Creating a Billable Patient Appointment: A Step-by-Step Guide

1. Initiating the Appointment

To begin scheduling an appointment, you must first be on the patient's scheduler screen.

Select a Patient, then go to Scheduler
OR
Go to Scheduler - Patients, then select the desired patient.

Click the 'Add Appointment' button.

2. Essential Selections

Adding an appointment requires selecting a work authorization, an appointment type, and a service location.

Work Authorization Selection

An active work authorization is required to schedule an appointment.

When you select an authorization, detailed information about the work authorization will be displayed.
Billing Note: Billing is based on the selected work authorization, not the appointment type.

Appointment Type

Select the appropriate appointment type from the available options.

The selection of the appointment type does not affect billing and is for internal reporting.

Cost Calculation

The cost of rendered appointments is derived from employee compensation data in the provider module.

Important Note: The cost for Travel and Supervisor Travel appointments is specifically derived from the data entered in the travel and supervisor travel compensation data within the provider module.

Location Selection

The system provides default location options and allows you to add custom locations.

By default, the following locations are shown in the dropdown:

Home: The patient's home address.
Clinic: The service location assigned to the patient (set up by an administrator).

You can add more locations by clicking the "add" icon next to the location field.

The address added here will only apply to the currently selected patient.
Best Practice: Adding a detailed address helps in calculating a relatively accurate drive time.

Primary Address

You can flag a primary address by checking the associated box. This will ensure that this location appears at the top of the patient's list of locations.

3. Selecting a Provider

The appointment screen displays previously-assigned providers, but you can also view all eligible providers.

Assigned Providers

On the top left of the appointment screen, a list of providers previously assigned to or seen by the patient appears automatically.

You can drag and drop a previously-assigned provider onto the calendar to schedule an appointment.
By default, a one-hour session is created, which can be edited by clicking on the appointment block.

Seeing All Providers

By turning the 'Seeing All Providers' switch off, you will see a list of all eligible providers. This includes providers not currently assigned to the selected work authorization.

Provider eligibility depends on the following criteria:

The provider must be associated with the patient's assigned service location.
The provider must meet all compliance and enrollment requirements for the selected contract/funding source, based on their role (if requirements are set).
The provider must be 'in-network' if the contract requires enrollment for their role.
The provider must be active in the system.

Scheduling an Unassigned Provider

If you schedule a session with a provider who is not currently assigned to the work authorization, that new provider will be automatically assigned to the selected work authorization.

The "Assigned provider" list will update on this scheduler page and in the patient's profile in the Patient module.

Matching Preferences

Turning the 'Matching preferences' switch on will filter the list of eligible providers to show only those who match the patient's preference criteria.

4. Scheduling the Appointment

To finalize and create the appointment, drag and select the desired time slot on the calendar.

Recurring Appointments

Check the 'Recurring Appointments' box before dragging and dropping a provider onto the calendar to schedule multiple sessions.

Upon dropping the provider, a prompt will appear asking you to choose one of the following recurring schedule options:

Option	Description
Schedule recurring appointments to consume all work auth hours	Schedules weekly recurring appointments until all available work authorization hours are used up.
Schedule recurring appointments Until last date of the work auth hours	Schedules weekly recurring appointments until the end date of the work authorization is reached.