Adjustment Entry Function

With the Adjustment Entry Function you can post adjustments to accounts.

The Adjustment Entry Function provides the following functions:

Adjustment Entry Lead-in Screen
Allocating an Adjustment
Allocation Screen Action Column Functions
Posting Accumulative Adjustments
Allocate Open Credit Adjustments

NOTE: If you need to post a refund adjustment, you should use the Refund Entry Function.

Upon accessing this function, if your practice has selected to use batch numbers for adjustments, an Adjustment Entry Function screen displays containing a blank field for the batch number. This screen displays if the Always or Sometimes batch option is selected in the Batch Control Integration.

Data Field Information

Next, select a patient account using the standard Patient Look-up function. After selecting an account, an Adjustment Entry Function screen displays so you can choose whether to post a debit or a credit adjustment.

Data Field Information

Prompt	Response	Req	Len
Credit or Debit Adjustment	Select the option to indicate if you want to post a Credit or Debit adjustment. A credit adjustment will reduce the patient account balance and a debit adjustment will increase the patient account balance.		1

Adjustment Entry Lead-in Screen
After you select the type of adjustment, either the Credit Adjustment Entry Function or the Debit Adjustment Entry Function lead-in screen displays.

Credit Adjustment Entry Lead-in Screen

Credit Adjustment Data Field Descriptions

Prompt	Response	Len
Social Security No.	This field is informational only and reflects the patient's social security number.	11
Date of Birth	This field is informational only and reflects the patient's date of birth.	10
Balance Due $	This field is informational only and reflects the account balance.	10
Date of Last Visit	This field is informational only and reflects the date of the last posted procedure.	10
Last Payment Date	This field is informational only and reflects the date of the last posted payment.	10
Last Payment Amount $	This field is informational only and reflects the amount of the last posted payment.	10
Internal Comment	This field is informational only and reflects any internal comment stored on the patient's account.	45
Accounting Date	Type the accounting date you want or click the calendar icon to select a date.	10
Adjustment Date	Type the adjustment date you want or click the calendar icon to select a date.	10
Adjustment Amount	Type the adjustment amount or type an 'A' to post an accumulative adjustment.	10
Adjustment Code	Type the adjustment code you want or click the magnifying glass to search the table.	10
Remarks	Type any remarks you want.	40
Insurance Carrier	Type the insurance carrier code you want or select from the Insurance Carrier list.	5

Debit Adjustment Entry Lead-in Screen

Debit Adjustment Data Field Descriptions

Prompt	Response	Len
Social Security No.	This field is informational only and reflects the patient's social security number.	11
Date of Birth	This field is informational only and reflects the patient's date of birth.	10
Balance Due $	This field is informational only and reflects the account balance.	10
Date of Last Visit	This field is informational only and reflects the date of the last posted procedure.	10
Last Payment Date	This field is informational only and reflects the date of the last posted payment.	10
Last Payment Amount $	This field is informational only and reflects the amount of the last posted payment.	10
Internal Comment	This field is informational only and reflects any internal comment stored on the patient's account.	45
Accounting Date	Type the accounting date you want or click the calendar icon to select a date.	10
Adjustment Date	Type the adjustment date you want or click the calendar icon to select a date.	10
Adjustment Amount $	Type the adjustment amount.	10
Adjustment Code	Type the adjustment code you want or click the magnifying glass to search the table.	10
Remarks	Type any remarks you want.	40
Doctor Code	Type the doctor code you want or select from the Doctor Code list.	3
Location Code	Type the location code you want or select from the Location Code list.	3
Billing Group	Type the billing group code you want or click the magnifying glass to search the table.	5

Allocating an Adjustment
The Adjustment Allocation screen will display the: patient number, patient name, accounting date, adjustment amount, balance due, date of last visit, adjustment remaining and amount allocated.

CGM webPRACTICE will automatically list the first 50 transactions (open items) that have a balance owing in the lower portion of the allocation screen starting with the most recent. This information includes: date of the transaction, transaction code, brief description of the transaction, doctor code, location code, original amount of the transaction, balance remaining for the transaction, and the amount of this adjustment applied to each transaction.

To allocate an adjustment, you will first need to select the transaction you want to adjust. The cursor is automatically positioned in the Amt Adj column for the most recent transaction or you can select a different transaction by clicking in the Amt Adj column for that transaction. Type the amount of the adjustment you want to apply to this transaction and press Tab or click in another Amt Adj field. You should always type the amount as a positive number. If you selected to post a credit adjustment, CGM webPRACTICE will take that into account and automatically subtract the amounts from the account balance. The adjustment allocation information in the upper-right section of the window will automatically update. The Adjust Remaining field will always indicate the amount available to allocate. If you pressed Tab, the cursor drops down to the next transaction so you can continue allocating the adjustment.

If you need to make any changes, click the amount in the Amt Adj column you want to change. The amount will be highlighted and you can type the correct amount or leave the field blank.

When you finish allocating the adjustment (the Adjust Remaining field equals zero (0.00), click Save. The patient account and the statistical information (if the adjustment amount was allocated) will immediately update.

