How Andre Structures Employer / Coverage Plan Names in Eaglesoft
Updated: December 29, 2024
As the owner of a company, The Crew Process, I’m self-employed. If joined your practice as a new you would need to create an Employer/Coverage Plan (“ECP”) for me.
What would you call that ECP? “Self”?
That would mean that my employees (who want to join your practice as new patients) would need to say they work for “Self” so that it matched the name in your Eaglesoft database. That wouldn’t make sense. Now, that’s not to say that every self-employed person has employee, it does mean that every self-employed person has a “name” that should be used in the ECP list of Eaglesoft (i.e. Joe Blow Esq, Vinny Boom Bhat DMD, Sunshine Spa, Bob’s Landscaping, etc.).
If the self-employed person bought an ECP from the Small Business Administration/Association (SBA), then the SBA would be their ECP name (with an accompanying group number).
The same holds true for retired people. Imagine that I finally decided to retire. I would create a new Dental plan for myself and the other future retiring employees of The Crew Process. That plan would be “The Crew Process Retirees plan” and would be a new, separate ECP in (with an accompanying group number).
There should be NO ECPs named solely “Retired” or “Self”. The picture below is an example of what I see in many offices I visit.
Here is the first step to clean up your ECP list:
Go into Lists>Security Profiles>Edit and remove the ability for Crew Members to add new Employers unless they have been trained to create Employers based on the Practice Protocols or you'll be in the same boat after you do the clean-up.
When you do create a new ECP, here is the format I suggest:
1) IF the patient is retired from a company (say "Conseco Construction") and is still insured by that ECP under a new "retiree" group, then they should be added to an ECP named "Conseco Construction - Retirees" (or something similar. Adding the "Retirees" or “Retired” after that name keeps the "active" and "retirees" alphabetically next to each other).
2) IF the patient is purchasing an ECP on their own, THEN that plan has a name (i.e. AARP, Aetna Dental Health, Affordable Care Act, The Crew Process, Joe Blow Esq, Vinny Boom Bat DMD, Sunshine Spa, Bob’s Landscaping or whatever). It should be named that in Eaglesoft with an accompanying Group Number (including all digits). If you find yourself drawn to name a plan “Self” the consider naming it “[Insurance company] Individual”. That way all the Individual plans from that carrier are grouped together followed by their respective group numbers. If you can find a difference between individual plans, not it in the name.
Example:
United Accordion Individual [No Major]
United Accordion Individual [Preventive only]
3) I also like using ECP “suffixes” as an indicator in the ECP name to add clean information about the ECP. The example below shows how I structure ECP names.
I use the following abbreviations in conjunction with the month/year suffix:
PID = Patient ID Number Required
DPR = Delta Premier Fee Schedule
NE = No Real-Time Eligibility Available
D50 = Deductible $50
DG = Downgrade Composites
TPA = Umbrella Plan
NA = No Assignment of Benefits
DPO = Delta PPO Fee Schedule
NCY = Non-calendar Year
DNT = Do Not Track
6MW = 6 Month Wait Period
MT = MinnesotaCare tax paid
WARNING: For years I had been advising Eaglesoft Users to use a “+” symbol after the ECP or Insurance Company name to designate that the information has been confirmed, and that the user is “positive” that the information is correct. I’ve been subsequently advised that using symbols like +, / or even an * in the name could cause an “An error occurred executing an SQL statement” message when opening a Patient record.
Question: We have been using Andre’s format of adding a date after the name of an ECP. What is quickest way to update the most current year of employers to match their current benefit breakdown.
Answer: What I suggest if that Jan of a new year, as you're updating patients for Eligibility, you review coverage.
If the Employers/Coverage Plan has zero changes, you just change the date to 1-[2-digit year] (I use Month and Year);
If the Employers/Coverage Plan changed design for every Patient connected to it, I edit the details, update the Service Type percentages and the Employer Notes (at the end of the notes write "plan details updated for [year]"). Then change the ECP name suffix to MN-YR.
If the Patient changed Employers/Coverage Plans, I'd edit the Patient and move then to the Employers/Coverage Plan (If I already have it) and update THAT Employers/Coverage Plan or create a new Employers/Coverage Plan with MN-YR at the end of THAT name. I'd leave the old plan as is until someone else came in with that plan.
DISCLAIMER:
This is a resource guide and all decisions on each dental office setup should remain the sole decision of the dentist/owner of the practice. Eaglesoft is a registered trademark of Patterson Dental Company. All other software or products mentioned are the property of their respective owners. Although Andre Shirdan was an employee of Patterson Dental, he is not associated with Eaglesoft or Patterson Dental Company or endorsed by Patterson or any other Company Mentioned in this blog.
