How to enable and configure the feature ?

Who is this article for?

Third-Party Billing lets you bill services to a third party (an insurer, an employer, a government program, etc.) instead of the client, or in addition to the client. You track what each payer has authorized for a client, log the time you spend on the file, and create invoices addressed to the payer.

Before you can create payers, attach funding policies to clients or log billable time, the feature must be enabled and configured for your practice. This article explains every setting of the Third Party Billing panel.

Before you start: this is a practice-level setting, so you need administrator access to the practice settings. Viewing the third-party billing lists of the Invoicing page and creating invoices also requires access to financial information. Third-Party Billing is included in every plan except the Practitioner plan: on that plan, the Direct Billing tab shows a message inviting you to change plans.

1Open the Third-Party Billing settings

1. Go to www.colib.io/settings?show=directbilling. You can also click the Settings icon (gear) in the top bar, then Direct Billing in the Admin menu on the left.
2. Scroll to the Third Party Billing panel. Click its title if it is collapsed.

2Turn the feature on and set your default hourly rate

1. In the General section, switch the Enable Third-Party Billing toggle on. The other options of the panel only appear once the feature is enabled.
2. In Default hourly rate for billable services, enter the rate (in $) used to value your billable time. This rate applies whenever a more specific rate is not defined for a practitioner. It is required: you cannot save the settings with the feature enabled and no default rate.

3Choose how hourly rates work

Use the Billable hours are the same for all practitioners toggle:

• On — every practitioner is billed at the default hourly rate.
• Off — an Hourly rate per practitioner list appears. Enter a specific rate for each practitioner who needs one. A practitioner with their own rate uses it; a practitioner left blank uses the default hourly rate.

Good to know: the rate is recorded with each billable time entry when you save it. Changing a rate later does not change the entries already recorded. If you edit an entry and choose another practitioner, the rate of that practitioner is applied.

Important: if you switch the toggle back on and save, the individual practitioner rates are erased. You will have to enter them again if you switch back to per-practitioner rates.

4Add your payers

In the Payers section, you can search existing payers by name or type and click Add a payer to create new ones (insurers, employers, government programs, etc.). Creating payers is explained step by step in Third-Party Billing: how to create payers.

5Configure the funding alerts

The Funding Alerts section controls when Colib warns you that a client's funding policy is running low or about to expire. Set the thresholds that fit your practice:

Setting the amount or the number of days to 0 turns off that alert (the percentage cannot be turned off: it must stay between 1 and 100). How alerts are evaluated and sent is explained in Third-Party Billing: how do funding alerts work?

6Choose who receives the alerts and how

In Notification recipients, turn on one or both options:

• Notify clinic email — the alert is sent to your practice's contact email.
• Notify practitioner assigned to client — the alert is sent to the practitioner assigned to the client concerned.

In Notification channel, turn on one or both options:

• Email — alerts are sent by email.
• In-product notification — alerts appear in the Colib notifications (bell icon of the top bar).

Safety net: when alerts are sent by email and no email could reach a practitioner (option turned off, or the client has no assigned practitioner), Colib also sends the alert to your practice's contact email, so an alert is never lost.

7Save

Click Save at the bottom of the panel. A confirmation message appears once your settings are stored. Payers are saved separately, as soon as you save each payer.

You are ready

With the feature enabled, you can now:

1. Create payers (insurers, employers, etc.).
2. Attach a funding policy to a client.
3. Log billable time outside appointments.
4. Create an invoice addressed to a payer from billable time, tasks or appointments.

Good to know

• Where the feature appears — once it is enabled, the client record shows a Third-party payers sub-tab in its Billing tab, the Log billable time button appears in the client record, and the Invoicing page (www.colib.io/invoices) gets a Third-party payers list and a Receivables list.
• Insurance information on the booking page — in Settings > Booking Page (www.colib.io/settings?show=bookingpage), the Ask clients for their insurance information during the booking process option adds an Insurance Provider section to the first step of your booking page, where clients declare their insurer and policy number. Third-Party Billing must be enabled first.
• Turning the feature off — switch Enable Third-Party Billing off and save: the third-party payer sections and buttons disappear from the client records. Your payers, policies and invoices are not deleted.

Still have a question?

Write to us at support@colib.io, we will be happy to help.