The head of household is also the guarantor (the person financially responsible for an account) in Dentrix Enterprise. Billing statements are generated based on a patient's guarantor and are addressed to that guarantor. It is important to send statements and other correspondence to the right person. Because there are times when the responsible party for a family changes, you can change the head of household in a family record.
Changing the head of household transfers all guarantor transactions (current and in history) from the original head of household to the new head of household and assigns the new head of household to the entire family.
Note: Changing a head of household requires the "Patients, Edit Family Relations" security right.
Familiarize yourself with the following terms that are associated with the editing of family relations:
Current Transactions - Transactions that have been posted to a family's account and have not been put into history. An insurance claim is considered current until an insurance payment for that claim is received, and that claim and its payment have been put into history. Current transactions can include procedures, adjustments, guarantor payments, insurance claims, and insurance payments.
Insurance Subscriber - The patients in a family who are subscribers to an insurance policy for themselves or other members of the family.
Patient Transactions - Transactions that have been posted to Ledger that are directly connected to the patient. Patient transactions can include procedures, payments, adjustments, insurance claims, and insurance payments.
Guarantor Transactions - Transactions that have been posted to Ledger but are associated with the account rather than with an individual patient. Guarantor transactions can include guarantor payments, finance charges, late charges, adjustments, and balance forwards.
Balance Forward - The amount of money that is still owed from the prior closed-out month.
Special Adjustment - To reconcile account balances when you move family members, Dentrix Enterprise creates offsetting adjustments that are called Special Adjustments. Each special adjustment is recorded with the current date and a note of explanation and is put into history automatically.
To change the head of household
With a patient selected in Family File, on the Edit menu, click Family Relations.
If applicable, do one of the following:
If the Password - Patients, Edit Family Relations dialog box appears, user verification has been assigned to the "Patients, Edit Family Relations" task. Do one of the following:
If your user account has been granted the "Patients, Edit Family Relations" security right, enter your credentials in the User ID and Password boxes, and then click OK.
If your user account has not been granted the "Patients, Edit Family Relations" security right, have a user with permission temporarily override this restriction so you can edit family relations this one time. The overriding user enters his or her credentials in the User ID and Password boxes and then clicks OK.
If a message appears, informing you that you do not have rights to this operation, your user account has not been granted the "Patients, Edit Family Relations" security right. To have a user with permission temporarily override this restriction so you can edit family relations this one time, do the following:
On the message, click Yes.
In the Password - Patients, Edit Family Relations dialog box, the overriding user enters his or her credentials in the User ID and Password boxes and then clicks OK.
The Edit Family dialog box appears.
Select the family member who you want to be the new head of household.
Click Set HofH1.
Click OK.