Question

I would like to prevent asking patients eligible for bulk billing for a payment method when they request an appointment. How do I do this?

Solution

HotDoc allows you to customise your payment set up so that patients eligible for Bulk Billing at your practice are not required to add in a payment method for their appointment. Patients can be exempt from payments based on the following criteria:

• The patient's age 
• If the patient has a specified concession card 

You can select your payment exemption criteria via your HotDoc Dashboard by following the steps below. 

• How to set up bulk billing exemptions
• How will the exemption criteria be applied to bookings?

How to set up bulk billing exemptions

1. Navigate to Payments > Payment Setup > Accounts, and scroll down to the Bulk Billing Payment Exemption section.
   
   
   
   
2. This is what you will see based on the current Billing criteria selected in your Practice Profile. To edit this, click the Setup > Practice Profile hyperlink or the blue edit icon, as highlighted below:
   Please note: These will take you to your Practice Profile settings, which you can also access by clicking Setup > Practice Profile on the left side menu of your dashboard.
   
   
3. In there, scroll down to the Billing Information section and under the Billing field, choose Bulk Billing Available:
   
   
   Please note: exemptions will NOT work if this is set to 100% Bulk Bill or Private Billing
   
   
4. Select your Bulk Billing criteria by ticking the relevant checkboxes and setting an age, then click Save:
   
   
   

   This information will also be displayed on your Bookings page. Please note: Information in the 'Further Information (Bulk Billing)' section does not affect payment settings.

   
   
5. Once you are happy with the criteria, go back to Payments > Payment Setup > Accounts > Bulk Billing Payment Exemption > And tick the box next to Exempt payment for bulk billed patients. Click Save to enable this feature:
   
   
   

Booking History: we will show Card Details Exempt under the Payment status column, as well as the reason for the exemption.

How will the exemption criteria be applied to bookings?

Once Exempt payment for bulk billed patients is enabled, it will be applied to your online and practice booked appointments as defined below. 

1. Age Exemption is determined by the following:

• Online Bookings:
  • The patient's DOB detailed in their HotDoc account

• Practice/Reception Bookings:

  • The patient's DOB in their patient file within your practice management system

2. Concession cards are determined by the following:

• Online Bookings:
  • The patients will be asked to self-report via a screening question in the online booking flow. The following screening question will appear after selecting an appointment date/ time:
    
    
    
  • If the patient reports 'None of the above' they will be shown the screen to add a payment method
    
    
• Practice/Reception Bookings:
  • Concessions card exemptions only apply to online bookings. Practice/reception bookings will only use the age exemption settings.