How Andre Sets Up Membership Plans in Eaglesoft
SETTING UP YOUR OWN MEMBERSHIP PLAN
Disclaimer: This is a resource guide and all decisions on each dental office setup should remain the sole decision of the dentist/owner.
Many Offices have decided to create their own in-office membership plans. Some with the assistance of a third-party company like Plan Forward. While I can’t advise practices on the legalities of Membership plans state by state, I can show them how to use creative ways to implement and manage them in Eaglesoft.
This is a guide I created specifically for those office who have created a simple and affordable option for dental care using Plan Forward to manage their Membership Plan.
I have found that the best way to set a Membership Plan up in Eaglesoft is to:
1) Create twelve “Employers/Coverages” by going to List>Employer/Coverage List>New. You will create one Employer/Coverage for each month, so that you can better track the enrolment start month of each Patient. My typical membership plan naming structure is “Crew Dental Membership Plan 01 Jan” (substitute your practice name where I used “Crew”). Included is the numerical month “01” to “12” so the plans are in chronological order in the Employer/Coverage List. All plans have a $0 deductible and $0 maximum. All Service Types are set to 0% (see figure 1).
2) Create a matching “Insurance Company”. Click the Insurance Company “blue” hyperlink, in the Employer screen, and select New. Your Membership “Insurance Company” should match the Employer/Coverage name (Example: “Crew Dental Membership Plan”). I always add, in all caps, “DO NOT MAIL” to the address field. Although this is not necessary, I have always done this. Click OK then add to the Employer/Coverage see figure 2.
3) Create your Membership Plan Fee Schedule by clicking on the Fee Schedule “blue” hyperlink and selecting New. Choose Automatically Setting Up All Service Codes and Choose Fee Multiplier based on what fees you will be charging to member of your Membership plan. Creating a new Fee Schedule allows you to set the plan at a percentage of your Standard Fees. Example: Choosing a Fee Multiplier of 85% sets your fees at 15% off your offices Standard Fee. You will then need to edit each Service Code of your Fee schedule and remove fees from your Services that there will be a $0 fee as part of your Membership plan. Typically, Membership plans include $0 Cleaning and X-rays. Click OK and Use to attach to your Employer/Coverage see figure 3.
4) Select the Insurance Form “None” from the drop-down choices. With this choice, during Walkout, the user will be prompted with a choice how to submit a “claim” for treatment. By the user selecting “Submit Manually”, no claim will be opened.
5) Select Preferences within the Employer/Coverage screen. Set the Preference to “Patient Responsible for All” and “Do Not Track Claim” see figure 4. Click OK and OK again to Save your Employer/Coverage.
6) With your Employer/Coverage plans created, I suggest you create “Administrative” Service Codes for the Membership Plans. These Service Codes are used to post to the Account when a Patient Selects a program. I have even used a Service Code for tracking if a Patient declines participation.
7) These codes get posted to the Account during the first Walkout along with the Services performed. I suggest that the fee should equal the cost of the first visit services - i.e. Comprehensive Evaluation, Full Mouth Diagnostic Imaging, Prophylaxis and Fluoride (if applicable) see figure 6.
Remember that you are NOT collecting money up-front for Services but for the Membership plan. The treatment completed will be posted to the Account based on the Fee Schedule created in step 3, Exams, X-rays, and Cleanings are, typically, a $0 fee posted to the Account.
When utilizing a Membership Plan that has a Monthly Payment, your Membership fee should equal the 12 monthly payments being made on the Account. When setting up a Monthly Payment membership plan, make sure to suppress monthly statements by clicking on the Preferences button in the account screen and unchecking the Receive Statement choice see figure 7.
For Tracking Purposes:
Because you have created a unique “Employer/Coverage” for EACH month of the year, you will know what month the individual Patient joined. (i.e. “Dental Membership Plan 01 Jan, Dental Membership Plan 02 Feb, Dental Membership Plan 03 Mar”). By creating these plans, you can run the Patients by Employer list each month to see which Patients are coming due for renewal see figure 8.
It is also possible to create a Custom Intellicare based on the Membership Plan Insurance Company you created in Step 2, that could show a custom icon on the OnSchedule Screen and Clinical Screen so that Patients who are Members are “flagged”
Here are some Common Membership Questions:
Q: How do you track hygienist production?
A: Two thoughts:
As Patients are “onboarded” to the plan, the Membership Fee is posted to the Hygienist who treated the Patient.
As Patients are “onboarded” to the plan, the Membership Fee is posted to a “pool” for all the Hygienists. In this setup a “Pool” Hygienist is created and used to post Membership Plan production to. In many offices there is a Temp Hygienist already and can be used to post this production.
Using the Managed Care Analysis report, the office can track the total of your Standard Fee that would have been billed and the “adjusted” Membership Fees charged out.
Q: What about a third cleaning (if only 2 are included in the annual plan)?
A: I create “Admin” Service Codes for Prophys beyond the two that are in the plan then you can attach a fee in the Membership Plan Fee Schedule that is walked out.
Q: How can we show our Patients the saving they are getting by using the Membership plans?
A: In File>Preferences>Accounting there is an option to Display Standard Fee and Adjust on Walkout and Tx Plan. This would show the full Standard Fee and the portion being adjusted on each line item.
WARNING: This will impact ALL walkouts that have Fee Schedules and/or Coverage Books attached.
If you use are considering using Kleer to manage your Membership plan with Eaglesoft, use the link below:
If you use are considering using Plan Forward to manage your Membership plan with Eaglesoft, use the link below:
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
