Applies to: Billing · Scheduling · Clinical Documentation

Overview

Auto-charge lets HelloNote collect a patient's visit responsibility automatically from the credit card saved on their profile, without a staff member running the payment by hand.

For insurance cases, HelloNote charges the copay. For self-pay cases, it charges the visit rate, or the applicable cancellation fee when a visit is missed. The charge runs on its own once the visit is confirmed — either when the appointment is checked in, when it is cancelled, or when the visit note is finalized.

Before You Begin

Three things must be in place before any charge will occur:

• The patient has a usable credit card saved on file.
• Auto-charge is explicitly enabled on the patient's record.
• An amount is configured — an insurance copay, or a self-pay visit rate.

Auto-charge is off by default and is set per patient. Enabling it for one patient does not affect any other patient.

Step 1 — Enable Auto-Charge for the Patient

Open the patient's information page and locate the Patient Setting panel. Check Autocharge Credit Card on File.

Step 2 — Configure the Amount to Charge

How you configure the amount depends on whether the case is insurance or self-pay.

Insurance cases

Go to Insurance > Payments Information and add the patient's copay, including the effective date range. HelloNote only uses rows that are active and effective on the date of service.

Self-pay cases

Go to Payments and set the visit rate for the visit type. Set cancellation fees here as well if your practice charges them.

Step 3 — What Triggers a Charge

There are three points at which HelloNote will attempt an auto-charge.

1. Appointment check-in

When the appointment's attendance is set to OK, the charge is calculated from that appointment's clinic, case, visit type, and service date.

2. Appointment cancellation or no-show

HelloNote charges the configured No Show, Cancelled, Late Cancelled, or Therapist Cancelled fee, depending on the status applied.

3. Note finalization

Finalizing an eligible note triggers the charge for that visit.

A few behaviors are worth knowing:

• If a linked appointment's attendance is still None, HelloNote fills it in from the finalized note.
• If the appointment already carries a meaningful status such as Cancelled, that status is preserved and not overwritten.
• If no appointment exists at all, HelloNote builds the visit details from the note itself and charges normally.
• When an appointment is linked, that appointment's clinic determines the rates, card processing account, time zone, and credit card fee applied.

How the Charge Amount Is Determined

Charging a Visit With No Note

A note is not required. You can collect payment from the schedule alone:

1. Create the appointment and leave attendance set to None or Pending.
2. Add the Patient Responsibility to the appointment.
3. Update the attendance to OK.

The auto-charge runs at the moment attendance changes to OK.

Duplicate Protection

HelloNote charges once per patient, per case, per service day. Re-finalizing the same note, or finalizing a second eligible note for the same patient and case on the same day, will not produce a second charge.

Troubleshooting: No Charge Occurred

If an expected charge did not go through, work down this list.

If all of the above check out and the charge still did not post, contact HelloNote Support with the patient name, date of service, and the note or appointment involved.