You choose which Transaction Categories are sent. Payments go out within about 15 minutes of being collected. The feature is OFF until you set it up.
Tip: Only CRM administrators can set this up. Updated with CRM-4162: the settings link is now "RCM Settings" and the patient is matched in CollaborateMD from the Contact (no IQ needed) - the matching setup is described in the CRM-4162 guide.
Step 1 - Open the settings page
Go to Settings and open "RCM Settings" (same menu section as EMR Settings; the settings search finds it too).
The RCM Settings link in the Settings menu
Step 2 - Connect to CollaborateMD
In the Connection section, enter your CollaborateMD WebAPI username and password and click "Save & test connection". The CRM contacts CollaborateMD right away: if the credentials work, the badge turns green ("Connected"). Empty fields are flagged before anything is sent.
These credentials belong to this feature only; they are stored encrypted and never shown again. If a password is already saved, the box says so - leave it blank to keep it.
Connection section with the credential fields
Step 3 - Choose what to send, add your customer, then turn it on
- In "Transaction Categories to send", pick the categories whose payments should go to CollaborateMD. The list always mirrors your Transaction Category picklist, so new categories appear automatically. Nothing selected = only IQ Patient Responsibility is sent.
- In "CollaborateMD customers", load the customer numbers from CollaborateMD and pick yours; check "Patient matching fields" (First name, Last name, Date of birth, and Member ID by default). Both are described in the CRM-4162 guide. The push cannot be switched on without at least one customer. - Tick "Push patient responsibility payments to CollaborateMD" and press Save. The switch stays locked until the connection test has passed. Payments taken before you enabled the feature are not sent. - "Use the CollaborateMD sandbox (test) environment" routes everything to CollaborateMD's test system - only when their team asks you to test first.
- Default provider / Default office are optional; left empty, CollaborateMD uses the provider's practice default office.
Push toggle and the category selection
Optional - Map values
Click "Map values" next to the category box: a popup lists your selected categories so you can set the CollaborateMD payment type code each one is reported as (CollaborateMD accepts numeric codes). A category you leave empty is sent as a regular patient payment, with the CRM category/method name kept in the payment's memo so nothing is lost. Press Apply, then Save on the page.
The Map values popup for the selected categories
Checking what was sent - the push log
The "CollaborateMD push log" at the bottom of the page lists every payment the CRM queued, with its status: - Sent - delivered to CollaborateMD; the payment number CollaborateMD assigned is recorded with the row. - Failed - not delivered; the reason is in Last error. Typical reasons: "No patient match ..." (nobody in CollaborateMD has the Contact's details), "Ambiguous patient match ..." (more than one patient matches), a credential problem, or a rejection from CollaborateMD. Fix the cause and press Retry.
- Needs review - something changed (a void, a refund, an amount edit) and the CRM stopped rather than send wrong money. Review with billing, then Retry.
The push log with statuses, reasons and the Retry action
Which payments are sent
- Collected successfully in the CRM (card, manual/offline, eCheck once it clears). - In one of the Transaction Categories you selected.
- For a Contact the CRM can match to exactly one CollaborateMD patient.
- Taken AFTER the feature was switched on.
Good to know
- Turning the toggle OFF stops everything immediately.
- A payment is never sent twice, even if the system restarts mid-send.
- A payment is never sent on a guess: no match or more than one match stops it with the reason in the log. - If a payment is voided or refunded after it was already sent, the log marks it Needs review so billing can correct it in CollaborateMD manually.
- Payments arrive in CollaborateMD as unapplied patient payments; your billing team applies them to the right claim there.
- The scheduler job is "CollaborateMD Payment Push" under Settings > Scheduler (runs every 15 minutes).