API Reference

Payments

To start using these endpoints, please email [email protected]

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Supported integrations

For now, payments are only supported for Dentrix, Dentrix Enterprise, Eaglesoft, and Open Dental.

Overview

Payments represent transactions where a patient or their insurance pays for services. Payments reduce the patient’s balance. This endpoint reflects payments entered into the health record system, regardless of whether the practice has received the actual funds. Practices may log payments before or after they are processed.

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Payments and refunds

Payments are negative values because they reduce a patient's overall balance. Refunds are positive values. For example a 125 dollar patient payment would have an amount of -125.00, whereas a 125 dollar refund would have an amount of 125.00.

Health record systems handle refunds differently. Some let users enter refunds as positive payments, while others only support refunds as adjustments. NexHealth’s API takes care of this for you. If you post a refund as a positive payment to a system that doesn’t support it, NexHealth will automatically convert it into an adjustment. The API response will show that an adjustment was created.

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Distinguishing patient and insurance payments

Check the insurance_plan_id field to see if a payment was made by a patient or an insurance provider. Insurance payments will have a non-null value.

A single post-payment call may generate multiple payment transactions in the target health record system, especially when a payment is allocated across multiple providers. To track all payments linked to a single API request, use the transaction ID parameter. Note that the transaction ID is for tracking purposes only and will not be visible in the target health record system.

Example use cases

  • Use post payments to add transactions to a patient's ledger after receiving a payment. This is useful when building digital payment collection applications.
  • Sum together payments, charges, and adjustments to calculate patient balances and generate itemized bills.

Payments response

{
  "code": false,
  "description": "Description",
  "error": "Error",
  "data": {
    "id": 113,
    "foreign_id": "1234-5678",
    "location_id": 10,
    "patient_id": 3,
    "guarantor_id": 5,
    "provider_id": 15,
    "updated_at": "2024-09-05T20:31:17.007Z",
    "description": "This is a description",
    "deleted_at": "2024-09-15T11:21:26.003Z",
    "payment_amount": {
      "amount": "62.00",
      "currency": "USD"
    },
    "paid_at": "2024-10-01",
    "transaction_id": "NHP:JXZEQ1234",
    "charge_id": 1111,
    "claim_id": 2222,
    "payment_plan_id": 3,
    "insurance_plan_id": 4,
    "patient": {
      ...
    },
    "guarantor":{
      ...
    },
    "provider":{
      ...
    },
    "claim": {
      ...
    },
    "charge": {
      ...
    },
    "payment_plan": {
      ...
    },
    "payment_type": {
      ...
    },
    "payment_type_id": 5
  },
  "count": 2
}

Health Record System Details

Dentrix

  • Payments cannot be linked to charges (payment.charge_id will always be null).
  • Refunds are recorded as positive value adjustments.

Dentrix Enterprise

  • Payments can be linked to charges (payment.charge_id will have a value)
  • Refunds are recorded as positive value adjustments.

Eaglesoft

  • Payments can be linked to charges.
  • Refunds are recorded as positive value adjustments.

Open Dental

  • Payments can be linked to charges.
  • Refunds are recorded as positive value payments.