Compare the correct payment against what was actually received to quantify overpayments — the variance that creates refund obligations, not revenue.
The variance that isn’t good news
Getting paid more than the contract says feels like the one billing problem worth having — it isn’t. Identified overpayments are liabilities: they must be refunded, on a clock, and in US federal programs the deadline after identification is 60 days, with serious consequences for sitting on known credits. Enter the correct payment, the received payment, and how often the pattern repeats, and this calculator sizes the exposure.
How to use it
- Enter the contractually correct payment.
- Enter what was actually received.
- Add the occurrence count if the pattern repeats — duplicates and rate errors always repeat.
The formula
A worked example
Expected $650, received $720: a $70 overpayment, 10.8% above contract. Repeated across 12 similar remits, the refund exposure is $840 — small money, big principle: credit balances left unworked are the finding every payer audit and compliance review looks for first, precisely because they’re easy to find and hard to explain.
Estimates only — payer contracts, plan documents, published fee schedules and the EOB are the source of truth, and nothing here is billing, legal or medical advice. The calculator runs entirely in your browser: no patient data is entered, transmitted or stored.