Write offs
Answered
Hi- I feel like the answer about write offs did not actually answer the question asked.
I know how write off the difference between what I bill and insurance pays or for individual bills.
What I would like to know and I believe was asked by several individuals is how to write off a lump sum when a client is not able/willing to pay. This will clear up my outcomes section.
I realize I could go through every session and change it to self-pay and write it off but surely there is a way to write off the entire amount where it does not show up on my report as income.
To be clear I am not asking for legal or tax advice as to what can legally be written off. I would just like to clear out my clients who are never going to pay from my insights section.
Perhaps to add another option under the "payments" section where I can click write off or not paid by client?
Please help.
-
Hi Colleen and Tracy,
I understand that you're wondering whether it's possible to write-off a lump sum which a client isn't able to pay off. Currently, it's not possible to write off a lump sum in a client's billing page. Instead, you'll want to follow the steps which you've correctly noted - you'll want to navigate to your client's billing page and edit each session so that your client's sessions are written off.
You can follow these steps to write-off your client's sessions:
1. Search for and select the client in your search bar.
2. Click the "Billing" tab next to the "Overview" tab.3. Click on the range of dates and adjust the time frame to include all of the sessions which you'd like to write-off.
4. Hover your mouse over the session and click the Edit button when it appears.5. If the session has the "Insurance" Billing Type, then adjust the "Client Owes" field to $0. If the session has the "Self-Pay" Billing Type, then adjust the "Write-off" amount to the full session fee.
At the same time, thanks for reaching out with the suggestion to add a "Write Off" option under the Payments section. Our team loves feedback and ideas for ways to advance the platform, and we encourage you to add it to our Ideas and Suggestions board.
Posting on our Ideas and Suggestions board means that members of our Product Team, as well as all members of our Community, have transparent access to review and vote on your suggestion. This board is one of our most important resources for understanding which features will have the most value for our community.
If you're curious, here's more information about how a customer idea can become a SimplePractice feature: Customer feedback: How a customer idea can become a feature in SimplePractice.
Additionally, if you'd like to keep track of our current plans and priorities, you can see them on our regularly updated SimplePractice Product Roadmap.
If you have questions, please reach out to us and we'll be happy to help.
-
If there could be an option in simple practice to post a write-off noncollectable or a write off for fee reduction or courtesy write off -- it would make it so much easier. I have gotten around this issue bu posting a patient payment with a code(s) or short note in the check number field. But then to calculate the true income in the practice I have to run additional reports and manipulate a spreadsheet.
Then the ability to run a report that gives these details would be useful.
Also it would be helpful to be able to allocate patient payments to specific sessions. Sometimes a patient is paying a copay at the appointment time, yet they have an outstanding balance say from when they had other insurance or a deductible that you are allowing them to pay off in installments.
-
Hi Joseph,
You can add a write-off for a session you had with a client. If that session was an Insurance Pay, then you'll add the write-off when you add an Insurance Payment. If the session was Self-Pay, you'll enter the write-off amount from the client's Billing page. I've detailed the steps for both here:
Insurance Pay Write-Off:
1. Go to your Billing tab > Insurance > Add Payment. Sort by the client's name, date of service range, and Insurance Payer.
2. You can add in how much the client should owe, how much the insurance paid for the session, then use the circular arrows to calculate the write-off. Add the total amount of the insurance payment at the top of this page under Amount.
Here is a screenshot in my test account:
3. If an Insurance payment already exists for the session, then you can just add the write-off amount and adjust how much the client owes. The blue links under the sessions indicate previous insurance payment, as shown here:
Self-Pay Write-Off:
1. Go to your client's Billing page, click on the relevant Appointment, make sure it's marked Self-Pay and enter a write-off amount. Save your changes.
Here is a screenshot in my test account:
You can see the write-off amounts by generating an Appointment Status Report. You can choose to include insurance information if you've added insurance write-offs and export this report into a CSV or Excel spreadsheet.
