In rare situations, a patient can receive more money back than they originally paid. This is called an over-refund.
An over-refund can happen when your clinic issues a refund while the patient also disputes the original payment through their bank or card issuer. Refunds and disputes are handled separately, so depending on their timing, both may be completed.
When this happens, the transaction’s net amount can become negative. This does not mean Atlas.md processed the same refund twice. It means the payment was returned through two separate processes: once as a refund and once as a dispute.
Atlas.md will notify your clinic if an over-refund occurs so you can review the transaction and take any necessary action.
How an Over-Refund Happens
For example:
- A patient makes a $200 payment.
- Your clinic issues a $50 partial refund.
- The patient also disputes the original $200 payment.
- Their bank returns the full disputed amount.
The patient has now received $250 back from a $200 payment. Your clinic has returned $50 more than it originally collected, before any dispute fees.
What happens next depends on whether the patient paid by card or ACH.
Over-Refunds on Card Payments
Card issuers have a process for handling payments that were partially refunded before being disputed.
If the cardholder disputes the full original payment, you can submit evidence of the earlier refund as part of the dispute response. The card issuer may then adjust the disputed amount to account for the money already returned.
Because this correction happens through the card dispute process, you may be able to recover an apparent over-refund on a card payment. Recovery isn’t guaranteed and depends on the dispute outcome.
Learn more about card disputes after a partial refund from Stripe.
Over-Refunds on ACH Payments
ACH payments carry a greater risk of permanent over-refunds.
An ACH refund is processed as a separate credit to the patient’s bank account. Issuing that refund does not prevent the patient or their bank from also disputing the original payment.
If both processes are completed, the patient receives:
- The refund issued by your clinic
- The amount returned through the ACH dispute
Most ACH disputes filed within the permitted timeframe are final and cannot be contested through the ACH network. If Atlas.md shows that evidence cannot be submitted for the dispute, neither Atlas.md nor your clinic can recover the duplicated amount through Stripe or the patient’s bank.
Your clinic will need to contact the patient directly and arrange to return the excess funds.
Learn more about additional Atlas.md fees.
Before Issuing a Refund
Before refunding a payment:
- Check the payment’s activity in Atlas.md for an existing or pending dispute.
- Confirm with the patient that they have not already disputed the payment with their bank or card issuer.
- Tell the patient when the refund has been submitted and ask them not to dispute the same payment separately.
- Let them know that refunds may take several business days to appear, depending on the payment method and their financial institution.
These steps cannot prevent every over-refund, but they can reduce the chance of a refund and dispute overlapping.
Who Is Responsible for an Over-Refund?
If a refund and a separate dispute return more money to the patient than they originally paid, the clinic remains responsible for the excess amount.
Where the payment network provides a dispute or correction process, Atlas.md will use the available process to try to recover the duplicated amount.
If no recovery process is available, or if the recovery attempt is unsuccessful, the clinic is responsible for the excess amount and any applicable dispute fees. The clinic may need to work directly with the patient to have the additional funds returned.
