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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.stratapt.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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What is the Clarity Panel?

The Clarity Panel is StrataEMR’s financial summary for a patient’s case. It shows what has been billed to insurance, what each payer paid, what was adjusted, and what remains as the patient’s responsibility. It is the single source of truth for a patient’s balance on any given date of service. You will find the Clarity Panel inside the patient’s case, in the Financial section.
Note: Not every staff permission level has access to the Clarity Panel. If you’re interested in gaining access to the Clarity Panel, speak with your practice administrator.

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How a Patient Balance Is Calculated

Understanding how a balance reaches the Clarity Panel helps you explain it accurately to patients and catch errors early. StrataEMR processes each date of service in the following sequence:
  1. The claim is submitted to the primary payer. StrataEMR submits charges based on the patient’s verified benefits and your fee schedule. The claim is pending until the payer responds.
  2. The payer adjudicates the claim and returns a remittance. The payer’s response — called an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) or Electronic Remittance Advice (ERA) — tells StrataEMR how much the payer is covering, how much was adjusted, and how much transfers to the patient or a secondary payer.
  3. Any secondary or tertiary payers are billed. If the patient has additional coverage, StrataEMR routes the remaining balance to the next payer in sequence. This continues until all payers have responded.
  4. The remaining balance becomes patient responsibility. Once all payers have responded, any amount not covered by insurance transfers to the patient. This is the figure that appears in the Clarity Panel as the patient’s balance.
  5. Payments collected at time of service are applied. Any amount you collected from the patient at the time of the visit — copay, deductible, or co-insurance — was held as unapplied funds until the claim finished processing. Once patient responsibility is determined, those funds are applied to the balance. If the collected amount exactly matches the responsibility, the balance reaches $0. If there is a difference, the Clarity Panel will reflect it.
Note: This is why a patient may have a balance even though they paid at every visit. The amount collected at time of service is an estimate. The actual responsibility is not confirmed until the claim is fully adjudicated.

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Why a Balance May Appear Unexpectedly

The most common reasons a balance appears on the Clarity Panel when a patient believes they owe nothing: The deductible reset at the start of the year. Insurance deductibles reset on January 1 for most plans. If benefit information was not re-verified for the new plan year, StrataEMR may have collected less than was actually owed for early-year visits. The collected amount did not match the adjudicated responsibility. A copay is a flat estimate. Co-insurance is a percentage calculated after the allowed amount is determined. These figures can differ from what was collected, leaving a small remaining balance. A secondary payer did not cover the expected amount. If a secondary payer denied a claim, paid less than expected, or the patient was not eligible on the date of service, the unpaid portion transfers to the patient. The claim was adjusted or partially denied. If the payer applied a policy limitation — such as a visit cap, non-covered service, or medical necessity denial — the adjusted amount may transfer to patient responsibility depending on the case setup. A payment was posted to the wrong date of service. If a patient payment was applied to a different visit than intended, an older date of service may still show an open balance. Check the payment history in the Financial section.

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Reading the Clarity Panel

At the top of the Clarity Panel you will find a header that shows the patient’s current payers and their overall payment status.
  • Insurance Balance: The amount submitted to insurance awaiting payment
  • Patient Balance: What remains for the patient to pay
  • Insurance payments: The amount received from all payers combined
  • Patient payments: What the patient has paid toward this visit
The Clarity Panel displays each date of service as a row. For each visit, you will see:
  • Service Date: The day the patient was seen
  • Codes: The CPT codes billed for the date of service
  • Minutes: The total number of minutes logged for the visit
  • Paid: The amounts paid by primary, secondary, and tertiary payers, along with patient payments
  • Balances: The current balance for the date of service. A balance of $0 means the visit is fully resolved. A positive balance means the patient still owes an amount. A negative balance means an overpayment exists and a refund may be owed.
  • Status: The current point in the payment process for this date of service
  • Spyglass Icon: Click the icon to investigate deeper into the raw data for the date of service
Note: StrataEMR will generate a task automatically if an overpayment is detected 45 days after a claim processes. See Patient Refunds for how to handle refunds.

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Explaining a Balance to a Patient

When a patient questions their balance, use the Clarity Panel to walk them through it visit by visit. A useful script:
“For your visit on [date], we billed [payer] [billed amount]. They paid [insurance paid] and adjusted [adjusted]. The remaining [patient responsibility] is your share based on your benefits. We applied the [patient paid] you paid at the time of your visit, which leaves a balance of [balance].”
If the patient disputes the amount, the next step is to check whether their benefits were verified correctly and whether the payer’s remittance matches what is shown. Contact StrataPT Support if you believe the adjudication was applied incorrectly.