When your patient AR report shows thousands in past-due balances, it’s easy to blame high deductibles. But a lot of that money is already in your bank account sitting unapplied—or it’s a phantom balance the patient never actually owed. In this episode (Part 3 of our Payment Posting series) we walk through the four patient payment posting mistakes that inflate AR and damage patient trust: • Unapplied patient credits — money in your bank, AR still open, patient gets billed again • Payer denials shifted to patients by mistake — poster doesn’t read the ERA denial code, patient gets a statement for money they don’t owe • Co-insurance misposted as a flat copay — wrong payment code at check-in, ledger breaks when the claim processes • Unauthorized write-offs — billers clearing their queue by wiping balances with no authorization or audit trail Each mistake has a fix you can implement this week.