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Patient payments collected at the time of service are not applied immediately. StrataEMR holds them as unapplied funds until the claim has been processed and patient responsibility is confirmed. This article explains how that process works and what happens when a refund is owed.
Access: All staff can view a patient’s case and the Policies page.

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How Unapplied Funds Work

When you collect a payment from a patient — such as a copay or estimated cost-share — StrataEMR doesn’t wait for that visit’s claim to finish processing before trying to apply the payment. Application runs continuously, using the best information available at the time. Each payment is matched in two rounds:
  1. Same date of service. If a balance already exists for the date of service the payment was recorded against, the payment applies there first.
  2. Oldest open balance. If no balance exists for that date yet (for example, the claim hasn’t adjudicated) the payment applies to the oldest outstanding patient responsibility on the account instead. This keeps funds from sitting unused while one specific claim is still pending.
Any portion of a payment that doesn’t fully cover a balance continues down the list, oldest to newest, until it’s exhausted.
Payment application runs nightly. If an insurance payment was just posted, matching may not be reflected until the following day.

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Payments Can Re-Apply Over Time

Because matching runs continuously, a payment’s assignment isn’t permanent. If a payment applied to an older date of service because its intended date didn’t have a balance yet, and that date later adjudicates and needs the funds, StrataEMR automatically re-balances — pulling the payment back to its preferred date of service and re-applying the older balance elsewhere.
This is expected behavior, not an error. A date of service that showed as paid can later show a balance again if the payment covering it gets reassigned to a better match. The account’s total balance doesn’t change — only which date of service the payment is attributed to.

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Refund Tasks

StrataEMR runs an internal review 45 days after all claims on a case have processed. If any unapplied funds remain that cannot be applied to a balance, StrataEMR generates a system task notifying you that a refund is owed to the patient.
Do not issue a refund without completing the associated refund task. Refunds must be recorded in StrataEMR to ensure accurate balance tracking and correct invoice calculation.
To record a refund once the task appears:
  1. Open the patient’s account.
  2. Select the Financial tab from the Patient Menu Bar.
  3. Select Refunds.
  4. Enter the date, amount, payment type, and any reference notes for the refund.
Recording a refund task does not send money anywhere. Completing a refund task in StrataEMR only balances the patient’s account in your ledger, it does not contact Authorize.net or any other payment processor, and it does not move funds back to the patient. The payment type you select on the refund is a record-keeping notation only, not an instruction to a gateway.You are still responsible for actually returning the funds to the patient, separately from this step. For example, by mailing a check or processing a refund yourself through your Authorize.net Merchant Interface. If the original payment was a credit card charge, see Correct a Payment Charged in Error for how to process that refund in Authorize.net.
When talking to patients about a refund, be specific about timing. Telling a patient “we’ve refunded you” before the funds have actually been returned, via check, Authorize.net, or any other method, is a common source of confusion and complaints. Confirm the money has actually moved before communicating that a refund is complete.

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Dismissing a Refund Task Without Issuing a Refund

If a patient has a credit on their account but you are not ready to issue a refund, you can dismiss the task.
  • Select the No Refund Required box on the refund task to mark it as completed without issuing a payment.
  • If the patient is returning and will use the same account, the credit remains and will apply to future visits.
  • If the patient is returning under a new account, contact your Customer Success Manager to transfer the credit.

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Requesting an Early Refund

StrataEMR generates refund tasks automatically 45 days after claims process. If a patient requests a refund sooner, or you need to issue one before the task appears, contact your Customer Success Manager via a StrataEMR ticket. The team will review the account and create the refund task manually if appropriate.