Payment Plans are currently in beta and accessible only to a limited number of practices at this time.
Managing payment settings is crucial to ensuring smooth transactions and automated processes within PbN. This guide will walk you through key settings that should be reviewed when configuring Payment Plans.
Navigating to Settings
Start by navigating to Payments > Settings.
Payment Plan and Automated Follow-Up Settings
Accounts on Active Payment Plans
This toggle prevents patients who are already enrolled in an active payment plan from receiving automated follow-up messages for overdue balances. If enabled, patients with a payment plan will not be included in the automated follow-up sequence, reducing redundant notifications.
Offer Payment Plans with Automated Follow-Ups
Enabling this setting will allow patients in the automated follow-up campaign to be offered payment plans. This ensures that patients who are already being contacted for overdue balances have the option to enroll in a structured payment plan to settle their accounts.
Payment Plan Settings
Failed Payment Retries
This setting determines how many times a failed payment on a payment plan will be retried before marking the plan as delinquent. Options range from 1 to 5 retry attempts per day. If a payment fails, the system will attempt to charge the card on file based on the selected number of retries.
Payment plans with failed payments will appear on the Retry List under Payment Plans.
If all retry attempts fail, the payment plan will be marked as Delinquent, and the patient’s plan will move into the Delinquent List on the Payment Plans page.
Delinquent Payment Plan Follow-Up Sequence
When a payment plan becomes delinquent, practices can customize the follow-up process to ensure patients are properly notified and encouraged to make payments.
Customizing Follow-Up Steps
Add or remove steps in the sequence
Choose SMS, Email, or both for follow-up communications
Assign tasks for staff to manually follow up if needed
Additional Payment Plan Settings
Post-Payment Type & PMS Sync
Practices can configure the post-payment type and choose whether payments from payment plans should automatically sync with the PMS. This ensures that financial records remain up to date without manual intervention.
Payment Plan Agreement
Each payment plan includes an agreement that the patient must accept before enrolling. A default agreement is provided, but practices should review and customize this document to align with their financial policies. The agreement should clearly outline payment expectations, terms, and consequences for non-payment.
Payment Plan Communication Templates (Email & SMS)
How to Find the Templates
To locate and edit your email and SMS templates for payment plans:
Go to the Payments module.
From the left-hand navigation, click on Templates.
Scroll to the section with the Payment Plan Templates.
You’ll see a list of available templates for different stages of the payment plan journey, such as:
Successful Payment Received
Plan Completed
Payment Failure
Final Notice
Delinquent Plan
Custom Payment Requests
Upcoming Installment Reminders
You can customize each option by clicking Edit next to the delivery method you wish to modify.
Available Merge Tags
You can include dynamic placeholders (merge tags) to personalize messages:
{{ first_name }}{{ payment_plan_name }}{{ payment_plan_amount }}{{ payment_plan_installment_amount }}{{ payment_plan_outstanding_dollars }}{{ payment_plan_days_till_next_payment }}{{ payment_plan_frequency }}{{ payment_plan_installment_number }}{{ payment_plan_installment_due_date }}{{ payment_plan_total_installment_amount }}{{ payment_plan_installment_link }}{{ practice_name }}{{ practice_phone_number }}{{ practice_email }}{{ practice_address }}
Tip: Use professional and empathetic language in your templates to maintain patient trust and encourage timely payments.
Final Review and Best Practices
Verify that payment plan options align with the practice’s financial policies
Ensure that retry attempts are set to a reasonable number to balance collections and patient experience
Customize the delinquent follow-up sequence to match the practice’s preferred communication methods
Update the payment plan agreement to reflect clear terms and conditions for patients
Review and personalize your Payment Plan Email and SMS templates for consistent branding and clear communication