Contract Basics

In order to create a contract for a patient you must have:

• At least one treatment phase created in the Clinical side of the patient's chart
• At least one treatment plan associated with the treatment phase
• No other active contracts

• Tops Ortho will store a contract in the Patient Information window indefinitely and will not charge the patient until the contract is activated by charging the Initial Fee. After starting a contract, the patient will be automatically charged according to the criteria you enter in the Contract Worksheet.

• If you have created more than one treatment plan for a patient, be sure to select the contract associated with the appropriate treatment plan.

Contract Worksheet Definitions:

• Status: Indicates whether the contract is uncharged, active or deactivated. Click the Accept Assignment checkbox if you accept insurance from the patient. If you accept assignment of insurance benefits, the Expected Insurance amount should display the expected benefit total.
• Broken Retainer and Extended Tx Fees: Displays according to information specified in Practice Setup.
• The patient’s name, account holder and treatment plan display at upper right.
• Unscheduled Fee Blocks start with the Initial Fee. These areas let you enter fees that are ‘extra’ to normal contract payments, such as the Initial Fee, Records, and anything that is not a scheduled payment. These are included in the total contract amount, however, and must be charged manually. The checkbox next to each fee item indicates whether or not it has been charged in the ledger.
• Quick Contract: Allows you to create a contract using the “Contract Calculator.”
• Clear Contract: Click this if you need to start over before activating.
• Split Initial Fee: Use if a patient needs to split the initial fee into multiple payments.
• Insert Charges Below: Adds charges to the Payment Schedule.
• Add Charges at End: Adds charges to the end of the Payment Schedule.
• Delete Selected Charges: Deletes any uncharged fees in the Payment Schedule.
• Reschedule Charge(s): Allows you to select charges already made to the patient’s ledger and reassign them to a later date. This allows patients to get current on sched- uled payments without adding new charges and negative adjustments.
• Scheduled Totals: Total of scheduled payments. Includes all scheduled charges, but does not include unscheduled fees (e.g. the initial fee).
• Retention Fee: Retainer fees, which must be charged manually.
• Contract Total: Total of the contract, including any unscheduled contract fees.
• Calculated Insurance: Calculated expected insurance amount.
• Future Due: Number and Amount of charges that are due in the future.
• Charged: Number and Amount of charges posted to the patient’s Ledger.

In the example below, at left is an uncharged contract with no assignment. At right is an active contract that has accepted assignment: