Understanding Invoice Notifications

SigmaMD automatically sends invoice notifications to keep patients, payers, and employer administrators informed about billing events. These notifications cover the invoice lifecycle, from creation to payment, refund, or cancellation.

Invoice notifications are sent by email and as a push notification in the SigmaMD Patient App when an invoice is issued, updated, paid, refunded, voided, or when a payment fails. Patient and payers with no email on file get failed-payment notices by SMS instead.

Who Receives Notifications

• Payers receive the notifications for invoices billed to them, and anyone who pays toward an invoice is notified about it too.
• Caregivers receive invoice notifications in place of the patients they care for. A patient who has a caregiver doesn't receive them.
• Retail membership invoices go to the payer and to every member of the plan. What each email and PDF shows depends on the person's role on the plan, as described below.
• Employer administrators set to receive notifications get invoice notifications for employer invoices when New invoice notification is on in the employer's invoicing rules.
• Membership renewal notices go to the payer and to every patient on the membership.

On a retail membership invoice, everyone sees in detail the charges of the patients they answer for: themselves and the people they care for. Their role decides what they see of everyone else:

• Payer and member: the invoice total, with each other member's total in the PDF.
• Member and Caregiver and member: the invoice total, with the other members' charges as one combined line in the PDF.
• Payer outside the plan and Caregiver of the payer: the invoice total and each member's total by email. They get a PDF only when a patient they care for is charged, and it shows only those patients.
• Caregiver outside the plan: only the charges of the patients they care for, and only when the invoice bills one of them. They never see the invoice total.

For example, when a mother on the plan pays and her son's father, who isn't on the plan, is also the son's caregiver, the mother's PDF details both her and her son's charges, while the father gets only his son's charges, without the invoice total.

These role names also appear in Download patient copy. Push notifications for these invoices go only to the payer and the payer's caregivers, since they're the ones who can open the invoice in the SigmaMD Patient App. These rules apply to every notification below except the Membership Renewal Notice.

Invoice Notification Types

Invoice Issued

Sent when a new invoice is generated and the due date differs from the issue date.

If CVV information is missing from the stored card, the email includes an additional note asking the payer to add their card CVV in the SigmaMD mobile app to avoid payment delays.

Membership invoices follow the same rule. When a membership invoice is due the day it's issued, the first email about the charge is the payment confirmation—or the payment failure notice—after the charge runs.

Membership Renewal Notice

Sent 14 days before a membership contract auto-renews, to the payer and to every patient on the membership.

It is sent only when:

• The membership is set to auto-renew, and
• The practice has enabled the renewal notification on that plan's charging cycle. This is configured per membership plan and per cycle length in the plan's settings, so a practice can have it on for one plan and off for another.

This notice is sent once per contract term, ahead of the renewal—not before every billing cycle. It confirms that the contract is about to auto-renew; it does not state the renewal amount or date.

Invoice Payment Failed

If payment is unsuccessful, the payer is prompted to update their payment information in the SigmaMD mobile app, and the final notice asks them to contact the practice directly. These notices go by email, and patient payers also get them as a push notification in the app. Patient payers with no email on file get an SMS instead of the email, asking them to contact the practice.

Invoice Payment Overdue

Sent once per invoice when an invoice passes its due date without being paid. It includes the invoice number and amount and asks the patient to complete the payment.

This notice goes to patient recipients only, and it cannot be turned off in notification preferences.

Invoice Paid

Confirmation is sent immediately after successful payment processing.

Includes details about payment amount, method, and the invoice's due date for full clarity.

Refund Successful

If a refund is processed, the payer receives confirmation that the funds will be returned soon.

Invoice Updated

If invoice details (such as amount or description) are updated, a notification is sent to the payer.

Invoice Voided

If an invoice is canceled or invalidated, a void notification is sent to the payer and the employer administrator.