If the Adjust Remaining field does not equal zero (0.00) but there are no further transactions to allocate the adjustment too, you will need to leave the remainder of the adjustment unallocated. This will create a credit balance on the patient account.

If you allocate a debit adjustment to a procedure, you can only apply it to procedures containing the same doctor and location codes that you selected on the Debit Adjustment Lead-in screen.
If you allocate a debit adjustment to an unallocated payment, the doctor and location codes selected for the debit adjustment will be given credit on the payment statistical reports for the amount of that debit. For example, if you had a payment that was previously unallocated, a doctor or location code would not have received credit for that payment. The action of allocating a debit adjustment to the unallocated payment will immediately give that doctor and location credit for the payment.
If you allocate a debit adjustment to a transaction that has a credit balance owing, you are able to allocate an amount that is greater than the credit balance owing, when necessary. A debit adjustment, unlike a credit adjustment, does not need to be allocated to a specific transaction to affect the statistical files since you have to specify which doctor and location code the debit adjustment will be posted under. Debit adjustments can become outstanding transactions on patient accounts.
If you post a debit adjustment using an adjustment code that has been setup in the Adjustment Code Table as an insurance adjustment, any outstanding balance for the debit adjustment that you do not allocate, will automatically be saved in the Insurance balance column on the patient's account.

If you do not allocate the debit adjustment to any transaction, a message, The amount of $XX.XX will remain unallocated. Do you want to post this adjustment?

Allocation Screen Action Column Functions
The Action column contains functions for Closed, Open, History, Previous 50, and Next 50 so you can control which transactions you want to list in the allocation screen. The first 50 open item transactions that have a balance are listed, beginning with the most recent.

Closed
With the Closed function you can request a list of transactions for a specific date of service that do not have any remaining balance owing. When you click Closed, a Service Date dialog box opens. Type the Service Date you want or click the calendar icon to select a date and then click Save. The allocation screen refreshes and displays only the transactions that match the service date you requested. A message displays if no transactions are found for that date. You can select another date using the Closed function, use the Open function to re-display the open items on the account, or use the History function to review the patient's transaction history.
Open
With the Open function you can refresh the allocation screen to display only those transactions (open items) that have a balance owing. You would typically use this function after using the Closed function.
History
With the History function, you can review the patient's transaction history in a variety of formats. For additional information on reviewing a patient's transaction history, see the History function located in Review Patient Information.
Previous 50
After using the Next 50 function, you can refresh the allocation screen to display the previous 50 transactions with the Previous 50 function. This function is unavailable if there are no more transactions to display.
Next 50
Since only the first 50 transactions (open items) that have a balance owing are listed upon accessing the allocation screen, the Next 50 function is available if the patient account contains more than 50 transactions. This function is unavailable if there are no more transactions to display.

Posting Accumulative Adjustments
For Credit Adjustments only - To save time and prevent you from manually calculating adjustment amounts, you can type an A in the Adjustment Amount field on the Credit Adjustment lead-in screen to post an accumulative adjustment. What this means is that you don't have to know the exact total that you want to post as an adjustment and the individual amounts are totaled as you allocate to each transaction and post that total to the patient account.

Allocate Open Credit Adjustments
When credit adjustments are posted to patient accounts but not allocated to existing transactions, they are referred to as unallocated or open credit adjustments. These adjustments do not affect the statistical files until they have been allocated and posted. You can identify the open credit adjustments by printing one of the Open Credit Reports.

When you allocate open credit adjustments, you are only moving (allocating) amounts that already exist on the account. To do this, you will need post a 0.00 amount adjustment.

Allocating Open Credit Adjustments
1. On the Transactions menu, click Adjustment Entry Function.
2. In the Batch Number field, type the Batch Number you want or click the magnifying glass to search the table, if your practice uses or requires Batch numbers.
3. Using Patient Look-Up, select the patient account you want.
4. For the Credit or Debit Adjustment option, select Credit.
5. In the Adjustment Amount box, type 0.00.
6. In the Adjustment Code box, type the same adjustment code that was used when the original unallocated adjustment was posted.
7. Click Save.

When the Adjustment Allocation screen displays, notice the Adjust Amount, Adjust Remaining, and the Amount Allocated fields in the top section of screen all contain '0.00.' Next, you need to remove the unallocated amount(s) from the open credit adjustment(s). This means you will take the amount(s) out of the Amt Due column and place them into the Adjustment Remaining field. Then, you need to take the amount that is displayed in the Adjustment Remaining field, or any portion of that amount, and allocate it to one or more open item transactions.

8. Locate the open credit adjustment and position the cursor in the Amt Adj field for that adjustment.
9. In the Amt Adj field, type the amount you want to move preceded by a negative sign (-). For example, type -100.00.
10. Locate the transaction you want to allocate the open credit adjustment to and position the cursor in the Amt Adj field.
11. In the Amt Adj field, type the amount you want to allocate to the transaction.
12. Repeat steps 8 through 11 until you have allocated the entire amount.
13. Click Save.

The patient account and the statistical files will immediately update with the adjustment information.