Billing and payments
Know what to collect, and where every dollar went.
The estimate is on the huddle sheet before the day starts. The payment is recorded against the visit when it is taken. The drawer is counted against the record at the end of the day.
Before the day starts
The huddle sheet is the day's visits with the coverage answer and the estimate beside each one.
- One line at the top: what the desk can expect to collect, from how many visits, and how many could not be estimated.
- Beside each visit: the copay the payer returned, or the deductible that is left and the coinsurance after it.
- What needs doing before the patient arrives: a referral requirement, other insurance on file, coverage that is no longer active.
Eligibility information and patient-responsibility estimates are informational only and are not guarantees of coverage, benefits, reimbursement, payment, or the final amount a patient may owe.
At the desk
Three ways to pay, one record.
- Cash. The amount, what the patient handed over, and the change due.
- Check. The amount and the check number, so a check can be traced if it bounces.
- Card. Typed into the payment processor's own card field. The charge is made on your practice's own payment account, and we never receive the card number.
- Every payment is recorded against the patient and the visit, with who took it and when.
- A patient with no visit today can still pay. Settling an old balance does not need an invented appointment.
- A card number typed into a payment note by mistake is refused, with a sentence that says what to do instead.
At the end of the day
The drawer is counted against what was recorded, method by method.
- Count the cash and the checks and enter what you counted. Ellery sets it against the record and says the result in a sentence: balanced, over or short, and by how much.
- A payment taken in error is reversed, not erased. The reversal is a line of its own with the name of whoever reversed it, the reason is kept on the record, and the day's totals show money taken, money reversed and the net side by side.
- A recount never replaces the first count. Every count is kept, and the screen shows the latest and how many times the day was counted.
What it does not do
Ellery does not submit claims or post insurance payments. It records what the practice takes at the desk and what a visit is estimated to cost the patient. Your billing system, or your biller, does the rest.
Common questions
Who is the merchant?
Your practice. Card payments are charged on your practice's own account with the payment processor, and the money goes from the patient to you. It does not pass through us.
Do you store card numbers?
No. The card is typed into the processor's field, not ours, so the number never reaches us.
Who can reverse a payment?
A practice manager or the practice admin. The front desk can take a payment and cannot reverse one.
Can a patient pay online?
Not today. Payments are taken by your staff at the desk.
Does Ellery submit claims?
No. It records payments at the desk and estimates before the visit. Claims stay with your billing system.
Talk to us
Book a 20-minute look. Tell us how many providers you have and what your front desk spends its day on. We will show you the app with a sample practice and answer what you ask.
- support@elleryhealth.net
- Phone
- (732) 444-7364
- Hours
- Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Eastern