Convert Bank Statements for Medical Practice Bookkeeping
Medical practices reconcile insurer EFT deposits and patient payments. Convert bank statements to match each EFT to its ERA and split payer from patient money.
TL;DR - Quick Summary
A medical practice is paid two ways: insurer EFT deposits, each explained by an ERA 835, and patient copays and payments. Reconciling means a three-way match of the ERA, the claim in your practice management system, and the bank deposit. Converting statements to a spreadsheet lines the deposits up so each EFT ties to its remittance.
Two revenue streams: payers and patients
A practice's money arrives from two very different sources. Insurers pay by EFT, an electronic deposit, with an ERA 835 remittance that explains which claims it covers and how each was adjudicated. Patients pay copays, coinsurance, and self-pay balances by card or cash. Both streams flow into the same bank account, so the first job of the books is to tell them apart. A converted statement lets you separate payer EFTs from patient deposits in a spreadsheet instead of picking through a PDF line by line.
The three-way match
Real reconciliation in a practice is a three-way match: the ERA 835 remittance, the claim in your practice management system, and the bank deposit. When all three agree, you know the claim was paid correctly. The bank statement is the third leg of that match, the proof the money actually arrived, and it is the piece that lives outside the billing software. Converting it to a spreadsheet puts the deposit side of the match into a form you can line up against the ERAs and the posted payments.
Reassociating batched EFTs by trace number
Payers batch on their own logic: one EFT can cover many claims, and one remit can be split across deposits. The way they reconnect is the check or EFT trace number carried on the 835, and the CAQH CORE rules exist so that trace number matches the number on the bank deposit. A converted statement that surfaces each deposit with its amount and trace lets you reassociate a batched payment to its ERA quickly, rather than guessing which lump sum answered which remittance.
Catching underpayments and missing deposits
Once the deposits are in a spreadsheet beside the ERA totals and the payments posted in the practice management system, the gaps show themselves. An EFT that came in short of the ERA total points to an underpayment worth appealing; an ERA with no matching deposit means a payment never landed; a patient deposit with no posted payment means something was not recorded. Catching these at reconciliation, from the bank's own record, is far cheaper than finding them months later.
Accuracy and privacy
Because a misread deposit breaks the three-way match, every transaction is reviewable in the converter before export, so the reconciliation rests on accurate figures. The output is a clean spreadsheet ready to sort by payer and patient. Since the statements hold the practice's financial activity, they are processed to build the spreadsheet and then deleted automatically, with nothing kept on a server afterward.
How it works
- Convert the statements: Convert the month's bank statements into a CSV or Excel spreadsheet.
- Separate the streams: Split insurer EFT deposits from patient card and cash deposits into their own groups.
- Match to the ERA: Tie each EFT to its ERA total and the posted claims in the practice management system using the trace number.
- Flag the gaps: Mark underpayments, missing deposits, and unposted patient payments, and keep the reconciled file.
Comparison
| Task | By hand | From a spreadsheet |
|---|---|---|
| Match EFT to ERA | Hunt for the amount | Trace-number lookup |
| Separate payer from patient | Eyeball | Filter |
| Three-way tie-out | Manual | Side by side |
| Spot a missing deposit | Found late | Compare and flag |
| Month-end books | Retype | Total the columns |
A month of deposits converts to a reconcilable spreadsheet in about 50 seconds. Convert your statements now.
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