Healthcare Business QuickBooks CleanupThe refund that went back to the wrong line
Money that left and broke the tie is usually a refund with no home. The next deposit cannot match a story that skipped that chapter.
Trace a refund
A refund is the rest of an older payment.
A patient who overpaid, or who paid and was then covered by a plan, gets money back. A plan can also recoup a claim it later decides it should not have paid. Both of those are reversals of something already recorded. Neither one is a new cost, and neither one is a made-up negative visit.
We put the refund against the payment it reversed. Then we re-tie the bank. If the money went back and the file has no line for it, say that before anything else. The next deposit cannot tie while that chapter is missing.
Patient credits and plan recoupments are not the same list. The counter can see a credit and apply it to the next visit, or hand it back. A recoupment comes out of a later deposit and has to be tied to the original claim, or that later deposit will look short for no reason anyone can explain.
The counter list is the source.
A Saturday of copays can feel like one crowd. Many small amounts, one total. The total is useless for the month until each amount is a name and a visit again. We do that split from the list the counter already keeps. We do not rebuild the day from the appointment book.
Have the counter list, the bank, and any note of what was handed back. We put the refund against the payment, then we re-tie the statement. What you get back is a file where cash can be walked back up to the visits. A refund has a home. The counter can call about what is still owed without opening a second workbook.
Payments the clinic makes to another practice for care are a different form. Those belong on Form 1099-MISC, with medical and health care payments in box 6. A refund to a patient is not that form. Keeping the two apart stops a repayment from being filed as if the clinic had bought a service.
What good looks like the next morning.
A good morning is boring. The bank from the day before matches the payments posted that day, including anything that went back out. The write-offs are lines you chose. The visits with no cash yet are still listed as owed.
If that morning is not the one you have, send the list and the bank. We will say whether the knot is the refunds, the lumps, or the draws. Signatures this practice does not give are written on the disclosures page. This page is about the month the counter can trust.
The price for the work is named in a scope, not here. Typing a note into the form, or picking an hour on the calendar, does not set that price. You can send the refund list and still walk away after the first call.
Trace the money that went back.
Say whether money has gone back to patients without a home in the file.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.