Vision Plan Chargebacks

[rrwhite]

We have been really struggling with how we want to continue posting our payments from VSP that include chargebacks/lab fees.  We are trying to implement a budget which has us looking at our cash coming in and our cost of goods more closely.  Figuring out the correct and easies way to do this process has made my head swim more than it should and I have a feeling I'm overlooking something obvious...

So how are you all entering your lab EOPs to reflect the proper cash going into the bank/deposit as well as run a report/track how much in charge backs you are acquiring in order to track cost of goods too?  We do not use the VSP integration.  Anyone care to share, step by step in painful detail, how you enter these?  Also, at the time of ordering when using noncovered product items with VSP do you apply the difference between the patient amount and the U&C into the Ins Est column or discount column?  How does that step impact the EOP posting ( i know if a discount column is used it will not show as a line item for that particular item within the mass ins check posting and therefore can't be adjusted easily).  

Side note - Until now we have always entered checks into Crystal as positive amounts (not counting any chargebacks into crystal...which would always make our checks not balance at the end of the day with our reports (overreporting cash) but we would send explanations to our accountant with the charge backs so it balanced and could be accounted for on her side and with our bank acct.) I know this topic has been asked before by others but every time I go to implement one of the suggestions made something always stops me in my tracks (either it messes with another number inappropriately, or gets extremely ugly, lots of write offs and line items to make things adjust properly...) In general just seems like we are trying to do it a hard way and wondering what is working for everyone else.   My goal is to make the cash going into crystal truly reflect the cash going in the bank as well as track lens chargebacks/lab fees in order to track our cost of goods for budget purposes as we are trying to set/follow a budget this year.   Appreciate any replies!

[gracecrystalpm]

*We have now added a lab fees column on the mass insurance check and it's currently in beta and hope to release it in the next month*

with that said, what I did at my old office is making the payment match the EOB and I ALWAYS use the mass insurance check to post all payments. I also like to do line item posting so when you have a patient, click on the + sign to show all lines billed, from there I post how I see it on VSP EOB. If a line is a negative amount, I put -$5.00 for example.

Hope that helps, please let me know if you need someone to remote in and walk you through this process.

Grace

[rrwhite]

Thank you Grace for responding.  I will be on the look out for the new lab fees column with a future update.

So far we have been inputing the data as you suggested, line item by line item (whether positive or neg) for each lens option and this makes everything balance in crystal and our deposits.  I was trying to also incorporate an easy way to track lab charge backs in regards to monitoring our cost of goods (rather than tallying by hand on VSP and Eyemed EOP statements).  What we have been doing is after completing the mass insurance check posting, we go into each individual account (who had ordered glasses) and add a line item ("Lab Charge Back") for the charge back total for the order and edit the other autocalculated write off by the same amount  (basically dividing up the write off).  That way I can run a bill code or sales report and see how much in charge backs we paid for the time period to give to our accountant and monitor/budget.  Does this seem reasonable or does doing this mess with another item/number I haven't thought of?

Rachael

[vaderkty]

When is the frames invoice going to give us a lab cost to run a cost of goods report?
There are too many labs and suppliers to add prices to billing screen. it needs to be submitted on the ACTUAL page the order comes in. It would be nice to have a tab for lab invoice costs and any redo's (Either remakes due to errors or normal redo's for scratch warranties). These will also be different prices. too many variables for a true cost of goods report and no report in crystal for one anyway...at this point in time.

[msquare]

We have our fee schedule set so that all the fees are posted just as the insurance check will pay including charge backs. That being said, if our opticians don't mess with the fees when they are on the invoice it works perfectly. The areas we have most problems is if something is covered. One of our three opticians calculates these correctly. Also, when the copay for the materials is more than the amount we are going to be paid (ie SV-choice disp is $16 and the copay is $25 - they forget to make the Ins Est negative). I actually go over every invoice anyway so I try to catch all those errors before it gets to posting the insurance check.

I spoke with Brandon a while ago and knew that they were working on the lab bill column so we can get that total without having to manually add it up. In the past I've just entered those numbers on a spreadsheet, run it twice and if it matches used that total. It doesn't take that much time but our check totals are usually less that $10K.

-Monica

[KizerOpt]

Mar 9, 2015 15:42:10 GMT -6 gracecrystalpm said:

*We have now added a lab fees column on the mass insurance check and it's currently in beta and hope to release it in the next month*

with that said, what I did at my old office is making the payment match the EOB and I ALWAYS use the mass insurance check to post all payments. I also like to do line item posting so when you have a patient, click on the + sign to show all lines billed, from there I post how I see it on VSP EOB. If a line is a negative amount, I put -$5.00 for example.

Hope that helps, please let me know if you need someone to remote in and walk you through this process.

Grace

Hi Grace, can you give us a quick instruction on how to use the lab fees column? I have always posted my VSP the way you describe above, don't know if this will benefit us or not. Does it add to or subtract from the payment column? Does it affect the total payment or is it informational only? I'd like to know if it's worth my time. I would still like to see an adjustment column for things like sequestration or other adjustments not covered by write off.  Thanks,

Karen

[gracecrystalpm]

Hi Karen,

Yes, be happy to answer this.

First, you won't be posting lab fee as a negative like you were doing before. Simply apply the lab fee as positive and it will automatically "deduct" it from your payment.

Try it on a small check like EyeMed and you will be able to see the break down of the charges in the notes section on that invoice (top right). Your actual invoice will simply say insurance payment $XXX.00 and not the actual break down of lab charge backs.

Let me know if you need further assistance.

Grace

[KizerOpt]

Apr 15, 2015 9:13:28 GMT -6 gracecrystalpm said:

Hi Karen,

Yes, be happy to answer this.

First, you won't be posting lab fee as a negative like you were doing before. Simply apply the lab fee as positive and it will automatically "deduct" it from your payment.

Try it on a small check like EyeMed and you will be able to see the break down of the charges in the notes section on that invoice (top right). Your actual invoice will simply say insurance payment $XXX.00 and not the actual break down of lab charge backs.

Let me know if you need further assistance.

Grace

Well, I tried, not sure it's going to work for me. VSP has amounts in the Plan Provided Materials column that don't have corresponding amounts in the Provider Payment column. I'm not sure what to do with them. Guess I'll stick with the old way of doing it, unless you want to log in and look at it with me.

Karen

[gracecrystalpm]

Yes, I'll be happy to log in with you and see! I'm available this afternoon (have an appt with an office at 2:30CST but any time after that I'm free)