A deferred payment is used when a sale is put on the patient account but the payment for all or part of that sale is not expected to be paid for by the patient. Payment is expected from a 3^rd party at a later date, once a claim or invoice is processed.

The main use of this feature will be GOS1 claims for sight test and GOS3 and 4 claims for spectacles. It may also be used for local schemes, such as PEARS/MECS/WECS or for corporate companies paying for employee sight tests.

i-Clarity has the following deferred payment types:

• NHS Fee
• DOM Fee
• Voucher
• NHS Repair
• Hospital
• Corporate

Using a Deferred Payment Type on a Patient Account

If a deferred payment type has been used as a payment on a patient account a payment line will be entered on the patient account.

A corresponding payment line will appear in the 'Deferred Payments' module.

Processing Deferred Payments

Deferred payments are processed through the deferred payments module.

Click on the yellow arrow to display the second set of module icons.

Then click on the deferred payments icon.

There are 3 different payment status options you can filter the displayed payments by:

Not yet submitted: Payments listed under this status have not had a claim or invoice submitted to the 3^rd party making the payment.

Not yet paid, submitted between: Payments listed under this status have had a claim or invoice submitted, however payment is yet to be received.

All payments received: Payments listed under this status have had a claim or invoice paid by the relevant 3^rd party.

You can also filter the list of payments by the type of payment.

Click on the drop-down arrow for the payment type field to select the applicable payment type.

The available options are:

NHS Fee - this is used for GOS1 Claims.

Voucher - this is used for GOS3 Claims.

NHS Repair - this is used for GOS 4 Claims.

DOM Fee - this is used for any Domiciliary visit claims.

Hospital - this is used for any HES3 vouchers.

Corporate - this is used for any other 3^rd party paying for sales on accounts, such as local companies or local schemes.

The corporate list can be filtered further by ticking the box next to corporate and selecting a specific corporate from the list.

Once you have selected the status and payment type you would like to process, click the ‘Retrieve Records’ Button.

Updating Payments from 'Not Yet Submitted' to 'Not Yet Paid, Submitted Between'

Select the Payment Status ‘Not yet submitted’.

Select the Payment Type you would like to process for the 'Payment Type' filter drop-down.

Click ‘Retrieve Records’

A list of payments for this type will appear.

Put a tick in the selected box for all the patients whose claims/invoices you are preparing to send off for payment.

Once you have selected all the payments that you are submitting claims/invoices for click ‘Update Selected Records to Submitted’.

This will move all the selected payments to the status ‘Not yet paid, submitted between’ and it will enter today’s date in the submitted field of the payment line.

Updating Payments From 'Not Yet Paid, Submitted Between' to 'All Payments Received'

Select the payment status ‘Not yet paid, submitted between’ and if applicable, enter a ‘to and from’ date range to reduce the number of payment lines show.

Select the payment type you would like to process from the payment type filter drop-down.

Click ‘Retrieve Records’.

A list of payments that have been sent for payment for this type will appear.

Put a tick in the selected box for all the patients whose claims/invoices you have been notified you have received payment for.

At the bottom of the screen, a total of the number of selected payments and the total value of these payments will appear, you can use this to cross check you have selected the right amount of payments.

Once you have selected all the payments you have received click ‘Update Selected Records to Paid’.

This will move the selected payments to the status ‘All Payments Received’ and will enter a paid date in the field ‘Date Paid’ on the payment line in deferred payments and in the patient account. 

Marking payments as received will also create an automatic entry on the cashing up for the day.

To prevent a discrepancy with the cashing up you must now enter a corresponding banking.

This banking entry will appear on the banking report and will allow you to check that the payment you were notified you would receive has been paid into your account.

Close out of the deferred payment screen.

Click on the yellow arrow pointing to the right to display the second set of module icons.

Single click on the 'Cash Up' module icon.

The Cash Up module will open and display the last cashing up period.

Once the cashing up module is open click on the 'Enter Bankings' button.

If you are completing this during the working day rather than at the end of the day when you are closing the till for the day- do NOT click begin cashing up. Clicking begin cashing up will change the payment date of the system so any payments from patients are record as going through the system on the following day.

The maintain bankings form will open.

Today’s date will be displayed automatically in the date field.

Select the banking type ‘Credit Transfer’ from the drop-down list.

Type in the amount of money that the statement says has been paid into your bank account.

Click the 'Add' button.

If you are entering a credit transfer that has been paid to you from the NHS, there will be a difference between the amount you claimed and the amount you were actually paid.

To accommodate for this difference, select the banking type NHS remittance.

This will cause the NHS remittance window to open.

Enter the value that has been taken off for the LOC levy.

Enter the value that has been paid for Point of Sale.

And if applicable, enter the value of any CET payments.

Then click ‘OK’.

This will enter an amount that matches the difference in figures from what you claimed and were paid.

Click 'Add'.

You can now close out of the Cashing Up screen.

What To Do If You Have a Claim Returned

In the deferred payments screen select the status ‘Not yet paid, submitted between’ and the payment type that matches the returned claim. Then click ‘Retrieve Records’.

A list of payments that have been sent for payment for this type will appear.

Tick the selected box for the claim/s that have been returned and click the button.

This will move the payment back to the status ‘Not yet submitted’ and remove the original submitted date.

The claim can now either be amended and resubmitted or deleted from the system.

Deleting a Deferred Payment

If you have a claim/invoice that has been rejected and you cannot resubmit it will need to be deleted.

Claims must be under the status ‘Not yet submitted’ to be deleted.

Select the claim you would like to delete by putting a tick in the selected box and clicking the button ‘Delete Selected Record’ or by right clicking on the payment line and selecting the delete option.

The payment line will be deleted for the deferred payments module and the corresponding payment line will be deleted from the patient account.

The sale on the patient account will need to be paid for using another method, e.g. the patient will need to pay by card or cash etc. Or you may need to write off the outstanding balance to clear the patient’s account.

Features Of The Deferred Payments Screen

Deselect All will remove all ticks from the selected boxes of the payment lines displayed at the time.
Select All will add ticks to the selected boxes of all the payment lines displayed at the time.
Save Selection will save any ticks in the selected boxes of the payment lines on display. This will allow you to leave the deferred payments module halfway through selecting claims without losing you work.
Print will print a list of the payment lines displayed at the time.

You can right click on any payment line to submit, delete, mark as paid, un-submit or mark as not paid.

This allows you to edit single payment line status without having to untick your current selection.

Payment lines can be one of 3 colours:

Green payment lines do not have an electronic claim linked to them.
White payments are linked to electronic claims. (England and Scotland).
Orange payments are linked to claims but missing an authorising signature. (England only).