At a Glance
As long as your practice has email and text messages enabled in your patient statement settings, your patients will automatically receive text message requests for payment on a regular basis. However, if you need to send a 1-off request for payment, please use the guide below.
If your patients want to pay via credit card, or if they left your office without paying their copay, you can send them a 1-off request for payment via text message or email.
Apple Pay and the Affirm payment plan manager are also available if the patient would like to pay via a text message link. Talk to your account manager to set your practice up with Affirm.
1. Navigate to the Patient’s Profile
If you’d like instructions on finding a patient’s profile, check out this guide: How to Find a Patient’s Profile.
2. Click the ‘Pay Balance’ Button
- Under the ‘Charges’ tab of the patient profile, click the
Pay Balancebutton. - Note: This button will be disabled if the patient does not currently have a balance.
3. Select ‘Request Payment via Text’ (or Email) in the Payment Window
- Clicking pay balance will open the payment window.
- Find the ‘Request Payment via Text’ option and select it.
4. Click ‘Confirm’ to Send the Request
- At the bottom of the window click ‘Confirm’ to initialize the text message. A request for payment will automatically be generated and sent via SMS within 5 minutes.
Currently, the confirmation window misleadingly reads ‘Confirm payment collection,’ rather than ‘Confirm payment request.’ Despite the incorrect wording, clicking Confirm in either the text or email payment request flows will only request payment (and not mark it as collected), as intended.
We apologize for the confusion and it will be fixed soon.
5. What the Patient Sees
The patient will receive a request to pay within 5 minutes.
📱Payment Request via Text Message
The text message payment request provides options to pay with a credit card or Apple Pay. Affirm payment plans will also show up if your practice has set them up with your account manager.
You can customize the text message your patients will receive. To do this, navigate to your PR Settings, select the General tab, and scroll down to the Text Message Customization section. If you’d like more details on this feature, please see this guide.
Upon opening the link in the text, patients will tap Confirm to receive a confirmation code by text and email.
Once they input the code, they’ll see the payment summary. The amount to be paid will default to the total balance, but they have the option to adjust the amount they’d like to pay today.
After tapping Go to Checkout, they’ll choose their payment option and input their payment details, if applicable.
💻 Payment Request via Email
The email payment request offers three ways for the patient to pay: online, by phone, or in person.
The online option includes a link to the patient’s payment portal.
Upon clicking the online payment link, patients will tap Confirm to receive a confirmation code by text and email.
Once they input the code, they’ll see their charge summary. Here, they can adjust the amount they’d like to pay today before clicking Go to Checkout.
The checkout screen allows them to select a card on file, if applicable, or to add a new card and pay with it.
In Conclusion
At the end of the day, check to see if any patients didn’t pay their co-pays. If so, send them a text message request for payment to give them a belated opportunity to pay. This can catch a lot of lost revenue, and patients are more likely to trust the text message if it comes the same day as their appointment.
📢 Further Assistance
We’re here to help! Please contact your account manager for some hands-on assistance.
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