Working with discount plans

For patients who do not have insurance coverage, you can assign them a discount fee schedule for treatment-planned procedures and charges. The following instructions explain how to set up and use discount plans.

Notes:

• If the patient has insurance coverage, the discount plan will be ignored.

• Alternatively, you can assign a sliding fee schedule to determine a discount.

To set up a discount plan

1. Create a fee schedule for the discount plan.

   

   Note: Be sure to update your discount plan fees periodically just like you do for other fee schedules.

2. Attach the discount plan to the applicable patient records.

   

   On the Basic Info tab of each patient's Patient Information page, do the following:

   1. Select Basic (uninsured) from the Discount plan list.

      The other discount plan options become available.

      

   2. Select the discount fee schedule from the Select a fee schedule list.

      Note: The difference between the provider's fee for a given procedure (or if there is no provider fee, the default fee) and the discount fee appears as a credit adjustment on a patient's ledger. However, if the patient has insurance coverage, the selected discount fee schedule is ignored.

   3. An expiration date may be required by your organization. To specify the date after which the discount plan should no longer be valid for the patient, click (or tap) in the Discount plan expiration box, and then select the correct date. With an expiration date entered, if the patient does not have insurance coverage, expiration warning icons and notifications start appearing 30 days prior to the expiration date until the discount plan's expiration date is changed or removed (if allowed) or until the discount plan is removed from the patient's record. The warnings can appear in the following areas of Dentrix Ascend:

      • A yellow warning icon appears next to the patient's name on an appointment card on the routing panel. Click (or tap) the icon to view the message.

      • A notification appears when you access the patient's Ledger page.

      • A notification appears when you access the Progress Notes tab of the patient's clinical record.

      • A notification appears when you access the Tx Planner tab of the patient's clinical record.

      • A notification appears when you attempt to complete the patient's appointment.

      Examples:

      Warning Icon (Expiring)	Warning Icon (Expired)
      Notification (Expiring)	Notification (Expired)

      Important: Even if a discount plan expires for a patient, the patient will continue to get discounts. The expiration date only triggers notifications, it does not cause the discount plan to be removed from the patient's record.

To apply a discount to a procedure

1. Do one of the following:

   • Chart completed treatment in the clinical chart.

   • Complete a treatment-planned procedure or post scheduled treatment in the clinical chart.

   • Post a completed procedure in the Ledger.

   Dentrix Ascend automatically posts a credit adjustment in the Ledger that is equal to the difference between the charged amount for the posted procedure and the amount for the same procedure on the patient's discount plan (if the procedure exists on that fee schedule and if the amounts are different).

   

   Notes:

   • The amount of the posted procedure comes from either the provider's fee schedule (if the provider has a fee schedule, and the procedure exists on the provider's fee schedule) or the procedure code list.

     

   • Even if the No Write-off checkbox selected for the posted procedure in the fee schedule being used, a write-off does not occur.