The Difference between RECEIPT and STATEMENT

And how to be super efficient with billing…

Receipts

When a patient has a regular visit, some of them like to get a receipt that they can take to their health fund. To do this, when you bill them, just select ‘Print and Close’ instead of ‘Save and Close’ on the Payment/Sale form. This will produce a RECEIPT as distinct from a STATEMENT. Once you have done this for a patient once, Spinalogic will remember their choice and offer ‘Print and Close’ as the default from then on (unless you choose differently later).

If the patient is pre-paid, you would open that auto-billed item: Select the item in the patient’s leder, click ‘Edit’ and then ‘Print and Close’. PLEASE NOTE that this is an inefficient system and not recommended (see below).

If you use pre-pay and/or membership, you should never print receipts except for Initial Consultations and any adjustments before they join and for their pre-payment itself of course. Every other transaction should be itemized on a monthly statement.

IN other words, a RECEIPT is something you produce on the day for items paid with a single payment (even if that payment is composed of more than one part like cash and cheque). The patient can take the receipt to their health fund to claim.

(N.B. Don’t get confused by the patient asking for a ‘Statement’ when they actually just need a ‘Receipt’!)

Monthly Statements

A statement is a document you generate periodically which itemizes all transactions in a given period regardless of how many separate days or payments may be involved in that period.

Typically, you will generate statements for your patients just once a month (and maybe again once annually – see below).

If you have patients who are pre-paid or on membership here is the most efficient way to give them what they need to be able to claim from their fund:

1. Tell each patient when they join that you will send them a statement once a month in the first week of the month for the previous calendar month. Establish a policy that no receipts will be issued to pre-paid or membership patients other than the monthly statement (after all, they are getting a substantial discount on their care!). In the patient’s file, select ‘Deliver Statements’, and, ideally, ‘By Email’. They will need a Home Email for this option.
2. Schedule (in Outlook etc) that on the first Monday (for example) of each Month to send out statements.
3. When that day comes, go to Spinalogic and open Admin..Statements. Spinalogic will select  the last calendar month automatically for you. Select which statement(s) you want to deliver – typically just ‘Insurance Statement’. Click ‘Deliver’. All the patients marked in step 1 above will now have a statement created for them for all payments made in the previous month.
1. If you have checked ‘By Email’, it will be sent to them by email.
2. If not, it will be scheduled to print out when they next arrive in your practice. The patient can then just collect their statement from the Arrivals printer.

If you send statements this way, the patient can print it off for themselves any time they want and have a permanent copy in their email so they can get it again for themselves anytime.

Annual Statements

In Australia, many patients claim their Chiropractic expenses against their tax. To make this easy, schedule (again in Outlook) that once a year you will produce Tax Statements for all patients (say on the first Monday of July). After you send the regular statements, select the date range for the last financial year, select ‘Tax Statement’ and click deliver.

Further Information:

Admin Efficiency

Issuing Statements

Practice Financial Processes

Insurance Statements and Scheduled Payments

One-time Payments (or Schedule Pay) and Health Fund Claims