Adjustments, refunds and deposits
Which money corrections LeapHealthOS supports after a bill is issued, which of them have a screen today, and how adjustments, refunds and deposits behave.
Sometimes a bill needs correcting after it has been issued: a charge was wrong, a discount was agreed late, a patient is owed money back, or a patient pays an advance before treatment. This page explains how LeapHealthOS handles these cases and, first, which of them you can do from a screen today.
What has a screen today
These corrections have no screen yet
None of the corrections on this page has a screen in LeapHealthOS today, and that includes issuing a refund. When you cancel an appointment, LeapHealthOS works out the refund due but does not return the money. Everything listed below must be done by your implementation team.
Task | Screen in LeapHealthOS today? |
|---|---|
Work out the refund due when an appointment is cancelled, rejected, marked no-show or moved to a cheaper slot | Done automatically. The money is not returned. See Rescheduling, cancellation and refunds. |
Add an adjustment (discount, surcharge, correction, write-off, waiver) to an issued bill | No |
Approve or reject an adjustment | No |
Issue a refund (return money to the patient) | No |
Cancel a bill | No. Unpaid appointment bills are cancelled automatically when the appointment is cancelled. |
Change lines or the discount on an issued bill | No |
Take, apply, refund or close a patient deposit (advance) | No |
Complete or cancel a patient's package, with its refund | No. See Packages. |
If you need one of these, contact your implementation team with the bill number, the amount and the reason.
Adjustments
An adjustment changes the amount of an issued, part-paid or paid bill, either for the whole bill or for one line, and always records a reason. There are six types:
Type | Use it for |
|---|---|
Discount | A reduction agreed after the bill was issued. |
Surcharge | An extra charge added after issue. |
Correction | Fixing a wrong amount. |
Write-off | An amount the hospital will not collect. |
Waiver | An amount the hospital chooses not to charge. |
Refund | Money owed back to the patient, for example after a package is cancelled. |
An adjustment can never take a bill or line below zero.
Which adjustments need approval
Some adjustments wait for approval before they change the bill:
- every Write-off and every Refund adjustment;
- any other adjustment whose amount is at or above the Approval Threshold on the Billing tab of System Settings. See Billing and package settings reference.
Smaller discounts, surcharges, corrections and waivers apply straight away. An approved adjustment updates the bill's totals; a rejected one leaves the bill unchanged. Once approved or rejected, a decision cannot be changed. Approving and rejecting needs the Override permission on Billing.
The approval threshold applies only to adjustments. Bills never need approval to be issued.
Refunds
A refund pays money back against a Paid, Partially Paid or already part-refunded bill, up to the amount the patient has paid in total less any earlier refunds. Each refund records a reason and one of these methods:
Method | What it means |
|---|---|
Same as payment | Money goes back the way it came. For online payments, it is returned to the patient's original payment. For counter payments, staff return the money in person and LeapHealthOS records it. |
Cash | Staff return cash at the counter. |
Bank transfer | Staff transfer the money to the patient's bank account. |
What a refund changes:
- The bill becomes Refunded when the refund brings the net amount paid below the bill total.
- On a full refund, medicines that were dispensed from the bill are returned to stock.
- The patient can be notified through the refund-processed notification event, if you have a rule for it.
When an appointment is cancelled, rejected or marked no-show, your refund rules decide the amount due, but no refund is issued and the bill does not change. See Rescheduling, cancellation and refunds.
LeapHealthOS issues a refund by itself, to the original payment method, in only two cases:
- a patient pays after their online booking has expired and Late Payment Action is Refund (see Holds, payment at booking and approvals);
- a bill ends up paid more than its total and Automatic refund of overpayment is on (see Billing and package settings reference).
Deposits (advances)
A deposit is money a patient pays in advance, before the final bill exists, for example before admission or a procedure. Deposits have no screen in LeapHealthOS today.
How deposits behave:
- A deposit records the amount, the payment method and what it is for (for example an appointment or a visit).
- It can be applied to a bill that is Pending or Partially Paid. The applied amount is recorded as a payment on the bill.
- Any unused balance can be refunded to the patient.
- A deposit can be closed only when nothing is left on it. There is no write-off of a remaining balance.
Deposit status | Meaning |
|---|---|
Active | Money is available to use. |
Fully used | The whole amount has been applied to bills. |
Refunded | The unused balance was refunded. |
Closed | Closed with nothing left on it. |
Applying a deposit
A deposit applied to a bill does not produce a receipt, and it does not trigger the actions that normally follow payment, such as dispensing medicines or activating a package. Collect those bills from the Create Payment screen instead.
Related pages
- Bills, bill types and line items
- Rescheduling, cancellation and refunds
- Packages: lifecycle, redemption and refunds
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