3. Make Changes
You can edit, add, move, delete, or expire an insurance policy with a few, quick keystrokes. While inserting a new policy, you also have the options to copy a recently edited policy or automatically add the new plan to the record of any siblings or family members. When expiring a policy, you will have the opportunity to expire the same plan for all patients in the same family.
The function keys for each task are self-explanatory:
Select a policy on the screen using the arrow keys, press the appropriate function key, and follow the prompts on the screen. The more detailed instructions in the sections below will guide you through each task.
3.1. Add a Policy
When a patient's insurance information changes, you need to add a new plan to their list of policies. You should do this before posting charges for the patient. Otherwise, the procedures may be billed to the wrong carrier or with the wrong information.
Follow this procedure to add a policy:
Press [F1 -- Insert Policy]
A new line will appear at the top of the list of insurance policies, and blank fields will appear at the bottom of the screen.
Enter Policy Information
Enter policy information in the blank fields.
Keep In Mind:
Looking Up the Insurance Company: For the Insurance Company field, you can use an asterisk (*) to search through your practice's list of plans. For example, entering *BCBS* would show you a list of BCBS insurance plans. Depending on how your office tracks insurance companies, typing *4624* may show you all insurances with a P.O. Box of 4624, a handy shortcut.
Override Fields: When generating claims, Partner will use the guarantor's name, address, and relationship as recorded in the fame and notjane programs. If the insurance policy holder is not the guarantor, you should fill out the name, relationship, and address fields shown above.
Effective Dates: The effective dates are very important. Partner chooses which insurance company to bill based on the effective dates. You can leave the date fields blank, but Partner will then assume that the insurance plan has always been valid and that the coverage has no known expiration.
Press [F1 -- Save]
As soon as you press F1, the new policy will be saved and active for this patient.
Optional: Copy the New Policy to Related Patients
If the new policy is not a Medicaid policy, and the patient has relatives in your system that share the same guarantor, Partner will next ask whether you wish to add the new policy to the patient's siblings. A sibling is any patient who shares a guarantor with the current patient.
Press [F1 -- Copy Policy] to continue to the sibling screen, press [F4 -- Do Not Copy] or F12 to continue without modifying sibilings.
On the sibling selection screen, confirm the position (primary, secondary, etc.) of the new plan and update any differences to the certificate and group numbers for each patient.
Press [F1 -- Save] to add the plans to the sibling records.
If you do not wish to copy the new policy to any of these patients, press F12.
Review Your Changes
Finally, you will be returned to the main policy screen. After adding a new policy, you should review all active insurance policies for the patient. Is the primary insurance listed first? Do you need to expire an old policy? Use the function keys at the bottom of the screen to make any further changes to the patient policy record.
3.2. Copy a Policy
When adding a new policy, you may wish to copy insurance plan information from a recently edited policy elsewhere on the account. If you recently added or edited a policy for some other patient on the family, you can automatically import the entire plan to this patient's policy record.
Follow this procedure to copy the family's most recently edited policy:
Press [F1 -- Insert Policy]
A new line will appear at the top of the list of insurance policies, and blank fields will appear at the bottom of the screen.
Press [F5 -- Use Last Modified]
This family's most recently edited policy is shown in the middle of the screen. Press F5 to copy that policy's details into the new policy fields at the bottom of the screen.
The blank fields will be filled out with all available information from the most recently edited policy.
Enter or Change Policy Information
Update any information that is different for the current patient, such as the insurance certificate number.
Press [F1 -- Save]
As soon as you press F1, the new policy will be saved and active for this patient.
Optional: Copy the New Policy to Related Patients
As with the insert policy procedure, you will now be offered the option of adding the policy to the record of other patients who share the same guarantor account.
Press [F1 -- Copy Policy] to continue to the sibling screen, press [F4 -- Do Not Copy] or F12 to continue without modifying sibilings.
On the sibling selection screen, confirm the position (primary, secondary, etc.) of the new plan and update any differences to the certificate and group numbers for each patient.
Press [F1 -- Save] to add the plans to the sibling records.
If you do not wish to copy the new policy to any of these patients, press F12.
