Posting an Insurance Payment with a Credit Card

[matt_ackerman]

A growing trend for insurance companies is to remit payments to providers using credit cards instead of via electronic deposit or on a standard paper check.  I am sure that there are lots of benefits to the insurance company to do this, including allowing the payer to reuse the credit card number on future reimbursement.  However, this is causing grief for plenty of dental providers.  While it is possible for you to request that the insurance carrier provide you payment using a "standard" method, several payers are resisting this.  

Posting these payments in PracticeWorks today is not an easy thing.  We realize the complication of trying to post the credit card payment to the account when it doesn't affect the expected insurance amount.  I fully support a change in one of the upcoming releases that will address this issue, and I am pushing for this to be included in the release that immediately follows v8.0 with Line Item Accounting.

In the meantime, let us know if this is affecting you in your practice, and how you are dealing with it today.  Perhaps you have a unique workaround that might benefit another practice while we seek to address this in a future release. 

[dianeyoung]

I added the code VCC under payment codes and ran it as a credit card so when you look at the ledger and see the code VCC you will know it was a cc. You will however have to zero out the claim or it will still sit there as an unpaid claim.

[dianeyoung]

VCC = virtual credit card

[jgolub]

I enter the payment under credit cards. Process as always under credit cards.  Put in the credit card info when that screen pops up and then I make the $ amount in the patient column 0 and I tab to the insurance column and the correct $ amount fills in.  This way I process it as a credit card however it gets deducted from the insurance balance not the patient balance.  Simple there is no transferring of funds and its just a cleaner way to process these credit card payments from the insurance companies. Note:  When closing at the end of the day make sure the box for "all" is checked when running your ledger scan.  Our system automatically has the "patient" box checked so I need to change it to "all" when I have an insurance credit card payment.  This is found directly under the selected transaction box.

[heather]

I am so opposed to this form of payment  because we, too,  are assessed fees by our credit card company.  Unfortunately, I think many insurance companies are pushing more technological advances to save them money (paper, postage etc.). I haven't challenged an insurance co on this form of payment...yet.  

It would be great if Carestream would offer a method of payment that denotes this type of payment on a patient account.  The current options of cash, credit card, check, electronic deposit and money order don't seem to relate.  Especially given that the payment needs to show up under the credit card category on the daily deposit. As someone mentioned in an earlier post, it gets confusing to the patient if we enter it as a credit card payment.  We typically write a comment, but unless there is something I am unaware of, the comment isn't reflected on a patient statement.

[r4488]

You bring up a very good point---not being able to write a comment/provide explanation to a patient on the statements.

When posting a payment, there is a field for comment (much shorter than is actually shown!) that only appears on the ledger.  (being shorter than shown is very frustrating trying to guess actual length)

We spend much time handwriting notes on statements but less time than the many phone calls would be explaining: 

"Ins co shows this balance is your responsibility or This is your deductible balance or Insurance denied the x-ray or We can offer a prompt pay discount... or Please call our office to discuss payment arrangements / ETC."

Wouldn't more practices appreciate this option?

[heather]

Agreed, Pam!  We do individual statement notes from time to time, but we don't automatically issue a statement when posting payments.   Our statements are run in bulk.  It only makes sense that a line item could have a comment attached to it & print on a statement.  And yes, we guess on the space allotment on those statement notes!

For those following this thread, an office can have a message printed on all statements under your practice preference - statement tab.  Unfortunately, that doesn't apply to our issue at hand with insurance credit card payments.

[pksaari79]

I agree with you and we are not finding that many that pay with Credit Cards but I am sure that number will increase. The insurance companies from whom we received a Credit Card payment have been gracious to accept our explanation that we want a paper check, NOT a credit card payment.  It seems to be a 3rd party that takes care of it for that particular insurance company.  My point is, we have had to only call once and it takes care of other patients under that plan.

[elavid]

I call the # on the virtual card invoice and request that they have the insurance carrier send us a physical check for the services and to mark our records to reflect that we do not wish to have this form of payment in the future. Anytime we hand enter a credit card we incur a higher merchant fee. I have had them respond with the same old response, "they would be happy to do this, but it will take longer for you to receive your money". However, we too have received the money within 1 week to 2 wks after making the request. We hardly ever receive these virtual credit card payments anyway.

[jeanspears]

We actually do exactly what Michael described above.  We have had some patients that have called and asked about the credit card payment (because they didn't make it).  I explain to them that their insurance paid via credit card and that's unfortunately the best way I can post it.  It would be great if Carestream could make a better way to post this type of payment so that it is reflected in the message body - from my experience - patients will read that the insurance paid $0 and stop reading there and call our office in a panic.  Luckily, we don't receive very many of these credit card payments so we just accept and process them.  

Jean S.

[pksaari79]

We have chosen not to take them because we incur extra CC fees on the insurance company's behalf.  I have had success calling them and asking for a paper check.  They like to give the "run around", saying it takes longer but it does not.  We have had payment within 2 weeks AND once we call we are supposed to be off their CC payments for those insurance companies they represent.  We may give in as more and more insurance companies move to this form of payment, but for right now, this works and I just stand my ground telling them it does not help our practice to do it this way.

[bathomas05]

I see this post is from 2017 but in 2019 we are still successful in getting the insurance companies to stop sending via credit card payment

[cjenkins]

We do this as well.  We're already taking a cut by accepting the insurance. We don't want to pay additional % to credit card company, then higher fee for non-swiped fee to merchant.  We'll take the slightly longer time to receive a check over the additional fees associated with accepting a "credit card" payment.  It really hasn't been an issue.

[jojob]

We also refuse credit card payments from insurance companies because it causes a merchant credit card fee to our office.  It was not a problem cancelling them.  Just call the number on the virtual credit card payment form (not the insurance company).  Eventually, you will be opted out and you will receive the paper check.  It's been over a year and we have not received any virtual card payments.  Stand your ground or else you will be paying credit card fees from your practice.  We accept electronic insurance payments, and we pay no office nor bank fees for those and that works great.  Payments are very fast.

Joanne B

[mrgrenier]

Yeah, its a bit tricky at first but it can still be done. This is our work around:

1. Start with Payment screen like normal.

2. IP, brings up list of outstanding claims, select your claim.

3. Set payment amount to Zero, type to EFT, for the EFT number I like to use the claim number or other unique identifier on payment.

4, Select "Post Adjustment" this will allow you to use pworks built in credit software or if you are standalone type in your credit payment code. Put in the amount of the card payment.

5. Ok back all the way through and out. If you look in the ledger you will see the the payment is linked to the claim on the ledger (Including EFT#) so later you can tell what it was.

Caveat: When the statement prints it will say insurance paid zero and they owe the full amount in the written out explanation, but the owed amount of the statement will still be correct as the credit card applied payment to the ledger. Not a big deal for us since the written out section is usually wrong anyway since it doesn't take into account insurance adjustments.

(Not affiliated with Carestream just my own meandering experiences...)

Good luck!