Those are called "Anticipated Insurance Payments" and that is a preference. I only do it for my small clients that basically have a steady stream of insurance payments, for example for my mental health providers, we know pretty much what is coming in on certain accounts. If I send out claims for 4 therapy visits I will look at the chart, make a determination based on whether the patient paid their copay or not. If the patient did not pay any copay's I will post the "anticipated" payment and send out a statement so that we can collect the copay's. My own preference is to do this on a case-by case basis, some offices will do it based on benefit verifications and I don't feel safe with a new account to do that. I also run a report at the end of the month of all open anticipated payment accounts. The only down side is that occasionally we will have to re-do a patient's statement because maybe their insurance terminated or they changed plans, etc.