Review Your Changes
Finally, you will be returned to the main policy screen. After adding a new policy, you should review all active insurance policies for the patient. Is the primary insurance listed first? Do you need to expire an old policy? Use the function keys at the bottom of the screen to make any further changes to the patient policy record.
3.3. Expire a Policy
When you add a new insurance policy to a patient, you will usually expire an old policy. When you expire an insurance policy, you will also be given the option to expire the same policy for all patients with the same guarantor.
When you wish to expire a policy, follow this procedure:
Select the Policy You Want to Expire and Press [F6 -- Expire Policy]
Enter the End Date
Yesterday's date will be entered automatically in the "End Date" field for the policy. You can enter a different date, indicating when the policy expires. The end date is the last date on which the selected policy should be billed for new charges.
Press [F1 -- Save]
Press F1 to save the policy's end date and expire the policy.
Optional: Expire Policy for Patient Siblings
Next, Partner will ask if you wish to expire the same policy for the patient's siblings. A sibling is any patient who shares a guarantor with the current patient.
Press [F1 -- Expire Policy] to continue to the sibling screen, press [F4 -- Do Not Expire] or F12 to continue without modifying sibilings.
On the Expire Policy for Related Patients screen, review the policies for each of the siblings and press [F1 -- Expire Policies] to continue. You can change which policies will be expired by deselecting them or using the selection function keys at the bottom of the screen. Press F12 to cancel and leave the siblings' policies untouched.
Toggle Detail: If you need more information about the listed policies, press [F5 -- Toggle Detail].
You can only expire policies that match the one you just expired. You will not be able to select and expire a sibling's policy unless it uses the same entry in the Insurance Companies table in the Table Editor (ted).
Press [F1 -- Expire Policies] to Expire Selected Policies
Review Your Work: The procedure above will expire a policy for one patient and any related patients you select. Remember, however, that you should always review and update each patient's policy information every time they visit your office.
3.4. Edit an Existing Policy
You may discover a bad certificate number, or learn that a policy is in a different parent's name and not that of the guarantor account. Follow this procedure to change information about an insurance policy that is already on an account:
First, use the arrow keys to select the insurance policy you need to edit.
Next, press [F4 -- Edit Policy] to make changes. The screen will change to allow editing, and your cursor will move to the "Insurance Company" name field.
Use the Tab, Enter or arrow keys to move to the field that needs to be changed.
When you are finished, press [F1 -- Save] to save your changes. If you make a mistake or choose not to save your changes, press F12.
 | You should never overwrite an existing policy with a new plan, even if only the address or the copay has changed. There may be outstanding charges pending the old policy or you may need to reference the family's insurance history. Instead, use [F5 -- Insert Policy]. You can then press [F4 -- Copy a Policy] to grab the information from the policy you wish to correct. When you finish adding the new plan, use [F8 -- Expire Policy] to expire the changed policy. |
3.5. Make a Policy Primary or Secondary
When you post charges, Partner pends them to the active insurance policy on the patient's account. But what if the account has more than one active policy? Which policy is the account's primary insurance? Partner will send the charges to the first policy listed on this screen. Therefore, you may need to adjust the order of the account's active policies. Follow the procedure below.
Select the policy you wish to move. Use the up and down arrow keys to move to the policy.
Press [F6 -- Move Policy]. You will see the screen shown below:
Use the arrow keys to move the policy where you want it. The screen will update as you move it, showing you the result of the move.
When you are finished, press [F1 -- Save] to save your changes. If you make a mistake or choose not to save your changes, press F12.
3.6. Delete a Policy
Under rare circumstances, you may need to delete a policy from an account. If any charges have been posted while a policy is active, you should not delete that policy. If you have added the wrong plan to the wrong account, however, or the account never should have had a certain policy, you can do the following to remove it:
Use the up and down arrow keys to select the offending policy.
Press [F7 -- Delete Policy]. You will see a warning screen.
Press [F8 -- Delete] if you are certain you want to delete the selected policy. If you change your mind and wish to keep the selected policy, press F12. Once deleted, there is no way to "undelete" a policy.