Here is more on the Appointment Status Report: Checking the billing and documentation status for appointments
Here is a screenshot of this in my test account:
For more information on the various ways to record write-offs, click here: How do I enter write-offs?
Payments are allocated towards the smallest and oldest invoices in your client's file. Currently, you can't choose to allocate a payment towards a particular invoice if the total amount is larger than another invoice in your client's file. However, since a client's copay is smaller than your contracted rate (how much they'd owe for a session going toward a deductible), invoices generated for the client copay are prioritized when allocating payment. The only way they wouldn't be is if you have many sessions billed at the copay rate on one invoice, making this invoice larger than the deductible invoice.
If you'd like to learn more about how payments are allocated to invoices, click here: How are payments allocated to invoices?
We're always looking for ways to improve our platform and really appreciate customer feedback. If you have any suggestions regarding our Billing system, I'd recommend adding it to our Ideas and Suggestions board.
-
Hi Beverly,
Not necessarily, if you're trying to write-off the client's copayment amount for insurance pay sessions, you'll still want to note this in a manually generated insurance payment. When you add a write-off amount to an insurance payment, you're simply calculating the difference between how much your client owes, how much the insurance paid and what your private pay rate is.
On the other hand, if you'd like to indicate that you've written off the session fees for a private pay appointment, you'll want to make sure a session is marked Self-Pay. Click on the Appointment from the client's Billing page, enter a Write-Off amount and Save your changes.
-
I'm afraid I disagree with how this is done. The $20 write-off is not afforded to the client by the insurance company which is how it ends up being posted to the account. In the case I've described, BCBS is writing off $22.97 which is the difference between our charge and their allowable fee. They are not writing off $42.97. Isn't there a way to show that the $20 written off is the client portion? Overall, BCBS discourages providers from writing off copays and co-insurance because all insured clients need to be treated the same except in extenuating circumstances which should be documented.
-
Since it has been a year can simple practice please make this happen? As therapist would be so helpful to be able to write off items that we are either not charging the client where the client has refused to pay. For instance I have clients with hide adoptable’s and Something Happens and they’re not able to pay and I can’t collect it. It would just be nice to have an idea at the end of the year how much money I am not collecting and why. Perhaps a drop box that allows write offs to be categorized just like a cancelled appt has the Option of a no show or late cancel or cancel. That is so helpful in evaluating practice policies.
-
Hi Everyone - Thank you for your feedback on our write-off functionality. We'd love to see your comments and votes on a pre-existing post, or a new idea you post on our Ideas and Suggestions board, here: http://simplepractice.uservoice.com/
-
Thanks Ruth! I didn't see an idea for this, so I added one. For those of you who have posted in this thread, I think it would be helpful if you would go vote for it.
Click here to go directly to my idea!
edit: There are a bunch of other posts for similar ideas. I just missed them as I was learning to navigate that forum. I'm going to include links to a few!
Sarah Wynn idea ...This one has a bunch of votes, maybe let's try to keep boosting it!
-
Hi Emily,
You can edit an appointment's billing no matter how long ago the appointment was. However, if there is a superbill attached, you'll want to delete the superbill first.
In summary, here's how you can edit the billing for a past appointment:
- If applicable, delete the superbill for the session by clicking Delete on the top right.
- Go to the client's Billing tab > hover over the appointment until the Edit link appears > click Edit.
- Update the billing information as needed.
- Click Save.
- Click Uninvoiced in the Billing Overview on the top right to create a fee adjustment invoice which will update the amount the client owes for this session.
- Recreate the superbill if needed.
