Admin/Insurance: how do Add New Plan and Merge work?

[mdeyedoc]

Vanderky says these are now working without messing up previous billing so can someone explain how the Add New Plan and Merge functions in Admin/Insurance work and when/why we'd want to use them?  Anything specific we need to consider when using these functions?

Marcia

[mdeyedoc]

Anybody?

Marcia

[KizerOpt]

I have avoided using Merge because no one has told me which insurance gets deleted. As I understand from Vaderkty, the add new plan will allow you to add all the fee schedules for each plan - vsp signature/choice; BC plans, etc. It helps her save time in the long run b/c she doesn't have to adjust on each invoice. I'm thinking of trying it, but haven't had the time to invest in it yet.

karen

[Kristen]

To merge insurances and/or plans:
1. Open the insurance or plan you want to KEEP.
2. Click the "Merge" button.
3. Click "Yes" in the Merge Insurance Plan? popup.
4. Select the insurance or plan you want to merge into your selected insurance or plan from the dropdown on the right.
5. Click "Merge and Remove".

(The insurance you selected in step 4 will no longer exist in Crystal. All patients and invoices linked to that insurance will now be linked to the insurance you selected in step 1.)

[KizerOpt]

Thank you!

[mdeyedoc]

Apr 1, 2015 16:33:59 GMT -6 Kristen said:

To merge insurances and/or plans:
1. Open the insurance or plan you want to KEEP.
2. Click the "Merge" button.
3. Click "Yes" in the Merge Insurance Plan? popup.
4. Select the insurance or plan you want to merge into your selected insurance or plan from the dropdown on the right.
5. Click "Merge and Remove".

(The insurance you selected in step 4 will no longer exist in Crystal. All patients and invoices linked to that insurance will now be linked to the insurance you selected in step 1.)

Thanks Kristen. But I'm still not clear on when/why we'd use plans. We currently have each VSP category as a separate insurance so we can handle the different fees schedules. I'm assuming the idea is that we have an Insurance (say VSP) and then create Plans under that Insurance for each of the different plans they have (signature, choice, etc). What is the advantage of doing that?

And how do we go about converting our existing set up to to Plans?  Do we create Plans under VSP for each category and then Merge the separate Insurance that we currently have for that category into that Plan?

And for you comment above, are you saying that even past invoices with that original insurance will convert to the merged insurance? I thought Vanderky was saying something about it messing up old invoices before, but not any more.

Marcia

[Kristen]

Apr 2, 2015 9:13:52 GMT -6 mdeyedoc said:

Apr 1, 2015 16:33:59 GMT -6 Kristen said:

Thanks Kristen. But I'm still not clear on when/why we'd use plans. We currently have each VSP category as a separate insurance so we can handle the different fees schedules. I'm assuming the idea is that we have an Insurance (say VSP) and then create Plans under that Insurance for each of the different plans they have (signature, choice, etc). What is the advantage of doing that?

And how do we go about converting our existing set up to to Plans?  Do we create Plans under VSP for each category and then Merge the separate Insurance that we currently have for that category into that Plan?

And for you comment above, are you saying that even past invoices with that original insurance will convert to the merged insurance? I thought Vanderky was saying something about it messing up old invoices before, but not any more.

Marcia

Marcia, 

The main advantage of using plans is so that they all exist under the one insurance umbrella.  For example, if you have all of your VSP plans as separate insurances, when you post a mass insurance check for VSP or want to run reports for VSP, your job will be more complicated because the information will not all be together.  If you instead list them all as plans under the one VSP umbrella, then you can pull accurate VSP totals in your reports and post the full mass insurance check by just selecting the one insurance.  You are still able to create separate fee schedules for each plan.

To convert from insurances to plans, simply create the plan names under your insurance and then use the merge instructions above to merge the insurance to the plan.

I just tested and yes, past invoices will show the new merged insurance.  This is functioning correctly.  We don't want invoices to still be linked to old insurances/plans that no longer exist.  It would mess up reports.  

Kristen

[mdeyedoc]

Thanks. I thought one of the benefits was in using the Mass Insurance check but when I asked staff they said you could select multiple insurance. But they also said they stopped using it for VSP but couldn't remember why. Maybe that was why!

So if we merge an insurance into a new Plan, will it retain the insurance billcode values that were in the original source plan if it is merging into an empty plan or will we have to reenter all the insurance values?

Finally, are the bugs Vanderky mentioned fixed now?

Marcia

[Gina]

If you merge an insurance into a plan right now the values would be lost and would have to be entered in manually. However in an upcoming update there will be an option to export and import insurance fee schedules so I would hold off until then to save yourself some work.

[vaderkty]

Sorry I was out. It is much better. I was the pt. zero for this hell storm but I am glad it all worked out.

The original VSP was Signature. I lost the Choice plans but it was easy to change the few lines that actually got effected.
The main benefit was to segregate the funded from discount plans and auto calculate the discount plans first so the mistakes and copay's not being added would stop. We were losing too much money with the mis-calculations but adding everything in would have made the drop down insurance list an impossible task.

It's like the file tree, easier to keep organized and under one umbrella and the time to auto-calculate once vs. time spent in sales is Worth my time. I do it at home on a weekend if it saves me time at work. Anything to make sales faster and less questions regarding price. leaves me time to do my job...instead of answering the same questions over and over again...