Simple bills and payments at the counter

mwestrik wrote on Monday, December 26, 2011:

Hi,

I want an easy way to bill my patients so they can pay at the counter. There are no insurance payments involved. So it should just be adding fees to the encounter and print an invoice with the clinics’ header and footer.

It should be easy to use for all users too, being medical professionals instead of IT specialists…

I’ve been searching for this for a lomng time now, but I still don’t understand if itis supported or how to do it.

Can anyone help me out please?

tmccormi wrote on Tuesday, December 27, 2011:

In the Administration->Globals Appearance TAB, check the box for “Use Charges Panel”.
Access a patient
Create a new encounter (using the Title Bar pull down for New Encounter or the Left Menu Patient/Client->Visits-Create Visit
Save this and new menu item called in ‘Fees->Charges’ will appear.

You can search for CPT4 codes and add them, ICD9 codes, or use “OTHER” to type in anything you want.  The far right pane will allow you to “Justify and Save” the charges and print a reciept.

This has not been used much (to my knowledge) in version 4.1, but I like the CPT and ICD9 search way better than the current fee sheet tool.

Tony
www.mi-squared.com / @tonymi2
oemr.org / @OEMR_org

mwestrik wrote on Tuesday, December 27, 2011:

Thanks a lot! That does help me, but a few things come up:

Is it possible to automatically add an invoice b¡number to that receipt?

In my installation, no fees appear. The coding is correct, the description shows up, but fees are left blank.

Can I add a header or footer to cash_receipt.php?

tmccormi wrote on Tuesday, December 27, 2011:

As indicated there may be some issues due to 4.1 differences. it would take a bit of testing to see,. There may be an issue with the fees amt transferring.

In the past OpenEMR used pid.encounterid as the “invoice #” or something similar, is that what you are talking about

As to header/footer … how’s your PHP programming skills?  This and the invoice # would not be hard things to add to the code.

-Tony

mwestrik wrote on Tuesday, December 27, 2011:

Thanks again.

My php skills actually do not exist… I already saw that header and footer can easily be done by adding some html code to taht file. I can do that.

Integrating the invoice number will imply adding some sql query. I’ll have to find out how to do that. Never done that before.

About the fees, that of course would be a major problem. At least for me, since the clinic wants to transfer to openemr starting january 1st. Without the billing option that will not be possible.

But in general, why isn’t simpel billing set up in an easy way in openemr? Is it not used frequently? Here, in Spain, many clinics work with cash / creditcard based counter payments.

thesatman wrote on Tuesday, May 01, 2012:

Just tested this. I notice that 4.1.0 still has no receipt number. By law we need to have a fool proof system where all documents like orders, invoices, credit notes, receipts etc must have a number system that has no holes. Basically 1,2,3,4, etc. Using a date+some other number is allowed, but questionable. How can OpenEMR be configured to put an “invoice”-like number on a receipt?

That being said, what is the checkout used for. If a patient has a visit, and pays at the counter, I could use the procedure mentioned above. But that is a receipt for “cash sales”. Is it correct to assume that an invoice is only required when either no payment is done on that visit, or only paid partially? Is the meaning of this invoice to send it to the patient so he can pay by bank, or even come and pay it at a later date at the counter?

If so, how can I redo the receipt layout so that it shows the taxes and not only the full amount. Like:

consultation :          100
Taxes 25%:               25
Grand total:             125
Paid:                       -125

thesatman wrote on Thursday, May 10, 2012:

Nobody? Maybe this is a developer issue? I just got email from the tax office. The confirmed that receipts for cash payment do need to have an invoice number, as well as date and time stamp. So it is here OpenEMR is not 100% following the accounting rules.

It gets even more complicated: In this modern times we live in, we need to have a POS that supports credit cards. I understand that it is impossible to support every single CC gateway and vendor in the world, the easiest way is to run systems parallel. What I am trying to figure out now is what is required for those systems in general to comply with tax rules concerning reporting. Especially X and Z reports.

I see a few scenarios. OpenEMR produces the invoices and/or cash receipts. They need to have invoice numbers, as mentioned. But marking the visit as paid in OpenEMR is apparently not enough. Looks like we need a cash register to go with. This cash register will record both cash payments as well as credit card payments if you have a card terminal. The cash register will need to be able to produce X and Z reports. Finally, there is the card terminal, that will take payment, and run reports for the daily card transactions.

Anyone has some experience with the scenario above?

thesatman wrote on Friday, May 25, 2012:

Hey guys! Nobody of the team that can respond to this?

I have some additional information. I think I found a solution that will stream line my invoice and payment flow.

1- OpenEMR generates a simple invoice (as described above). One issue here, the simple invoice/receipts does not contain a invoice number. This I believe is a BUG that needs to be fixed.

2- The link to SQL-Ledger is obsolete for use with OpenEMR. So the available tools for receivables is only usable for internal reporting purposes. Not really accounting purposes. So payment can be done 3 ways:
- by bank transfer
- by cash at the counter
- by credit card at the counter

Cash and credit payment I solved by installing an electronic cash register. This will produce a receipts with a correct number, as well as the legally required Z and X reports. (Something OpenEMR could not).

