OPD Billing Module

BILLING

Billing module handles issuing bills for services or goods given to customers by any department of the institution. Billing module is commonly associated with other modules like Laboratory, Pharmacy, Petty Cash or Professional Payment.

USER FRIENDLINESS

The application is focusing on improving the user experience. Most of the works are automated and there is minimal handling of computer for a particular task. Billing interface is also made in a way it is very easy for the cashier to invoice a customer.
The users can select a theme appropriate for their choice. The size of the screen can be easily adjusted to match individual preferences. The menu visible to user depends on the role based privileges so that easy for the user to locate the required functionality.

Figure 1: Three out of 20 different themes available to user

Figure 2: Two different zoom levels

PAYMENT METHODS

Payments can be accepted as cash, credit, cheque, credit card or bank slips. Authorized users can use staff members or agencies as source of payments. (Refer Figure 3). Depending on the selected payment method, required data may be needed to be added in addition. For example, if cheque is selected as the payment methods, it is mandatory to enter the issues bank, cheque data and cheque number. (Refer Figure 4)

Figure 3: Different Payment Methods Possible as Source of Payment

Figure 4: Additional Details Recorded for Cheque Payments

DISCOUNT SCHEMES

The user can be selectively allow to use different discount schemes. These discount schemes automatically calculate the discount depending on the discount scheme, payment methods selected, credit company and client membership type. For example, only the chief cashier may be able to use the discount scheme called ‘Company Director Discounts’ which will add 20% discount for cash payments or 15% discount for credit card payments. The other cashiers may be able to use ‘Doctor Discount’ which will add 10% discount for cash payments or 7% discount for credit payments.

CLIENT DATABASE

The clients can be searched from the database easily or can add a new customer inside the same billing frame without any fizzle. (Refer Figure 5 and Figure 6 )

Figure 5: Search clients from the database

Figure 6: Add new client from Billing Window

FLEXIBLE REVENUE MODEL

The data structure is made in a very sophisticated and detailed manner, so that the complex logics involved in the billing process is completely hidden from the end user. For example, take the following example.
PAP smear by Rd. Kamal
When that is billed, the following people or departments must get there income as follows.
1. Rd. Kamal, VOG, Rs. 1200.00
2. Rd. Saman, Pathologist, Rs. 800.00
3. Assisting Nurse , Rs. 200.00
4. OPD Department, Rs. 200.00
5. Pathology Lab, Rs. 600.00
When the cashier is bills a PAP Smear, only he has to select that single item. But all the revenues will be generated as once designed by the user who is responsible for managing item fees. The total charge will appear as an income to the billed department and will also be listed in the Shift-End Summery and Day-End summery for the cash handover. The revenue will be listed under each person or department for payments and analysis purposes. (Refer Figure 7 and Figure 8 )

Figure 7: Single Bill Item has been added by user

Figure 8: Two Fees has been generated as Hospital Fee & Staff Fee

Figure 9: Different Discount Schemes

FLEXIBLE ITEM CHARACTERISTICS

The items can be marked as discountable or not. When calculating the discount, those items that are labelled as discountable will be given discounts. Charges for any item can be marked as editable. Only such marked item fees will be available to edit at the time of billing, charges of other items are not allowed to be changed by the cashier.

MEMBERSHIP SCHEMES

Clients can be registered by the system and can be allocated to various membership schemes like Platinum, Gold or Silver. Depending on the membership scheme and the payment methods, different services can be discounted at different rates automatically.

DEPARTMENT-VICE BILLING

Each Investigation and service has assigned to a specific department. For example, FBS is performed at the Biochemistry department whereas FBC is performed in the Haematology department. The user do not have to have any idea about the relevant department and all he has to do is to add investigations or services to the same window. There will be generation of multiple bills with different bill numbers which groups the requests to separate departments. (Refer Figure 10 and Figure 11)

Figure 10: Adding Investigations or Services From Three Different Departments

Figure 11: Three Bills for Separate Departments Have been generated from a single event of billing

PACKAGES

When several services are bundled together and given a different fee structure, it is called as a Package. Any number of packages can be created and there fees can be configured to vary depending on the package, payment method, discount scheme or membership. For a single package, the user has to enter client details and add the packages. Then bills will be generated separately for each department.

REFERRING DOCTOR DETAILS

Billing process can also record details about the referring doctor, so that analysis can be easily done in back office. (Figure 12)

Figure 12: Record of Referring Doctor Details at the Time of Billing

DISTRIBUTED BILLING

Billing can be at one physical location to another physical location as this application can be hosted in internet. For example, gall branch can bill a TSH performed at main branch in Colombo.

FLEXIBLE PRINTING

The bill printing settings varies significantly from one place to another. The software is flexible enough to accommodate different printer settings. There are department-vice preference to for printing so that each department can have their own way of printing bills. Some front offices use 3 inch wide point of sale printers (POD Printers), where others are use 5.5 inch papers on impact printers. Some papers are pre-printed with company details while others prefer to print every detail in the bill through the program on blank papers. The application can easily cater to the above requirements due to the flexibility of department-vice printing preferences.

REPRINTING

Authorized users are allowed to take reprints when required. Searching bills are very easy using client name, address, bill number, bill date or bill total. The bill will contain a label which states that this is a duplicate bill.

CANCELLATIONS

Bills can be easily searched for cancellation by authorized users.
In cancellations, the whole billing process is reversed. The total bill fee will be paid back. All the items for that particular bill will be cancelled as well. For example, if two investigations had been added by the bill that was cancelled, will be marked as not available to proceed. It is not possible to issue reports for those investigations. If investigations has already been performed, such bills are not allowed to be cancelled, unless there is a special permission from an authorized person to cancel such as that violates the business usual practices.
The re-payment method for cancellation can be decided by the cashier as authorized by the management. For example, repayment of credit card bills can be cancelled and pay as cash to the client if the management has already decided to handle the case in that way.
The cancellation process will be added to that particular days shift end summaries and day end summaries. When the bill that was cancelled had been billed in a previous day, there will be no change in the previous day summaries. Attempts to cancel the same bill by accident by more than one users simultaneously from one or more locations are not allowed by the system.

REFUNDS

Multiple Refunds can be done by authorized users easily after searching the relevant bill using various criteria like client name, bill total, requested investigations or bill number.
In refund, part or full charge of each individual bill component can be cancelled. For example, when one bill contained UFR and Urine Culture & ABST, only part of the Culture & ABST can be refunded to the patient. Multiple refunds for the same item can be done provided the total repayment amount do not exceed the original payment. Multiple users can refund the same bill from one or more locations, but will not allow them to exceed the total payment.
The refunds, as in the case of cancelled bills, will not affect previous summaries, but will be added to the current summery only.