Assigning Automatic Write Offs

[jeanspears]

Over the past year we have been working to set up our PW software to do automatic write offs for Delta Dental so we can have a more accurate collection amount for a patient's out of pocket costs. I am having an issue getting that write off to post to the correct doctor.  We have two doctors in our practice - a father and son and they jointly own the practice.  But we still need to keep all of there production, collections and adjustments separate.  They can both own production and administer AR.  But when I check out an appointment the write off is always posting to the father and I try to change it to the son and it changes back to the father.  I should mention, the father was listed as the original AR owner and doctor since it was his practice prior to the son joining us in 2014.

I know there is an area on the patient's clipboard to assign which doctor owns production and when I change that to the son's it still posts a write off to the father.  I see there is also an area to change the "AR admin by".  BUT this can only be changed on the main or responsible party account.  So for instance, if a husband is the RP and he sees Dr. Father - the write off posts accurately.   But if his wife prefers to see Dr. Son I can't change her "AR admin by" on her clipboard - it's grayed out.  Is there any other way to fix this so I can accurately post the write offs to the correct doctor?  Or any other suggestions?

[lshep]

Just a thought, but at our office we have made each patient their own responsible party. This was done because we had spouses that didn't want to pay each other's bills, or when parents had questions about balances and wanted to know how much was due for each specific family member, it just made it easier for us to figure out, etc. Anyhow, if family members prefer to see different providers, then if you made them their own responsible party, I would imagine the adjustment would post to the AR owner as you would like it to.

[carolyn621]

Lynne, 

Our office also keeps all spouses separate for some of the same reasons you stated. 

Check out line item accounting. 

It will be a little work up front (everything requires up front work, right) but will be a valuable reporting tool. 

Carokyn Barnett 

[robertangus · Accepted solution]

Jean,

   If an adjustment code is only allowing you to post it to an a/r owner then the adjustment code type is a "collection" type adjustment.

   In most cases, an insurance adjustment would generally need to be a "production" type adjustment as it is used to decrease what you charge to the discounted production amount you have agreed to accept when a patient has a specific insurance company. This "production" type adjustment allows you to assign to any producer who can have production in your system to the code.

   This can be changed by:

1.) Go to the Lists menu>transaction codes

2.) Select the "adjustment codes" radio button at the bottom

3.) Highlight the adjustment code to edit

4.) Click "Edit"

5.) Select "Adj(production)" from the Code Type drop down menu

6.) Click ok to save the change

[sonyap]

@robertangus  In this scenario, is there any way for the estimating to be accurate at check-out, but to NOT post the adjustments?  We post them manually once the eob is received.

We purposely did not attach the adjustment code to it because we didn't want it to auto-post at checkout.

This is what our checkout screen looks like for an in-network patient:

This is wrong.  The patient will owe $0 for this procedure.

And this is what pops up during the check-out transaction:

[sonyap]

@robertangus and @jdowner and any other PW admin...  Ever since we set up the blue book to estimate this way for this insurance company, our claims don't clear when we post them.  This is the ONLY insurance company this happens with.  What is going on?

[carolyn621]

Robert,

Regarding Jean Spears question/issue with write off - would line item accounting resolve this issue?

Carolyn Barnett

[robertangus]

Carolyn,

   Yes, Line Item Accounting would be another possible solution, though it means a little extra work within the distribution screens.

[jeanspears]

Robert -

How you instructed above is exactly how we had it set up.  It still will not allow me to change the producer code when an automatic write off is posted. It always posts to the father.  

Jean

[robertangus]

I will give you a call to discuss