Creating payment plans

You can create a payment plan for one or more patients with the same guarantor who have unpaid balances. When you create a payment plan, it is associated with a guarantor, but you can create it from the Ledger of that guarantor or any of the patients who have that guarantor in common.

To create a payment plan

1. Open the Ledger page for a patient with procedures that require a payment plan, clicktap the Payment drop-down menu, and select Create payment plan.

   Note: You can also open the guarantor's Ledger or the Ledger of a patient with the same guarantor.

   

   The Create Payment Plan window displays.

   

2. Select each procedure check box included in the payment plan.

3. In the Applied field of each selected procedure, specify how much of that procedure's balance you want to include in the payment plan. To include the full balance of that procedure, leave the default amount entered.

   Note: The sum of the Applied amounts (the principal amount of the agreement), displays next to Amount applied for your reference.

4. Set up the following terms of the agreement and other options as necessary.

   • First payment due: By default, the current date displays. Edit the date as needed to reflect the date the payment plan starts.

     Example: One month from today.

     Note: You can postdate the start of a payment plan for up to 90 days.

   • Interest rate: Enter the interest rate that you will charge.

     Notes:

     • Ascend Academic automatically posts charge adjustments for the correct amount of interest at the specified Interval of the payment plan.

     • An automatic adjustment has a note explaining that it is associated with a payment plan.

     • You can view automatic adjustments for payment plans only if you view the Ledger using Guarantor View mode.

   • Interval: Select whether the payments should be made Biweekly (every two weeks), Monthly, or Quarterly (every three months).

   • Payment amount / # of payments: Complete one of the following:

     • If the payments must be a specific amount, enter it in the Payment amount field, and press Tab (or clicktap outside of the field).

       Ascend Academic calculates the correct number of payments in the # of payments field.

     • If the payments must be made within a specific time frame, enter the number of payments in the # of payments field, or clicktap the Increase and/or Decrease button to enter the number of payments. Then, press Tab (or clicktap outside of the field).

       Ascend Academic calculates the correct amount of each payment in the Payment amount field.

     Note: The Last payment amount displays for your reference. This amount might not be the same as the Payment amount.

   • Last payment can exceed payment amount: Click the toggle to set to Yes or No. If set to Yes, and the Total amount is an uneven number, the Last payment displays more than the Payment amount field. If set to No, the Last payment displays the remainder after the equal payments and the # of payments increases by one.

     Note: By default, the toggle is set to No, but you can click the toggle to set to Yes.

   • Provider: By default, the provider of the first procedure listed is selected, but you can select a different provider to associate the payment plan with.

   • Note - Enter any notes regarding the payment plan.

   Note: The Total amount, including interest, that will be paid displays for your reference. (The Total amount is the sum of the Amount applied and the Interest amount.)

5. ClickTap Save.

   The Create Payment Plan window changes to the Review Payment Plan window.

   

   Tip: To print the payment plan, clicktap Print, or you can print it at a later time.

6. ClickTap Cancel to close the Review Payment Plan window.