Calendar Appointments vs Timesheet vs Note- Explained
A calendar appointment, a timesheet and a note are all different. You can have a code attached to a timesheet and a note, but not on the calendar appointment. Billing and IT do not use appointment data, only timesheet data for billing and incentives.
A little breakdown of our process might help gain a better understanding of CR:
- The clinical team adds an appointment to the patient calendar using a Placeholder (PH) provider. At this stage, codes cannot be added to appointments since PH providers are not connected to any codes.
- The provider conducting the service updates the appointment from the PH provider to themselves (BT/RBT/BCBA). Once this change is made, billable codes will become visible.
- The provider can then select a code under appointment details and save it to the calendar appointment. If this step is overlooked and no code is added, it does not affect Billing or IT. However, this is where the discrepancy between authorized and unauthorized hours may arise.
- The provider then proceeds to convert the appointment into a timesheet. To successfully convert the appointment, a code must be selected; otherwise, the conversion will not go through. This is why timesheets always include codes, unlike appointments.
- Once the appointment is converted into a timesheet, any changes made to the appointment afterward will not be reflected on the timesheet, and vice versa. If the Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) team edits your timesheets on our end, those edits will not appear on your calendar appointment. If you attempt to edit an appointment after it has already been converted, those changes will not show up on the timesheet. The only way to update your appointment after conversion is to delete the timesheet, effectively unconverting the appointment, and then convert it again once the updates have been made.
- This step is unnecessary and significantly hinders our ability to bill, as Billing and IT only utilize timesheet data. As long as the edits are correct on the timesheet, the Billing and IT teams can review the timesheet data for incentive reports and, more importantly, for billing claims to insurance.
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