct state. A reviewer should be able to identify the encounter behind each charge.

Use an existing patient payment with a received date and reference. Compare its recorded state with the source receipt. Review charge and payment summaries separately and explain any difference without assuming a direct allocation. Include a Refunded payment and verify that the patient history shows its current state.

• Charges awaiting approval — Draft service charges with their encounter, amount and description.
• Patient payments pending confirmation — Pending patient receipts with dates, amounts and source references.

Follow charge and payment review and read the implementation plan.