Applying Write Off Exceeding the Patient Balance

[lswanger]

Good Morning!  I have a patient that has moved out of the country and I'm trying to adjust her account.  When applying my write off I recieve a message stating it is more than the patient due.  Example her balance is 1500 & i'm trying to apply 2300 write off.  Do I have to "write it off" another way?  Thank you in advance!

[Anon · Accepted solution]

Good day Lisa ( @lswanger ),

I am a little confused on your issue as there should rarely be a need for a writeoff which results in a negative balance.  Is this because you are also wanting to write off an amount that the patient previously paid?  If so, that would make more sense. 

In any case, if you are getting a message like the one you described, it is probably because if there is no contract on an account (which will be the case after the writeoff) then the current and total balance must be equal to each other.  If the current and total balance are not equal BEFORE the write-off adjustment, then you must adjust the amounts in the "New" column during the adjustment to ensure that the Current balance equals the Total balance after the write-off or you will get a warning that total does not equal current. 

The easiest thing to do would be to do a current-only balance adjustment to set the current balance equal to the total balance before you attempt the writeoff adjustment.  You should then be able to perform the writeoff with no issues after that. 

If you have any other questions, please let us know!

Regards,

Phil Carter / OrthoTrac Escalations