Bad Debt Status

There are two levels of Bad Debt status within Bluechip: Bad Payer and Bad Debt (Referred to Debt Collector). The reporting described here relates to the latter; those accounts that have been referred to Debt Collectors.

To Apply a Bad Debt Status to a Patient's Account

1.      Open the patient's record.

2.      Select Accounts from the margin menu.

 

3.      Select an account and click The list of invoices for that account are displayed.

 

4.      Select an invoice and then click  The Account Details window appears.

 

5.      Click within the Status field at the top-right of the window. The Account Status window appears.

 

6.      Select the Referred to Debt Collector option. Upon selecting this option the associated button becomes available.

7.      Click to select a Debt Collector, after which you will be returned to the Account Status window.

8.      Enter the date on which the referral was made into the remaining text box.

9.      Click when finished.

This action has the following effects:

o      When searching for patients, you will notice that this patient has a pink Bad Debt warning on the search window.

o      If an attempt is made to make an appointment for this patient, a warning appears reminding the user of the patient's status.

o      If an attempt is made to create an invoice or receipt for this patient, a warning appears reminding the user of the patient's status.

o      On the patient's Accounts window, the status column will display 'BAD DEBT'.

Receipting Debt Collection Items

When you click in a bad debt account, a message appears reminding you that: "This patient has been referred to a debt collector. Do you want to create a new receipt?" If you respond by clicking the associated button, a new receipt will appears. However, if you click Cancel the receipt will not be created.

If the money you are receipting has been received from a debt collector, you can choose 'Debt Collection' as the payment type. This will be treated in the banking as a cheque. If the payment was received in a form other than cheque, then specify that payment type rather than Debt Collection. If the money was received from the patient, then just receipt it normally.

When you attempt to issue the receipt, you will be prompted, "Has this amount been received from a Debt Collector?". If the money came from a debt collector, on the prompt that appeared, select 'Yes'. If the money came from the patient, select 'No'. The selection you make here will affect the reports on the allocation of money to bad debt accounts. See General Financial Reports for more information.

If, when issuing a receipt, any of the bad debt accounts being allocated to revert to a $0 balance, then an extra window will appear. This second window lists the accounts that have been zeroed, and offers you the opportunity to change their status from Bad Debt to Bad Payer. All of the accounts listed are selected by default, so you would need to de-select one to stop its status from being changed. Click when you are ready to proceed.