Unpaid Accounts, Reconciliation and Payment Disputes: Practical Activities
This course helps the people who run a practice’s accounts work six Rivergum accounts from the bank deposit back to the service, say what the evidence proves, and give the practice manager a report she can act on. It covers what goes wrong at real billing desks: batch payments, claims running out of time, DVA and WorkCover rules, a missing assignment of benefit, room hire and the patient who says they already paid.
Already completed this training? Quick refresher
A quick reminder for experienced staff. Revisit only what you need.
- Rebuild the service-to-payment trail before asking a patient to pay again.
- Separate supported ledger balance from unallocated money and unposted credits.
- Investigate disputes and approaching claim deadlines; never change a date or item to make a claim pay.
Open the lessons and tools. Use current local procedures and sources.
This optional refresher does not record a new completion. Certificates require the full course and its assessments.
For you if…
You do the billing, reconcile the bank or approve the credits: the senior receptionist who runs the accounts, the practice manager, or anyone stepping into that role. Complete Medicare & Billing Conversations first, or bring equivalent experience. Lesson 4 is for everyone who answers the phone.
What you’ll practise
- Rebuild the service-to-payment trail and state the supported ledger balance.
- Match batch payments, remittances and EFTPOS settlements to invoices; chase claims before the one-year lodgement limit.
- Work out who owes what under WorkCover, DVA, bulk-billing and third-party rules.
- Discuss a balance or hardship without pressure; decide when a small debt is written off, referred or left alone.
- Correct claims without rewriting history, reconcile a day’s settlement and run the weekly review, including room-hire income.
How it works
Seven short case-based lessons, a workbook, and two automatically scored quizzes. Try each decision before opening the worked example. Allow about 50 minutes, including the assessments. Pass the knowledge quiz with at least 80% and the safety quiz with 100%; read the feedback and retry as needed. The final activity is practice with a checklist and does not affect your result.
The people and practice in this course are made up. This is professional development, not accredited CPD. Follow your own practice’s procedures where they differ from the defaults here.
Explore the lessons
- Read the account trail before chasing money
- How money arrives, and what is running out of time
- Who owes what: WorkCover, DVA, bulk billing and third parties
- Discuss the balance without coercion
- Control corrections without rewriting history
- Run a weekly review that explains uncertainty
- Final practice activity — Six accounts, six different decisions
Sources (checked September 2026)
- ACCC/ASIC Debt collection guideline
- ACCC: What debt collectors can and cannot do
- Assignment of Medicare benefits for bulk billing: FAQ
- Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program guidelines
- DVA Provider claims
- DVA: Veteran Cards
- DVA: GP Veteran Mental Health Incentive
- WorkCover Queensland: How to invoice us
- OAIC: Giving access to health information
Keep a one-page desk guide
Open the printable desk guides (PDF), page 10 and print just that page: three practical checks, a worked note and a common mistake.