Sensei Cloud
Weekly Release
Build 0.1.7739 | May 22nd, 2022
This week’s Sensei Cloud updates continue to expand core application functionality and deliver on recent customer requests.
Correcting and Removing Posted Transactions
This week’s Sensei Cloud release implements some significant enhancements to the Patient Ledger functionality, based on some of the most frequent feedback from our customer base. Primarily, this involves expanding your capabilities when adjusting posted transactions, enabling you to ‘correct’ or ‘remove’ transactions posted with errors (or in error) [Patient Tab > Financials > Ledger]. Additionally, enhanced filtering logic has been applied to handle the ‘corrective’ transactions resulting from adjustments, whenever possible, to keep them from cluttering up your financial views and reports.
Although the capabilities for adjusting posted transactions have expanded, the core workflow remains the same. Simply click on a posted transaction in the ledger to expand the line item, which displays its associated details and provides access to the available actions [Patient Tab > Financials > Ledger]. From here, click ‘Adjust This {Transaction}’ and select either ‘Remove Entry’ (note: formerly ‘{Transaction} in Error’) or ‘Correct Information’ (note: formerly ‘Wrong Amount’), based on the issue at hand. These options are equally available for most posted transactions, including charges (e.g., procedures), payments, discounts, write-offs, refunds, initial balance transactions, and so on. NOTE: Some orthodontic contract-related transactions, such as recurring ‘contract charges’ and ‘contract adjustments’, have limited options as adjusting these transactions will impact the contract’s associated schedule.
There are two new ‘Financial’ settings in the ‘User Permissions’ that can be used to control which team members have access to one or both of these adjustment functions (‘Correct Ledger Transactions’ and ‘Remove Ledger Transactions’ ) [Administration Tab > Permissions > User Permissions]. NOTE: As is currently the case with all Sensei Cloud permissions, team members in the ‘Administrators’ group are automatically granted access to these functions [Administration Tab > Permissions > Group Permissions].
As with the workflow for posting an adjustment, the outcomes from posting a ‘Removal’ or ‘Correction’ adjustment are also largely unchanged. IMPORTANT: As will be discussed, while ‘corrective’ (offsetting) transactions get posted and the (original) ‘removed’ or ‘corrected’ transactions are retained, they are hidden from view by default. In other words, we maintain all posted transactions for accurate record-keeping (and make them readily accessible for review), but we avoid the related visual clutter in the ledger views and financial reporting by automatically filtering the unnecessary ‘noise’ from view.
When completing a ‘Remove Entry’ adjustment to a posted transaction:
- The original (adjusted) transaction is retained and flagged as ‘REMOVED’; and
- A ‘corrective’, mathematically-offsetting transaction is added to adjust the account balance accordingly and flagged as ‘ADJUSTMENT: {Transaction Type} {Adjustment Type}’.
- NOTE: Both transactions are automatically hidden from the default Ledger view.
When completing a ‘Correct Information’ adjustment to a posted transaction:
- The original (adjusted) transaction is retained and flagged as ‘CORRECTED’; and
- A ‘corrective’, mathematically-offsetting transaction is added to adjust the account balance accordingly and flagged as ‘ADJUSTMENT: {Transaction Type} {Adjustment Type}’; and
- A new standard transaction is posted, which contains the corrected information.
- NOTE: Only the new, resulting transaction (e.g., the correct one) is visible in the Ledger by default.
While the nature of the ‘Removal’ adjustment has not changed much, the ‘Correction’ adjustment has been significantly revised. When selecting the ‘Correct Information’ option, you now have the ability to adjust many more transaction properties compared to the previous restriction to just the transaction amount. While the ‘correctable’ properties vary by the type of transaction being adjusted, you are now able to make changes to one, several, or all available items when correcting a transaction. These properties include:
- Amount - Used to correct the value of the posted transaction. NOTE: This is restricted for ePayment-based payment transactions, which will need to be completely refunded (e.g., a ‘Remove Entry’, not a ‘Correct Information’ adjustment) and a new payment collected.
- Location - Used to correct the location associated with the posted transaction.
- Provider - Used to correct the provider associated with the posted transaction.
- Payment Type (payments only) - Used to correct the payment type associated with the posted transaction. NOTE: This option is disabled for ePayment-based transactions, as you cannot change ePayment transactions to a non-ePayment type (and vice versa).
- Discount Type (discounts only) - Used to correct the discount type associated with the posted transaction.
- Write-Off Type (write-offs only) - Used to correct the write-off type associated with the posted transaction.
- Reference (payments only) - Used to correct the ‘Reference’ text associated with the posted payment transaction. NOTE: Original text is pre-populated and made available for edits, as needed.
- Transaction Comments - Used to correct the ‘Comment’ text associated with the posted transaction. NOTE: Original text is pre-populated and made available for edits, as needed.
NOTE: ‘Adjustment Comments’ are required whenever entering either of the adjustment types (‘Remove Entry’ or ‘Correct Information’) to help provide justification or context. Entered text will be displayed as the ‘Full Comment’ in the transaction details of the offsetting adjustment transaction that gets posted.
SPECIAL CASE: When adjusting posted charges that already have one or more associated insurance claims, this necessarily requires that the claims are canceled and (if needed) resubmitted. When removing or correcting such a charge, you are automatically prompted to cancel all existing claims associated with the charge. In the case of a ‘Removal’, the existing claims are canceled, the adjustment is posted, and the account balance is updated. In the case of a ‘Correction’, the existing claims are canceled, the adjustment and new (corrected) transaction are posted, the account balance is updated, and you are automatically prompted to re-generate the (primary) claim. IMPORTANT: This process can be performed for claims in any status. As such, if the claim has already been transmitted to the payer (or even paid against), then some manual housekeeping may need to happen outside of Sensei Cloud.
While the mechanical behavior and outcomes from adjusting posted transactions has not fundamentally changed, some key changes have been implemented to address your feedback. This includes a change to the native filtering behavior of the Patient Ledger, which now automatically hides the unnecessary transactions from view. This means that the ‘corrective’ transactions that have a mathematically-offsetting or neutral impact on the patient balance are not cluttering the ledger when you review a patient’s account history. For example, this means that for ‘Remove Entry’ adjustments the original, removed transaction and its mathematically-offsetting (‘reverse’) adjustment are both hidden from view, as the net effect on the patient’s balance is zero. For ‘Correct Information’ adjustments, the original, corrected transaction and its mathematically-offsetting (‘reverse’) adjustment are hidden from view, while only the resulting transaction (e..g, the new, correct one) remains visible.
While hidden from view by default, records of this activity are maintained in Sensei Cloud. As with all posted transactions, the team member who posted the adjustment (and when it was done) are recorded. A new ‘Show Audit View’ filter is available in the side panel of the Patient Ledger, which can be used to display all of the ‘corrective’ transactions. NOTE: As previously discussed in the release notes for 5130 (Part 2, from 07.29.2020), ‘corrective’ (adjustment-based) transactions are only included in statements when they are needed to explain a change in the account balance from a previous statement. When necessary, inclusion in generated statements may occur regardless of whether the transactions are visible in the Patient Ledger view.
These enhancements should provide you with more flexibility in the correction of errors that may occur when posting transactions, as well as keeping your financial records free from unnecessary transactional clutter. Please send us your feedback on what works well and what additional improvements can be made in support of your financial tracking and reporting workflows.
[0.1.7739 RELEASE UPDATES CONTINUED ON PART 2]
