Overview

Patient Billing is a DocStation add-on feature that gives your pharmacy a simple, end-to-end way to collect patient payment balances directly within the platform. When a patient owes a remaining balance after insurance adjudication, such as a copayment or a service not covered by insurance, your staff can create an invoice and send a secure payment link to the patient without ever leaving DocStation.

The patient receives an email, clicks the link, verifies their identity with their date of birth, and pays on a branded checkout page. No patient login is required. No staff workarounds are needed. Payments post to the patient's billing record in real time.

Common use cases include:

Collecting patient copays returned on medical claims
Billing patients for services their insurance does not cover
Collecting payment for cash-pay services such as point-of-care testing or consultations

Availability and Pricing

Patient Billing is available on the following DocStation subscription tiers:

Plan	Availability	Invoice Limit
Essentials	Available	50 invoices per month
Base	Available	No limit
Enterprise	Available	No limit

A pass-through processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 applies per transaction on all tiers. This fee is charged by Stripe and passed through directly to your organization. DocStation does not add a markup to this fee.

Getting Started: Connecting Your Stripe Account

Before any invoices can be sent, an organization admin must complete a one-time setup from the Patient Payments settings page. This is what activates the feature across your account.

Stripe Connect onboarding workflow should take approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

Navigate to Settings > Patient Billing.
Review and accept the add-on terms to opt in to Patient Billing.
Click Connect with Stripe. Stripe will launch a hosted onboarding flow to collect your organization's business information, banking details, and identity verification.
Once onboarding is complete, you will be returned to DocStation. The settings page will reflect your current Stripe account status, including whether charges and payouts are enabled, your payout schedule, and the bank account on file. DocStation keeps this status up to date automatically in the background.

Patient Billing features will not appear anywhere in the app until this step is completed. Once your Stripe account is connected and active, you are ready to send your first invoice.

Note: Each organization connects its own Stripe account. Payments are processed directly into your organization's bank account, not through DocStation.

Creating and Sending an Invoice

There are two ways to create an invoice for a patient.

From the claim tray:

This is the most natural starting point when you are already working a claim that has returned patient responsibility.

Open a claim that includes patient responsibility. Scroll to the Patient Billing section at the bottom of the claim tray and click Bill patient.
A "Bill patient from claim" form will open. Review the pre-filled line items, due date, and memo. The memo will reference the claim number and date of service automatically. You can edit or remove any of these before proceeding.
If you want to email the patient a payment link right away, check Email the patient a payment link when finalizing, enter or confirm their email address, and click Finalize & send. If you need to review it first, click Save as draft instead.

Once an invoice exists on a claim, the Patient Billing section will show that invoice along with a Bill patient again... option if you need to create an additional invoice from the same claim.

Note: If the patient does not have an email address on file, you will be prompted to enter one. Check Save this email to the patient profile to save it automatically so you do not need to enter it again on future invoices.

From the patient profile:

Open a patient's profile and navigate to the Billing tab.
Click the + button in the top right corner of the Billing tab and select Create invoice from the dropdown.
Enter a service description, amount, due date, and an optional memo. The memo is shown on the payment page after the patient verifies their date of birth. You can also add additional line items before finalizing.
If you are ready to collect payment now, check Finalize and generate a payment link now before clicking Create draft. If you want to continue editing first, leave it unchecked and finalize later from the invoice view.

Important: Once an invoice is finalized, it cannot be edited. If changes are needed, you will need to void the invoice and create a new one. When in doubt, save as a draft first.

What the Patient Experiences

The patient receives a simple email with a link to a secure payment page hosted at caresecurely.com. For security reasons, the email shows only the amount due and does not include individual line items or memo details.

On the payment page, the patient will:

Enter their date of birth to verify their identity.
Review the line items and memo details on the invoice.
Complete payment using a credit or debit card.
Optionally enter a separate email address if they would like the receipt sent somewhere different than where the invoice was sent.

No patient account creation or login is required. The payment link works on any device. If you prefer to share the payment link through another channel rather than using DocStation's built-in email option, you can copy the link directly from the patient's Billing tab and send it yourself.

