Playbook, medical practice
The patient had the appointment and the invoice goes to a firm
Invoicing at a practice looks nothing like invoicing anywhere else, because the person who was in the room is frequently not the person being billed. A solicitor commissioned the report, an insurer requested the extract, an employer wanted the medical. The patient is the subject of the document rather than the account.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for billing and invoices holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The payer and the patient are commonly two different parties here, so the first thing a billing answer has to establish is which of them is typing, because the useful reply differs completely.
- An invoice at a practice normally follows a piece of written work rather than an appointment, and that work happens in administrative time, so the gap between the visit and the invoice is weeks rather than minutes.
- Some practices release a report only once it has been paid for, which is a term the requesting party needs at the start rather than after it has begun chasing.
- Commissioned care generates no invoice at all, so a patient holding one has had something outside that, and the material should make the boundary obvious rather than leaving them to conclude they have been charged for seeing a doctor.
How it arrives
- i got an invoice from the surgery what is it for
- who do i send the request to for my clients report
- can you invoice my employer instead
- why has it been three weeks and no invoice
- do i pay before you write the report
- can i have a receipt for the medical
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Which pieces of work generate an invoice | Listed by name, so somebody holding an invoice can match it to the thing that produced it. The commonest billing enquiry at a practice is simply what is this for. |
|---|---|
| Who is invoiced for each type, and what they must supply | The insurer, the solicitor, the employer or the patient, with the reference or authority each has to include. A missing reference is the usual reason an invoice sits unpaid for a month. |
| Payment terms, and whether payment comes first | Whether a report is released on payment, the period you allow and the methods you accept. Write it for a third party who has never dealt with your practice before. |
| How to get a receipt or a duplicate invoice | Who to ask and what they need to quote. Small, constantly requested, and almost never published anywhere a requester can find it. |
The reply
Ordinary appointments here are not invoiced, so an invoice from us relates to work outside that, such as a report or a medical, and what we charge for is listed on our fees page [1]. Who is billed depends on the type of request, and it is often the insurer or the firm that asked for it rather than the patient [2]. Reports are written in administrative time, so the invoice follows the work rather than the appointment. I cannot look up an invoice or take a payment. Leave me your name, an email and the reference on it and the team will check.
It rules out the frightening reading first, that somebody has been charged for a consultation. It explains why the payer varies rather than asserting one, since the person typing may be an assistant at a solicitor's office. And it explains the delay before the delay turns into a chase.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor quotes an invoice number, disputes an amount, or asks for a payment to be taken or a report to be released.
I cannot see an invoice, take a payment or release a report. Give me your name, an email and the reference on the invoice, and the team who handle these will come back to you.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say an invoice has been issued, paid or cancelled.
- Never take card details, bank details or a payment reference as though a payment were being made.
- Never say a report will be released, since release may depend on payment and on a clinician finishing it.
- Never confirm which patient an invoice relates to, because the person asking may be the payer rather than the patient.
Questions
- Do solicitors and insurers really use a chat widget?
- They do, because it is faster than the switchboard, and their questions are administrative and repetitive: where to send a request, what you charge, what your terms are. Publishing those converts a phone call into a page view.
- Can it chase an unpaid invoice?
- No. It cannot see an account, send a statement or record a payment. It can quote your terms and take the reference so somebody who can see the ledger picks it up.
- Should terms be published for third parties?
- Yes, and separately from anything written for patients. A requester who can read your terms and your fees before writing in sends a complete request, which is the whole of the saving here.
Keep reading
- Everything for a medical practiceAdministrative questions a practice can safely automate, the symptom questions it must never touch, and how to word the refusal.
- Handling billing and invoices in generalInvoice copies, tax numbers, purchase order references. Nearly all of it is account specific, so the honest handling is process plus a clean handover.
- Why a practice cannot email somebody a way back inA patient online account opens a medical record, so access is reissued after an identity check at the desk rather than by email.
- Somebody wants into a record that is not theirsParents, carers and adult children ask to reach somebody else's record. Consent, the age review and what a clinician may restrict.
- Data questions at a practice arrive from patients and from organisationsPatients ask who their data is shared with; organisations send the practice assurance forms. Neither is answered by improvising.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.