Skylight, answered.
Short answers to the questions front desks ask most. The first six are paired with a walkthrough of the exact clicks inside athenaOne. The rest are written answers, grouped by topic.
- [01]How do I install Skylight and sign in?
- [02]How do I explain a price to a patient?
- [03]How do I collect an outstanding balance at check-in?
- [04]How do I find or download a receipt?
- [05]How do I add or remove a treatment before I price a visit?
- [06]How do I switch a visit between insured and self-pay?
- [S]Patient cost share script · 3 steps
- [A]Pricing and coverage · 4 answers
- [B]Payments and refunds · 5 answers
- [C]Running the day · 4 answers
- [D]Access and troubleshooting · 4 answers
How do I install Skylight and sign in?
Skylight is a Chrome extension. Search the Chrome Web Store for Superscript Skylight, click Add to Chrome, then pin it so the icon stays in your toolbar. Open athenaOne, click the icon to open the side panel, and sign in with your Superscript credentials. From then on the panel follows whichever patient you have open. The walkthrough continues into the four places admins go next: the roster, the help button, appearance settings, and the end-of-day report.
How do I explain a price to a patient?
Open Details on the payment card and click Explain these prices. Every line in the breakdown gets a one-sentence, plain-language reason: what the plan covers, what counts toward the deductible, and why the copay is what it is. It is written so you can read it straight to the patient.
How do I collect an outstanding balance at check-in?
The balance card in the sidebar shows what the patient still owes and tags each amount by source. Click Collect to open the breakdown, then pick what to take today: the whole balance, everything under one tag, a single visit, or a custom amount. Add it to today’s appointment and the two totals combine on one charge sent to the reader.
How do I find or download a receipt?
Click Receipts in the payment sidebar. Transaction receipts list one entry per payment. Toggle to Appointment receipts for a single receipt covering everything charged on a visit. Download opens the PDF in a new tab, ready to print or email.
How do I add or remove a treatment before I price a visit?
Open Details and click ± Treatments. Add shows the likely add-ons for this patient and visit, ranked by likelihood. Click one to attach it, then Save & reprice to get the new estimate. To undo, reopen the editor, click ⊖ on the treatment, and save. The original price is restored.
How do I switch a visit between insured and self-pay?
Open Details, open the editor, and flip the toggle to Self-pay. Save and the self-pay price locks in for that appointment. Flip it back to Insured and Save & reprice to return to the copay. Nothing about the patient’s insurance on file changes.
A patient with insurance is being priced as self-pay. What is wrong?
Almost always the insurance on file has not reached us yet, or it could not be verified with the payer. Superscript reads insurance from athenaOne, so athenaOne is the only place it can be corrected. Update the plan there, then reprice the appointment from Details. If the plan is already correct in athenaOne and Skylight still shows self-pay, use Check for updates in the panel. A plan that still will not verify usually means the payer does not support a real-time benefits check for it, which is worth raising with support.
The copay does not match what the patient expects. How do I check it?
Open Details. The breakdown names the benefit that was applied, copay, coinsurance or deductible, so you can see which one drove the number. Two causes account for most of these: the visit priced at a specialist rate when the patient expected primary care, or the reverse, and a plan that applies the deductible before any copay. If the breakdown still does not match the patient’s card or member portal, send the appointment to support rather than overriding the price.
The claim came back different from what we collected. What happens?
We watch for the claim and reconcile our price against it. If the payer’s final patient responsibility is lower than what was collected, the difference is refunded to the original form of payment, normally within 7 business days. If it is higher, the remainder shows up as an outstanding balance the patient can pay in their Superscript account or at their next visit. Prices are exact subject to our data inputs, and when a line moves the breakdown shows which line and why.
Why does a price show as pending?
A pending price means the real-time benefits check has not come back cleanly, so we are holding the number rather than showing a guess. You can trigger a reprice from Details once the insurance is right, or confirm a manual price if the patient needs to be checked out now. A confirmed manual price is recorded as an override and survives reconciliation.
Do you ever charge a card on file automatically?
No. Superscript never charges or debits a stored card on its own, at any practice. Every payment is either started by the patient, in checkout, from a text-to-pay link, or in their Superscript account, or posted by your staff at the desk.
The patient already paid at the desk or in athenaOne. Why does Skylight still show a balance?
Skylight reads balances from athenaOne, so a payment posted directly in athenaOne can take a sync cycle to clear from the balance card. Do not collect it a second time. If it has not cleared by the next day, send the appointment to support and it will be reconciled.
The visit was rescheduled. What happens to the payment?
On a true reschedule the payment follows the patient to the new appointment. On a cancellation it is refunded automatically. If a payment is sitting on the wrong appointment, send both appointments to support. Moving a payment between visits is done by our team, not at the desk.
Can I take cash or a check?
Yes. Skylight records cash and check alongside card payments, and a check number can be recorded on the transaction. All three appear on the end-of-day reconciliation report.
How do I confirm a payment actually went through?
The payment card updates once the transaction is captured, and Receipts lists one entry per payment. The end-of-day report is the authoritative list for the day. If the card reader shows approved but nothing appears in Skylight, do not run the card again. Send the appointment to support.
How do I see the whole day at a glance?
The roster is Skylight’s home screen: today’s schedule with each patient’s insurance status and balance on their row. Sort and filter it to work a subset, use the sync control to pull the latest, and click any row to open that patient.
How do I close out the day?
Open Settings and generate the end-of-day report. It produces a PDF of the day’s collections by method, which is what you reconcile against. Practice Companion carries the same figures over longer periods in the Time of Service Collections report.
Can a patient set up a payment plan?
Yes. A plan can be started by the patient or by your staff. Plans sync with the practice’s athenaOne payment plan records, and balance reminders stop while a plan is active.
Can I switch Skylight to dark mode?
Yes. Open Settings and choose Appearance.
A patient’s appointment is not showing in Skylight.
Appointments load from athenaOne on a nightly cycle, so a visit booked today may not appear straight away. Departments that are not configured for Superscript will not appear at all. Confirm the appointment exists in athenaOne, use the roster’s sync control, and if it is still missing send the appointment to support.
I used to open Skylight as its own application. Do I still need it?
No. Skylight is a Chrome extension that runs beside athenaOne in your normal browser, in a side panel. The older desktop application is retired and no longer receives updates, so install the extension from the Chrome Web Store and use that instead.
A patient cannot join their telehealth visit until they pay. Is that expected?
It depends on the practice. Some organizations gate the telehealth join link on payment and some do not. If a patient is blocked and your practice does not use that setting, send the appointment to support.
Where do I get help?
The blue help button in the Skylight panel opens a chat with our support team. It is the fastest route because it carries the patient and appointment you already have open. You can also email hello@superscript.nyc.