Charges and payments

A charge points to an encounter and holds a service description, amount and state. Draft, approved, invoiced and voided distinguish its stages. A payment is a separate patient record with amount, receipt date, reference and pending, confirmed or refunded state.

• Encounter charge. The Clinical Coordinator maintains the charge description, amount and status against the visit.
• Patient payment. A payment has its own patient, reference, receipt date and state; it does not point to a charge.
• Reconciliation. Compare the patient through the charge’s encounter before staff treat an amount as paid.

For a visit that includes specimen collection, the coordinator checks the service description and amount before approving the charge. A later patient payment carries its own reference. The team reconciles those records through its agreed billing process; an approved charge is not itself a received payment.

Agree what service description identifies a collection visit and who checks the amount before a charge moves from draft to approved. The Clinical Coordinator can manage charges. Decide who records payments under the operating configuration; the coordinator’s published role can view payments but cannot manage them. Keep invoice and payment decisions in the billing process chosen during setup.

A charge references an encounter and a payment references a patient. There is no direct payment-to-charge reference in these records. Agree how staff use the encounter’s patient and the payment reference to reconcile them, especially when one patient has several visits. A voided charge and a refunded payment must keep their distinct states.

Use a patient with two encounters and a collection charge on only the later visit. Ask the coordinator to open the draft charge, check its encounter, patient, description and amount, then record the approved state. Have the person responsible for payments locate a confirmed payment by patient and reference. Compare the visit and payment evidence in the agreed billing process.

Repeat with a voided charge and a refunded payment. The records must remain separate: neither state change should be presented as an automatic update to the other record. Let the coordinator view the payment while confirming that the published role does not edit it. Check that a similar amount on the earlier visit cannot be mistaken for settlement of the later charge.

• Charges for Review — Draft service charges for a coordinator check.
• Encounter Intake — Visit context behind a charge.

Read encounter and specimen handling for the intake handoff and review and closeout for the final visit decision.