Tracking writeoffs with Medicaid

[hazmat]

Is there a way to properly track how much money I am writing off with my medicaid patients in OD? I have tried setting up my standard fee schedule and medicaid fee schedule in the trial version. When I set up medicaid as a carrier I have selected the medicaid type from the drop down menu, but it seems to disregard my standard fee when I process transactions. I realize that I haven't technically produced anything more than the medicaid fee so it may not be considered a true write off in open dental. With my current dental software I am able to run reports that shows the difference in medicaid production versus what my standard fees would be.
Thanks.

[jordansparks]

I'm not sure if we have that specific report. I know we have that report for PPO's and for capitation, but it doesn't look like we have it for Medicaid. It might be buried in our long list of available queries someplace.
http://www.open-dent.com/manual/queryexamples.html
And it doesn't sound too difficult to create that report. But I don't think you'll currently find it in the list of premade reports. We are in the process of organizing our queries by keyword, so that link above that shows the long list of queries should soon be more manageable.

[rmb23]

I could really use this report/custom queries also.

Thanks!

[rmb23]

Jordan,

How can I get this query written? I can't do it. As we are getting to year end I really need this info. This isn't really a feature request so how can I get help.

Thanks!

[jordansparks]

I can see that it would be interesting information, but why do you think you have to have it? I'm just curious. Certainly not for tax purposes. Dental offices operate on cash basis, not accrual basis. So you certainly don't need that number for your accountant.

[atd]

As a nonprofit we have to use accrual accounting. So not every dental office operates on a cash basis.

[jordansparks]

Oh, really? How painful. So it obviously is absolutely critical. I would say at this point that it's OK to call us and ask for Nathan. Explain that I said it's OK to rush this report because it is required due to your use of accrual accounting. He will add it to the reports list.

[atd]

Yes, it is painful! I wasn't the one that was requesting this particular report, so I don't know if the ones that did do accrual accounting also. I chose to setup my Medicaid plans as PPO instead - and this was one of the main reasons, needing those writeoff amounts.
While we're on the topic though, I really need the Aging report to show writeoffs (based on procedure date) since with accrual accounting we're recording them right away. I have already submitted this as a critical feature request, just hoping it will come sooner rather than later. For now I'm doing all of the calculations manually since I haven't yet figured out the query and our database is small at the moment.

[hazmat]

Sorry to resurrect an old topic, but I have a couple of questions. When I look at the production/income report I would like the difference between my fee schedule and medicaid reimbursment (a write off) to appear in the writeoff column. Currently, the report just discounts my production numbers based on the medicaid fee schedule. I understand that the writeoffs work correctly with PPO's. What impact would setting up medicaid as a PPO have on everything else? Would I just set the deductible at zero and the category benefit at 100% for everything?

By the way, I didn't see a feature request for this yet. Is there a reason medicaid writeoffs are treated differently in OD? Thanks

[jordansparks]

It is reasonable to use the PPO type for Medicaid in order to track writeoffs. The reason that Medicaid is that way in OD is because the PPO type was added most recently to solve a specific problem. So our Medicaid organization is just older.

[hazmat]

Thanks. I just submitted a feature request in case others would like the same thing. In the meantime I'll either change medicaid to a PPO or manually track it with a custom query.
Joe