Patient Insurance Settings

On the patient Billing Settings tab, users can enter multiple instances of primary and secondary insurance policies as well as document tertiary and quaternary policies. Policies which have expired or are otherwise no longer in use can be disabled instead of deleted.

 

Patient Billing Settings

The patient Billing Settings tab has been significantly enhanced to support these new features. In prior versions of TherapyNotes, it was only possible to enter one instance of a primary or secondary insurance policy.  This meant that prior policy information needed to be removed before a new policy could be added. Therefore, if a biller needed to bill old dates of service, the current policy would need to be removed and the old policy needed to be added back in temporarily.

The patient Billing Settings tab allows multiple entries for primary and secondary insurance policies. Billers can add multiple insurance policies per priority (primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary). It also includes the following benefits for billers:

• Preemptively add a new policy prior to expiration of the old policy to reduce fewer billing errors.
• Automatic notification that a policy is expired once the coverage period ends.
• Expired policies will no longer be linked to new billing items.
• Option of disabling policies that are expired or no longer needed.

For more information on adding payers, read Add a Payer.

Prior Authorizations

Prior authorizations are a part of insurance policies. To add or edit a prior authorization, billers must open the edit screen of the insurance policy to which the prior authorization is attached.

• If an insurance policy is disabled, all prior authorizations linked to that policy will also be disabled.
• The service code and insurance policy associated with the prior authorization must match the date of service in order for the prior authorization to be included on the claim.

Enabling and Disabling Policies

The option to enable, disable, and delete insurance policies is useful for instances where a patient’s insurance policy is no longer active or becomes active again.

Disable a Policy

1. Within the Billing Settings tab, click anywhere in the Insurance panel to edit.
2. Locate the policy you wish to disable.
3. Click Disable in the bottom right corner of the policy panel.
4. In the Disable Insurance Policy window, select Disable.
5. Select Save Changes.

Enable or Delete a Policy

1. Within the Billing Settings tab, toggle Show Disabled Insurance Policies.
2. Click anywhere in the Insurance panel to edit.
3. Locate the policy you wish to enable or delete.
4. Click Enable or Delete in the bottom right corner of the policy box.
5. Select Save Changes.

Selecting Policies for Appointments

Selecting or changing an insurance policy for a service is easy. When a new appointment is created, enabled policies with active coverage dates will automatically be selected for the appointment.

When a patient has multiple insurance policies, the policy linked to the service date can be changed as long as the policy is active for that date of service. 

1. Go to the Billing tab for the date of service.
2. Use the policy dropdown menu to select a different primary or secondary insurance policy.

If you do not see the policy listed, it could be due to the following:

• Expired insurance policies will not appear as an option unless the date of service falls within the coverage period for the policy.
• Disabled policies will not appear as an option unless the policy was already assigned to the service before it was disabled.

A warning message will be displayed if the selected policy is disabled and/or expired. This warning will not prevent the biller from being able to resubmit a claim or add insurance payments.