Financial Arrangement Setup Needs
Offering Financial Arrangements that coincide with your patient's ability to pay can play a key role in case acceptance. If you have different treatment options that are offered, you might need to prepare and save multiple Financial Arrangements. With a Financial Arrangement, patients can see their options clearly and choose the plan that works best for their financial situation.
Before creating a Financial Arrangement:
You will want to ensure that you have the Financial Arrangement Type set up under Edit > Setup > Financial Arrangement Types.
Here, you can add a new Financial Arrangement Type by clicking on the blue "Add+" icon.
This will bring up the Add Financial Arrangement Type window.
What each field on the Add Financial Treatment Type screen is for:
- Description: The type of treatment, i.e. Adult Comp 18 Months, Aligners, and so forth.
- Default Down Payment: The dollar amount that will automatically populate.
- Low Down Payment: The minimum dollar amount that is acceptable.
- Until Contract Start: The number of Days, Weeks, Months until the contract will start.
- Max Days Until Signature: How many days are expected after creation before the Financial Arrangement is signed by the patient.
- High Payment Number: The highest number of payments the office is willing to set up on a Financial Arrangement.
- Days until signature expires: The number of days elapsed before the Financial Arrangement signature expires.
- Document: The default document that will be merged from the Financial Arrangement.
- Default Frequency: The default frequency that the patient will charged.
- Available Frequencies: The frequencies that can be implemented within the Financial Arrangement if the patient cannot or is unable to use the default frequency.
Note: If the Financial Arrangement is signed by the patient, but the signature expires, Cloud 9 does not allow you to make changes. You can only delete Financial Arrangements that are in a NEW status.
You will additionally want to ensure that you have the document for the Financial Arrangement set up. This document can be created using the Document Editor, and you can save it with FA or Financial Arrangement in the title for ease of use. For help with creating a document or using the Document Editor, you can go to Document Editor Introduction.
Now that you have the document you will be using and the Financial Arrangement Type set up, you can begin creating your Financial Arrangements for patients.
How to Create a Financial Arrangement
Step 1: Go to the Patient Ledger, then on the top right of the screen there is a small button for the Financial Arrangement:
Step 2: Click the Financial Arrangement button and then you will see a pop up that will list any previously created Financial Arrangements, or if there are none, give you the option to add a new one.
Step 3: Click the blue "+Add" button.
There are four drop down boxes on the Financial Arrangement when it is first created:
When these drop down menus are expanded, the Financial Arrangement will look like this:
Step 4: You can customize the Description, or it will populate automatically based on the Type.
Step 5: If the patient has multiple responsible parties, you can use the Responsible dropdown to select the correct party for this Financial Arrangement.
Step 6: Select the blue "+Services" button, and from the dropdown choose the treatment you are applying for this patient. In this test we will use the Comprehensive Adult Treatment. Note: The Service must be set up in Edit > Setup > Transaction Types with "Is Contract" enabled in order for the Financial Arrangement to be signed and completed.
Step 6a: Please note that you can only have one service that is set to 'Is Contract'. If there is more than one service, you will be able to save and sign the FA, but you will not be able to push it to a Contract.
Step 6b: If the patient has any Discounts, you can enter those at this time by clicking the blue "+Discounts" button, and choosing from the list. You can enter the amount of the discount in the Choose Discount box. Note: You cannot enter more than four discounts.
Step 6c: If you have put in a Service or Discount in error, check the box next to the item and hit the red "Remove" button. A pop up will ask you to confirm this choice.
Step 7: If the patient has insurance, click in the listed Insurance column and enter the primary benefit amount. The Patient Share will decrease respectively.
If the patient has secondary insurance, click in the field for that column and enter the amount.
Step 8: You can then either select Pay in Full, or Internal Payment Plan. When you select the Internal Payment Plan, there will be a new drop down menu under Patient Payment Arrangement Details. Here you will notice that there are two financial sliders, one for the Patient Down Payment and one for the Total # of Payments.
Using the Patient Down Payment slider, you can adjust the down payment to the amount your practice (or patient) has agreed to. You can also directly type in the amount of the down payment. Once you have entered the Down Payment amount, click on the lock icon. From there, the Total # of Payments slider will be unlocked, allowing you to select the Frequency of patient payments:
Note: If you enter an amount in the Financial Arrangement that is lower than what is specified in the Low Down Payment field in the setup, you will receive a warning.
Step 9: Once both office and patient are happy with the details of the Financial Arrangement, it is time for the patient or responsible party sign. To generate the document, click the Merge button at the top.
This will generate the contract and fill in the merge fields with the patient's information.
Now we will have the responsible party sign the document. If you have a Topaz signature pad - which you can find instructions on at Topaz Signature Pad: How to Setup and Use - you can click the 'Topaz' button under the Signature section to use this.
Otherwise, click 'Capture' to have the patient sign using a mouse.
Click the Merge button once the signature has been input to sign the Financial Arrangement document!
You will receive a pop up.
This is to make sure you have finalized all details and are ready to sign.
Note: Once signed, a Financial Arrangement can no longer be edited or deleted!
Step 10: Once the patient or responsible party has signed the document, you will want to check to ensure that the signature is present.
You will go back to the Orthodontic Financial Arrangement section, and click on the Contract button to push the financial arrangement into the contract section of the ledger.
From here you can organize the contract however is needed to match the financial agreement. For more information on adding a contract, you can reference Creating a Contract in Cloud 9.
As always, if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to reach out to Cloud 9 Support by emailing us at cloud9support@planetdds.com, or chatting us online using the chat bubble on the lower right at https://cloud9support.planetdds.com/hc/en-us, or giving us a call during our business hours of 8:00 AM EST to 8:00 PM EST at the 1.800.394.6050 option 2.