Email notification to the patient

Patient Validation - Birthdate

Patient Payment Page

Payment Confirmation

Tracking Payments in DocStation

The Billing tab on a patient's profile is the central hub for all payment activity related to that patient. It is organized into three sections. The Invoices list at the top displays all invoices for the patient along with a running summary of the total outstanding balance across any open invoices. The Transactions section below that shows all payments and credits that have been recorded. The Activity feed at the bottom logs every action taken on the account, including who took it and when.

Each invoice in the Invoices list displays the following columns:

Column	What it shows
Invoice	The unique invoice number, which links to the full invoice detail.
Status	The current status of the invoice: Draft, Open, Paid, or Void.
Due Date	The date by which payment is expected.
Subtotal	The total amount on the invoice before any credits or payments are applied.
Credits	Any account credits that have been applied to the invoice.
Payments	Any payments that have been received against the invoice.
Balance Due	The remaining amount owed after credits and payments have been applied.

Once a payment is submitted, DocStation updates in real time:

The payment appears immediately on the patient's Billing tab.
The activity feed logs both the email delivery event and the payment event, along with a timestamp and the name of the staff member who took each action, giving your team a clear audit trail.
The invoice status automatically updates to Paid.

From the same billing screen, staff can also manage the following actions:

Refund a payment, in full or in part. When issuing a refund, you will be prompted to choose whether to reopen the invoice balance for continued collection or forgive it entirely.
Write off a remaining balance your organization has decided not to pursue. You will be prompted to enter a reason, such as financial hardship. The invoice will be marked as paid with credits.
Void an invoice that has not been paid, or one where all payments have been fully refunded.
Duplicate an invoice, which is useful if you voided one and need to recreate it with minor changes.
Adjust credit to manually add or remove a credit on a patient's account. From the + menu on the Billing tab, select Adjust credit, choose to add or remove credit, select a credit type (Adjustment, Prepayment, Goodwill, or Refund), enter the amount, and provide a reason. Credits are automatically applied to any new invoice created after the credit exists on the patient's profile.
Log an external payment if a patient pays outside of DocStation. From the + menu on the Billing tab, select Log payment, enter the amount, choose a payment method (Cash, Check, Credit card, Debit card, or Other), and optionally add a reference number and notes. If the patient has open invoices, you can allocate the payment to a specific invoice in the same form.
Resend the payment link if the patient needs it again, or copy the link to share through another channel.

Billing tab of patient's Health Record

Paid invoice detail

Stripe Dashboard

Invoice Statuses

Status	What it means
Draft	The invoice has been created but not yet finalized or sent to the patient.
Open	The invoice has been finalized and a payment link has been sent. Payment is outstanding.
Paid	Payment has been received and confirmed.
Void	The invoice has been cancelled and is no longer collectible.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the patient need a DocStation account to pay? No. Patients access their invoice through a unique link sent by email and verify their identity using their date of birth. No account creation or login is required.

Can I edit an invoice after it has been finalized? No. Once an invoice is finalized it cannot be edited. If you need to make changes, void the invoice and create a new one. You can also duplicate an existing invoice to use as a starting point.

What if a patient pays outside of DocStation? You can log an external payment manually from the patient's Billing tab with a dollar amount and an optional reference ID. If there is no open invoice at the time, the amount will be added as a credit to the patient's account.

What happens if a patient pays directly through Stripe instead of through DocStation? DocStation will attempt to reconcile any payments made outside of the platform automatically. When possible, those payments will be reflected on the patient's billing record.

What if a patient has an account credit on file? Credits are automatically applied to any new invoice created after the credit exists on the patient's profile. The patient will only be prompted to pay the remaining amount after the credit is applied.

Can I issue a partial refund? Yes. Refunds can be issued in full or in part. When issuing a refund, you will also be prompted to choose whether to reopen the invoice balance for collection or forgive it entirely.

Can I void an invoice after a payment has been made? An invoice can only be voided once all payments against it have been fully refunded. If a partial payment has been made, you will need to refund that payment in full before voiding.

Is there a limit to how many invoices I can send? This depends on your subscription plan. Essentials customers can send up to 50 invoices per month. Base and Enterprise customers have no monthly invoice limit.

Have further questions? Reach out to the DocStation Support Team in Chat!