Charges and payments

A charge belongs to an encounter and carries a service description, amount and status. The status moves through draft, approval and invoicing, or becomes voided when it should not proceed. Billing Specialist checks the service against the encounter’s patient, clinician and service dates. The billing workflow uses that limited projection so billing staff can work without reading the clinical narrative. A charge is a service obligation; a payment is a separate record of money received for the patient.

Payments record received date, amount, reference, patient and status. A confirmed payment has a reference that staff can reconcile to the payment source and the patient’s charge outside these records. A pending item is not yet confirmed; a refunded item remains part of the history. Keep the charge and payment states distinct when answering whether a service was invoiced and whether money was received.

• Prepare. Billing Specialist checks the encounter and drafts the service description and amount.
• Approve. The authorized billing reviewer approves the service before invoicing.
• Confirm. Billing Specialist records the payment with its source reference and received date.

Agree where approved service descriptions and amounts come from, who authorizes them, and how the billing team retains the invoice identifier outside the charge record. Define the payment reference format and the reconciliation procedure for a refund. The encounter provides a billing projection; the accounting or invoice service is a connection to configure. Keep clinical notes outside the billing handoff, and rehearse access as well as normal processing.

Choose one completed encounter with a billable service for the pilot. Draft a charge, review its amount, approve it and reconcile the authorized invoice in the billing system. Then record a confirmed payment reference. Recheck the encounter, charge and patient to ensure they all refer to the same care event. Try a repeated invoice or payment notification and reconcile it against the first billed service and receipt before accepting another record.

A monitored patient finishes an encounter after the clinical note is signed and follow-up tasks are resolved. Billing Specialist sees the encounter’s patient, clinician and service dates, enters the approved service description and amount, and sends the charge for approval. Once the invoice is authorized in the billing system, the charge is marked invoiced. When payment confirmation arrives, the specialist records the received date, amount and reference against the patient. A later refund changes the payment state without erasing the original confirmation.

• Charges awaiting approval — Review draft services before an invoice is linked.
• Confirmed payments — Reconcile received amounts and references by patient.

Read encounter to payment. Use integrations to plan invoice and payment source connections.