Would it mess anything up to use the code_text column of this table to record what method of payment was used?
It looks like right now all that goes in there is the redundant word ‘copay’ which is already in the code_type column as ‘COPAY’.
I would like to record here if the patient paid with cash, credit card, check, or other.
I want to add a set of radio buttons where you type in the copay to allow for the recording of payment method. This way, I can later generate those reports that show the breakdown of cash, credit card and check payments for the day.
From the time I wrote the last message, I got to work and put it in. The radio buttons and the change to add the payment method to the database. It is really beautiful. It was a matter of a few lines in copay.php and a single variable name change in diagnosis.php. The existing code is so simple and sensible, it worked out perfectly.
My only concern is if the code_text column of the billing table is used elsewhere. I doubt it, but you never know.
You might also want to take a look at interface/patient_file/front_payment.php which I created at the request of a client to track receipts at the front window before the encounter is created, and for past encounters (i.e. someone walks in to pay off a past balance). A good project would be to enhance this to automate posting this into the billing table or to SQL-Ledger, as appropriate.