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Advanced Configuration: Payments Automation & Follow-Up Logic

Emily McClendon avatar
Written by Emily McClendon
Updated yesterday

The Payments Automation Settings page allows you to configure automated processes that help your practice efficiently follow up with patients about outstanding balances. Proper setup of these settings can reduce manual workload, improve collections, and enhance patient communication.

Here’s an in-depth look at what this section offers:

Charge Payment Processing Fee from Practice

What It Does: This setting controls whether your practice absorbs the payment processing fee or passes it to the patient.

When Enabled:

  • The practice pays the processing fee.

  • Patients are not charged extra for using credit/debit cards.

  • Best for practices that want to increase patient satisfaction.

Important:
To apply a surcharge using PbN ZeroPay, this setting must be disabled, meaning the patient will be charged the processing fee.


Automating Payment Follow-Ups

Why It Matters

Automating payment follow-ups ensures patients are consistently and promptly reminded of their balances, without manual effort. This improves payment recovery rates, reduces administrative time, and standardizes your patient communication process.

Practice by Numbers offers two core toggles to help you manage this automation effectively:

  1. Automatically send patients Follow-up

  2. Automatically add patients to Payments Follow-up Sequence if they satisfy the following criteria

These toggles can work together or independently, depending on how hands-on or automated your team wants the process to be.


Understanding the Follow-Up Toggles

Both Toggles Enabled

Fully Automated Workflow

  • Patients who meet your defined criteria are:

    • Moved from OutstandingScheduledUnder Follow-up

    • Automatically sent payment follow-ups based on your schedule

Benefit: No manual action needed—patients are re-engaged as soon as they meet the follow-up criteria.

Only “Automatically Send Patients Follow-up” is Enabled

Manual Selection, Automatic Sending

  • The practice manually selects which patients are moved to Scheduled.

  • Once moved to Scheduled, follow-ups:

    • Start automatically after 7 days, or

    • Can be sent immediately if manually moved to Under Follow-up

Benefit: You control who enters the follow-up sequence, but once they do, messaging is handled automatically.

Only “Automatically Add Patients to Payments Follow-up Sequence…” is Enabled

Automatic Selection, Manual Sending

  • The system automatically moves patients to Scheduled if they meet the criteria.

  • However, follow-up messages won’t go out unless:

    • You manually move patients to Under Follow-up

Benefit: Saves time identifying eligible patients while still giving you full control over when messages go out.

Custom Criteria for Automation


Range of Balances

  • Min Balance: The lowest amount (e.g., $5) that triggers follow-ups

  • Max Balance: The highest amount (e.g., $1000) that qualifies

Why It Matters: Prevents messaging patients over insignificant balances or unusually high amounts that may need a custom approach.


Last Interaction Consideration

Automation takes into account the last payment or service date for the patient or guarantor.

Purpose: Avoids triggering follow-ups for outdated or potentially resolved balances.


Pending Insurance Claim Exclusion

Patients with pending insurance claims are automatically excluded.

Why: Follow-ups are delayed until insurance resolution to prevent confusion or disputes.


Age-Based Automation

  • Min Age: Youngest eligible patient (e.g., 1 year)

  • Max Age: Oldest eligible patient (e.g., 100 years)

Use Case: Avoid sending messages to older patients who may not prefer or use digital communication.


Exclude Specific Account Types

Select account types (e.g., employee accounts, special payment plans) that should not receive automated messages.

Purpose: Allows you to customize automation for unique account handling scenarios.


Exclude/Include Based on Patient Tags

Patients with designated tags (e.g., VIP, Sensitive Case) can be excluded.

How to Use: Create tags for patients who require manual handling and configure automation to skip them.


Summary: Why Automate Payment Follow-Ups?

  • Saves Time: Reduces manual patient management

  • Boosts Collections: Ensures timely communication

  • Improves Patient Experience: Streamlined, consistent messaging

  • Flexible Setup: Allows your team to stay as hands-on or hands-off as needed

By understanding and configuring these settings effectively, your practice can optimize its payment collection strategy while ensuring a smooth and respectful patient communication process.

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