You issue a Private Account when the patient takes the account (invoice) with them. The following information explains the process of invoicing the patient for service items, for one or more visits. You can issue an invoice to a single patient, or multiple patients - typically used for family visits.
1. Within the Waiting Room, select the patient's record, and either;
o Select Waiting Room > Record Visit,
o Press F5,
o Click
at
the bottom of the Waiting Room window, or
o Right-click
the patient's record and select Record
Visit from the menu that appears. The Record
Visit window appears.
2. If necessary;
o Select a practitioner from the Seen by: drop-down menu, to indicate which practitioner the patient saw during the consultation. A practitioner will be pre-selected if you already indicated which practitioner the patient was scheduled to see via the Appointment Book, or when you placed the patient into the Waiting Room.
o Select the referring Practitioner. If the Practitioner selected in the Seen by: drop-down list is required to have a referral (as indicated in their Practitioner Details window), a Referral button will also be available at the bottom of the Record Visit window. Click this button to select the referring practitioner for this patient.
o Select the location at which the consultation took place from the Location: drop-down menu. There will be multiple locations to select from only if you have indicated that the selected practitioner is available to multiple locations.
o Modify the Consult Time and Date. By default, the date/time is recorded as that when you opened the Record Visit window. You can change this default to display the date/time of the appointment instead. This setting is available on the Patient tab of Global Options. Some caveats to using this option are;
• The 'Use selected appointment time when recording visit' option must be enabled (ticked).
• The patient must not already be in the Waiting Room.
• You must schedule the appointment for the patient.
• You must then select the appointment, and press CTRL + W to add them to the Waiting Room.
• If multiple patients are selected when recording visits, each patient’s consultation time will be set to the time of their own respective appointments.
• If a patient is placed directly in Waiting Room, the, default consultation time will be the current system time, regardless of whether you have the Use appointment times when recording visits option enabled.
3. As you are issuing a private account, select 'Patient' from the Invoice To drop-down list. Details for the patient's payer (self or other) will appear to the right (these details can be modified).
4. Add and/or Modify Service Details.
o If the practitioner entered Item Numbers during the consultation, the Service Details section will already contain these.
o If you are unsure of a service's item number, select File > Search Std Item List (or press Ctrl+S) to call a search window.
o If you add an item where multiple scaling applies, an MBS Rate will appear (as shown in the example above).
o If you have indicated that you wish to have GST applied to user-defined service items (via the Practitioner Details window), a GST Inclusive column appears, to indicate that the fee is GST-inclusive. If you manually change the GST rate for such an item to $0, the check box in this column for this item becomes un-ticked.
o Add service item text via the Text column for each item, if desired. Pracsoft provides a list of pre-defined examples (approved by Medicare), and you can create your own.
o A maximum of 14 Service Items (including Incentive Items) may be billed simultaneously. If you need to record further items, you must initiate another visit for the patient.
o Service Items can be selected and moved up/down the list via the Up/Down buttons. Re-order Service Items as necessary to comply with Medicare's processing rules. See Changing the Order of Service Items when Recording a Visit for more information.
5. (Optional)
You can include items for this patient for other visits they have
had, adding all the items to the same invoice. To add items for
other visits, from the Record Visit window select File
> Add Visit > Same Patient (or press CTRL+N).
An extra row appears in the list of items, along with new columns
for 'Visit Date' and 'Practitioner'. Ensure the information for
the second visit is correct (for example the consultation date
and item numbers). If being billed for a different practitioner,
be sure to change this in the 'Practitioner' column or via the
'Seen By Dr.' drop-down list.
6. (Optional) Tick the In Hospital check box to indicate that the service was conducted in-hospital. Upon ticking this box a new drop-down list becomes available where you must select the Provider No (Facility ID).
7. Visit Options
o Indicate whether the patient is removed from the Waiting Room, via the Remove from Waiting Room check box. The default is to remove them from the Waiting Room.
o Indicate if this invoice will not be issued to the patient (i.e. the patient's name will not appear on the invoice) by ticking the Non Patient Account check box.
o Indicate if the patient did not see a Practitioner during their visit to the practice, by ticking the Non Visit check box. You may wish to use this if for example the patient has simply come in to pick up their script and pay their account, but did not need to see the Practitioner on this occasion.
o Indicate if this visit is an Aftercare visit by ticking the associate check box. An example of an Aftercare visit is where the patient returns to have stiches removed - you wish record this visit for your records, but the Practitioner does not wish to charge for it. In such situations, record the service items as normal, but change the fee for each to $0.
8. Print Options
o Indicate whether you want to print the patient a PC1 form to take to Medicare Australia. It is not necessary to print this form if you use Online Claiming.
o Indicate whether you wish to view a print preview of the invoice before printing.
o Indicate how many copies you wish to print.
9. Select a payment option;
o Pay Later. After selecting this option, select whether to hold the account (the Hold button) or issue the account now (the Account button). You may wish to hold the account if the patient is scheduled for another appointment soon, say for example the patient is having pathology tests done and will return for the results, paying later.
o Pay Now. After selecting this option:
• Indicate whether the patient makes a Full Payment or Gap Payment by clicking one of the associated buttons.
• Indicate
the payment type(s) and payment(s) within the Payment
Details section. The example below indicates that two payment
types are used for this particular visit; a payment of $200 on
John's Amex, and $27.70 in cash. To add multiple payment types,
click 
See Payments
and Payment Types for more information.
• Indicate the bank account to which the payment is being made via the associated drop-down list.
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10. Click
Receipt to
issue a receipt.
If Patient Claims has been enabled for
this practitioner the Patient Claiming window appears, indicating
the claimant's address details (as they are held in the Pracsoft
database).
Select a Refund Method from those offered (the method by which
the patient will be reimbursed by Medicare). The refund methods
to choose from vary, depending on whether the patient has paid
the Practice (clicking the Receipt on the Record Visit screen)
or has not yet paid the practice (clicking the Account button
on the Record Visit screen).
Enter any other details as necessary, and then click either 
(to immediately
transmit the claim to Medicare Australia) or 
to store the claim, for transmitting
to Medicare Australia later.