-
Hi Olivia, it sounds like you may've changed the client's Billing Type from Insurance Pay to Self-Pay in order to add a write-off. Please go back to your client's Billing page, click on the appointment and edit the Billing Type to be Insurance Pay, then in the ADD PAYMENTS box to the right of the client's file. Click the "Add Insurance Payment" button and enter the write-off amounts for each relevant insurance session. Here's more on entering a write-off amount: https://support.simplepractice.com/hc/en-us/articles/207623066-Adding-insurance-payments
-
Hi Dr. Barry,
Here's how you can view the write offs for any client:
- On the client's profile page, click Appointment Status Report in the Billing Overview section on the top right. This report includes Write Off columns in both the Client Responsibility and Insurance Responsibility sections.
- To view the sum of all the client's write offs, update the date range as needed.
- Click CSV or Excel on the top right > add a sum function at the bottom of the Write Off columns.
At the end of the year, you can also view the total of each of your client and insurance write offs by going to Reports > clicking [Year] Tax Report.
-
Why is this such a difficult process to implement? This software has been great, but seems lacking in a simple drop down menu to write off and either give a couple of examples of the reason for the write off or something.
Having to change the patients information to self pay, then go back and go through a multiple step process to write something off is time consuming and seems to throw the balance written off to the insurance side of things. Yes, we like to collect Co-pays, and are required to, but there are always extenuating circumstances and this year with COVID, they are waiving copays for some clients. This is an oversight in the making of "SIMPLE" Practice. Overall, we are very pleased with it, but this is a sticking point for me with a high urgency to have things streamlined, easy and make sense from client to insurance to taxes. We need to properly account for the write offs and be able to track them in a SIMPLE manor.
Thank you.
-
So- now well over a year and still nothing done. There really needs to be an option for this. To write something off not just as an insurance adjustment or a self-pay adjustment- but to write something off when a client cannot or will not pay. It would be so helpful to see how much money is being written off and even a few drop down boxes that we could fill in ourselves- similar to the referral source. I would have the following options- client unable to pay, client refused to pay, issue with insurance. I have had 3 recoupments from insurance where the insurance came back and took money back and the client did not pay. I would really like the ability to put this in a different category than the insurance write off or a private pay write off. Because- it is not the same thing!!! A client who never pays me technically stays on my Simple Practice Balance sheet and I would like to know how much money I am losing each year. This cannot be that difficult and I can't imagine that any private clinician would not use this for tracking money lost as well as clearing out due balances. Come on Simple Practice!!! This is not that hard. I pay nearly $80 a month for your services for just me. And while I admit I like your product for the most part- this is a huge short coming that messes up my balances and ability to clear clients out.
-
Hi Everyone, thank you for your feedback on write-offs; however, it's not legal to bill insurance for sessions that the client doesn't meet their financial responsibility for. If we allowed customers to write-off client copays, customers may experiences further issues with the insurance payer if ever audited. We totally understand that there are extenuating circumstances and financial hardships, especially during this time of Covid-19, but this isn't a functionality we're considering building out at this time. We may reconsider this in the future. Here's a feature idea that addresses the issue of unpaid copays and balances, add your comments here, or post a new idea entirely: https://simplepractice.uservoice.com/forums/918553-simplepractice-feedback/suggestions/36624688-clear-balances
-
When I add a write-off to a client's self-pay bill, how will this impact them when they submit their superbill for reimbursement? Essentially if I say a client paid $75 of a $100 session and I write off $25, does that impact their reimbursement? When I look at their superbill it says, "Total Charges: $100" and "Total Paid: $75" I am not charging them for that other $25, but does that impact them when they apply for reimbursement? Does the insurance expect them to pay the other $25 before they get reimbursed? Is the insurance going to send me the other $25 instead of sending the client their reimbursement? The client and I agreed to the $75 fee, so I am not expecting the other $25. Is there a way I can write off the money I am not collecting and not impact their ability to get reimbursed by their insurance?
-
I cannot figure out how to write off an invoice. I've tried everything above. There should be an option in the drop-down for an invoice, where you can easily just pick "write off" in the same place where cash, check, card, etc are options - at least for self-pay clients. This is not user friendly.
Post is closed for comments.
Comments
38 comments