Clinical Services Collection of Payment Procedure
1. Preamble
The purpose of these procedures is to provide a standardised approach to the administration of billing and payment collection procedures within the clinic for all aspects of clinical services.
2. Parent Policy
Refer to Clinical Services Collection of Payment Policy and Clinical Services Fee Structure Policy.
3. Administrative Billing & Outstanding Billing Procedure
3.1 At Time of Service
3.1.1. The appointment is billed on the day of service through MediPass, Albert, or invoice and an email is sent using the appropriate email template.
3.1.2. Once payment has been made, and if necessary, it is followed up with appropriate Medicare claiming.
3.1.3. Both the receipt and Medicare statement of claim (if applicable) should be sent via email to the client.
3.1.4. If referral session allocation has been reached, the appropriate notification email should be sent with receipt and Medicare statement of claim.
3.2 For Declining Payments
3.2.1. Clinic reception staff will attempt to call client or third party for payment.
3.2.2. An email informing of non-payment will be sent to the client or third party with the outstanding invoice attached.
3.2.3. If proof of payment showing account number and confirmation of payment is received, this can then be settled in PracSuite and finalised.
3.2.4. An email will be sent to Accounts at CMI informing that payment has been received.
4. Sequence of Reminder Emails for Outstanding Payments/Invoices for Self-Paying Clients and Applicable Third-Party Clients
4.1 First notification
4.1.1. If the service is unpaid on the day of session i.e., payment is declined, credit card details are incorrect, there are no payment details on file, or the client has indicated that they will pay by bank deposit and have not actioned this – clinic reception will attempt to call the client to organise payment. If the client is not able to be contacted, a message will be left for the client and an email will be sent as per 3.2.2.
4.2 First reminder
4.2.1. If the service remains unpaid based on the weekly outstanding invoices report generated in PracSuite, an individual invoice will be emailed by clinic reception to the client with a reminder of the overdue amount and a request for the amount to be paid prior to next session.
4.3 Second and final reminder
4.3.1. If the service remains unpaid based on the fortnightly outstanding billing report generated in PracSuite, the client will be emailed by clinic reception to inform of attempts to finalise payment. The email will state the total amount overdue with invoice/s attached. The client will be informed that ongoing appointments can no longer be booked until payment has been made.
4.3.2. A note will be placed on the client file that appointment bookings for the client’s file have been temporarily suspended due to outstanding accounts. Any waiver of this temporary suspension will require approval from the Director of Clinical Services.
5. Definitions and Acronyms
| Medipass | Online Medicare claiming system through Practice management software – this can be substituted by any system that allows online Medicare claiming |
| Albert | EFTPOS machine – can be substituted by another provider |
| PracSuite | Online Practice Management Software – may be substituted by another provider |