So number 1 is the issue here. I need to create an invoice without using the insurance modules. We don’t use that in Norway. As I understood it the simple billing/receipts is the closest we get. BUT THE RECEIPT HAS NO INVOICE NUMBER !!!

Can this be fixed? A month has gone since my first request… I am getting kind of desperate here, and having doubts if this project is still alive. Is the developer team reading this? Hoping for a positive reply :o)

juggernautsei wrote on Friday, May 25, 2012:

Hi,

I will respond to the call. But the issue is not getting people to respond but offering support for the coding would get people involved. If your office is willing to support the coding we will develope the coding that you need and donate it to the community and your office will receive credit for the donation to the code base. I think we can add a invoice number to the invoice and store this information in a table with the PID, date and the amount to generate a report. Or do you need the entire invoice stored in a table for reporting purposes? Let me know and we can figure out how to move forward together and get this done for you.

Sherwin
openmedpractice.com

sunsetsystems wrote on Friday, May 25, 2012:

Not sure I followed all this, but the Checkout form already supports a sequentially-increasing invoice reference number.  This appears if the user has an “invoice reference number pool” assigned.  See the User form.  The Invoice Reference Number Pools are a list (Administration -> Lists) and contains the current invoice number for each pool.  As I recall there is one by default.

Rod
www.sunsetsystems.com

tmccormi wrote on Saturday, May 26, 2012:

>> SOAP BOX WARNING <<

The project is very much alive, the contributors work on projects that interest them and are needed for either their own practices, or their paying customers.

New features, therefore are added when someone either volunteers to add a feature or when someone contracts to pay for a feature to be done and contributed back in……

So if you are desperate, and you can’t make the code changes yourself to do this, then I suggest you find and contract with a  developer for this feature you need.

Opensource does not me free labor. it means have the community of users contribute back into the project for the good of everyone.

-Tony

thesatman wrote on Saturday, May 26, 2012:

@juggernautsei / @tmccormi : Thank you for your rather generic answer. I am well aware that OpenSource does not mean free. That is common knowledge. But before you start slapping me on the head and asking me to donate or fix it my self, please read my posts carefully. I am not asking for re-coding. Let me summarize:

First question:

“2012-05-01 16:12:58 PDT: How can OpenEMR be configured to put an “invoice”-like number on a receipt?”.

In my humble opinion NO software generating sales documents, where ever used in this wonderful world we are living in, is allowed by the IRS unless it creates documents with approved numbering systems. It is my believe that, OpenEMR being a great piece of software, has taken this in to consideration. So it must be me that is overlooking something. Therefore my question “HOW TO CONFIGURE”. If, and only if, and I doubt this is the case, it should occur that the OpenEMR team have overlooked this sales document numbering issue, it is not a requested feature, but more a serious flaw that should be fixed. Fix it, or disable the “simple billing” feature, until OpenEMR is capable of producing sales documents and receipts according to international guidelines.

Another possibility of course is that the produced “simple billing / receipt” as stated in this topic is only meant for internal reference, and that maybe this document never was intended as a legal sales document. May it is common to just have OpenEMR create an internal document so that the REAL sales document has to be created elsewhere. But this is not stated anywhere, and if so the receipt offers no point of reference at all, except then the name of the patient.

Second question:

“2012-05-01 16:12:58 PDT: That being said, what is the checkout used for. If a patient has a visit, and pays at the counter, I could use the procedure mentioned above. But that is a receipt for “cash sales”. Is it correct to assume that an invoice is only required when either no payment is done on that visit, or only paid partially? Is the meaning of this invoice to send it to the patient so he can pay by bank, or even come and pay it at a later date at the counter?”

As you can see, not a request for re-coding, but merely a polite question on how do I use this feature?

My third question was :

"2012-05-01 16:12:58 PDT: If so, how can I redo the receipt layout so that it shows the taxes and not only the full amount. Like:

consultation :          100
Taxes 25%:               25
Grand total:             125
Paid:                       -125"

Please note the “IF SO, HOW CAN I REDO THE LAYOUT”.

It looks like nobody actually understood that I am asking for somebody to explain to me how I can use the OpenEMR software, so that it fits my needs, and the rules and regulations in my country. Some changes can be done by me if it involves php/html re-coding, as long as there is a good point of reference that tells me what fields are used for which purpose. Other changes require re-coding in the source, and that I need to rely for on professionals. But before we are there, it is more then common sense to sit down and investigate what needs to be done. BEFORE somebody asks me to donate.

@rod:

Thank you for your input. I checked this setting, and yes it is there, number sequence starting from 0001. I have send you e-mail contain the info I get on the screen when using the checkout. Not sure if the document number is showing correctly.

Also, I asked about training because this is mentioned on your website under services.

My best regards to all.

mike-h30 wrote on Wednesday, June 06, 2012:

Opensource does not me free labor. it means have the community of users contribute back into the project for the good of everyone.

Also means the ability to be a 100% paperless office for a fraction of the cost of six figure commercial EMR’s.  It’s ironic to see offices that spend well over six figures on a commercial EMR that still are not 100% paperless. 

Tony,

Perhaps a page of feature requests could be added to the Wiki with required funding and a donate button?  This way features could be prioritized by amount of funding raised.

Mike