Invoices

Hi everyone,

So I've been getting some PMs regarding how to best keep invoices since that is becoming an add-on concern with clinicians going in front of the board and not keeping proper medical records. So I figured it would be helpful to give a little rundown.

Yes, payment invoices are part of the medical record. So you need to be invoicing for every appointment you meet with a patient. This applies with insurance patients and self-pay.

You can get lax with this if your EHR auto-generates an invoice for you or you presume that having a payment system in your EHR automatically means that you are covered with invoices. Not necessarily. Make sure you are checking your systems.

A good invoice should include the following:

• Full practice name and info for the provider

• Full name and info for the patient (I usually do address and phone number)

• An invoice number (so you can easily find it and also pair with other payment identifiers)

• A service list coupled with associated charges

• Whether insurance was billed or not (and if so, the claim number)

• What the patient was charged

• In what format the patient was charged (I like to include the last 4 of the card number)

• The date you charged the card (if different from DOS)

• Your signature.

There should be an associated invoice for every piece of clinical paperwork you do, and that should be a part of your routine when working on a patient's chart. In my self-audit reports I include whether there is an invoice for every piece of clinical documentation I can bill. If you ever have to deal with a chargeback, this is a life saver.

It also lets you keep things straight in case there is a discrepancy between what a patient thinks they owe and what you think they owe. Having it all lined up is important.

It is also something a patient can request when requesting records, fyi.

To ensure a proper tracking of money and charges, you would also be pairing this with any EOBs if billing insurance, your accounting software, and then banking statements. All of that plus the invoices means you have plenty to show in the event you ever need to.

Example Invoice.pdf

Download PDF • 266KB

You will find an example attached to this post. I hope it helps. 🙂