Posting payments should be easy. The less time you have to spend worrying about whether or not a payment was posted, the more time you have to spend on more important tasks. Fortunately, Kareo can make it easier and less frustrating to post and track payments.

An online training video on Posting Payments from our Help Center, which features many helpful video and written training tools, gives a quick demonstration of what Kareo can do for you in terms of making it easy to post and track payments. The video covers the basics, including:

• Accessing the Find Payments/Received Payments window
• Posting from paper explanation of benefits (EOBs)
• Posting patient payments
• Posting refunds
• Posting electronic remittance advice (ERA) records

Accessing the Find Payments/Received Payments window

There are several ways to do this. First, you can access the Encounters dropdown menu to find the Receive Payments and Find Payments screens. They may also be accessed using the function keys on the top of the keyboard (F5 and F10, respectively). The icons for each are also on the toolbar, and you can see what they will do if you hover over the icon with your mouse. You can also access them by using the Encounters option, either on the side navigation bar or the main workflow area of the screen.

Posting paper EOBs

On the main workflow screen, you will first click on Receive Payment and then on New Payment. You will see the list of line services, along with the unapplied amount in the upper right corner. In the lower left corner is a series of fields that allows you to apply the payment, and the lower right corner keeps a running tab of payment and billing activity.

As explained in the video, you might wish to fill in the Batch Naming field, using a naming convention such as the current date and your initials. This will allow you to run reports where you might, for example, wish to separate out EOB payments from everything else.

The postdate field defaults to the current date, but you can change it to the date the check was deposited, if you wish. The select insurance field has a dropdown menu, but you may also search if there is a long list of companies. The adjudication date is the date the check from the insurance company was cut, and the reference number is the actual check number. Method is the type of payment, and then you can enter the amount. You may wish to enter a category, again for purposes of running reports, but it is not necessary. Under the Apply tab, you can enter the allowed amount, which will be automatically figured, along with any copay or deductible. As you apply the funds, the unapplied amount in the upper left corner will decrease. When you have finished with the EOB, click Save Payment to move on to the next one.

Note the importance of the PCN number, which is an identifier found on the paper EOB. It will consist of an encounter number, the letter “z,” and your customer number. So you may see something like “3z1204.” This would be the third encounter entered into the system, and “1204” is your customer number, which will never change. This PCN number will help you quickly find encounters using the search function.

Posting patient payments

This is very similar to, but in some ways easier than, posting an EOB payment. On the Receive Payment screen, you would select the type as “patient” from the drop-down field. The reference number would be the check or the last four digits of the credit card. You may wish to have a “patient payment” category, again if you wish to run reports and separate out these payment types.

Most of the rest of posting a patient payment is almost identical to what you do for a paper EOB. When you enter the amount of the payment, the patient’s remaining balance is reduced.

Posting refunds

What happens if a payment exceeds what is owed or available to apply? Kareo makes it easy to post refunds.

Once all payments have been applied to each line service, the amount will go down to zero. If the patient paid more than that, they are issued a refund. This is done from the New Refund screen. Again, this is pretty self-explanatory with regard to the fields to fill in. The status may be either issued, if you are cutting the check in your office, or draft, if it will be coming from the physician’s office.

Note that it is very important to keep a constant eye on the Find Payment window, which lists all open items. This allows you to know immediately if it is necessary to post a refund. Make sure to commit the resources and time to keeping on top of this.

Posting ERAs

The final part of the training video covers posting electronic remittance advice notices (ERAs). Like it or not, the health care industry is moving toward being more and more electronic, so ERAs will become more and more common as a method of billing and payment.

In order to keep track of these ERAs, you would access Clearinghouse Reports from the Encounter screen on the left-side navigation panel. Under the Electronic Remittance tab, you can then view the ERA transaction information. Once you have reviewed the ERA to be certain everything is in order, you can then post the payment.

Caution: any ERA charges must originate within the Kareo system. Fortunately, you will get an error message explaining the problem if this is not the case. You can then print out any ERA errors and correct them.

You can watch this training video on Posting Payments now. You will also find many other popular training videos in the Kareo Help Center.