What is a patient statement, and when does one go out?

A statement is the bill the patient actually reads. It goes out once insurance has answered and what is left is genuinely the patient’s share.

You generate it straight from their account, so it always matches the real charges and payments. No number on it was ever typed by hand.

It reads top to bottom the way a patient will read it:

1. The charges: each service and its price.
2. What insurance covered.
3. Any credits already paid.
4. The amount due, in plain numbers.

There are no surprises on it, because every line came straight from the account.

The minimum balance rule. A statement will not go out for a balance below the amount you set. It is not worth the postage, or the patient’s confusion, to mail a bill for a few cents, so the system holds those back.

Statements can go out on their own. There is a batch path that sends statements to everyone who owes this week, and it shows you exactly who is in the batch before anything goes out. You can also put it on a schedule. See What is an automation?.

Send a statement only when the balance is really the patient’s. If insurance has not answered yet, the money is not theirs to be billed for.