Many offices prefer to be more precise in what they ask the patient to pay as the work proceeds.  Very often the insurance benefits are known in advance and if you know approximately what the patient portion is going to be, you can be more precise with your Due Now Adjustment.  Of course, if you are in possession of the exact benefits, you may want to consider putting this account on Automatic Benefit Calculations.

How Payments And Adjustments Are Recorded
When the Track Patient Portion question is answered Yes, there are some differences in how payments are recorded.  This is true for both Automatic and Manual Benefit Calculation methods.  For patient payments, that is payments made by the patient and not his or her insurance, the payment is recorded normally.  In this case, both the Total Balance amount and the Due Now amount will be decreased by the amount of the payment.

When an insurance payment is recorded, only the Total Balance amount will be decreased.  The Due Now amount will not be affected by insurance payments when the Track Patient Portion question is answered Yes.  This is because the Due Now amount reflects only the patient portion of charges, and only patient payments can decrease it.

Adjustments are also recorded differently when the Assignment Of Benefits question is answered Yes.  When adjustments are made, only the Total Balance is affected.  If you wish to change the Due Now amount, this can be accomplished with the Due Now Adjustment feature.