Schedule
Booking checks
How NeatPractice checks each booking for clashes, preparation and travel time, hours, availability, capacity, authorizations, eligibility, licenses, payer enrollment, code credentials and guardians, and how to book past a warning with a reason.
Every time you book, change, move, reschedule or reinstate an appointment, NeatPractice checks it before saving. The appointment window runs the same checks while you fill it in, so you see any problem before you click Book Appointment or Save Appointment.
While the checks for your latest change run, the window shows Checking availability... and the save button stays off. If the checks cannot run, the window says so with a Try Again button; you can save once they finish.
What NeatPractice checks#
| Check | What it finds | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Provider double-booked | A provider already has another appointment that overlaps this one, at any location | Warning |
| Patient double-booked | The patient already has another appointment at an overlapping time | Warning |
| Preparation and cleanup | A provider's appointment just before or after leaves less time than the two types' preparation and cleanup need | Warning |
| Travel time | A provider's appointment just before or after is at another location or address and leaves less time than travel plus preparation and cleanup need | Warning |
| Room or equipment over capacity | A room or piece of equipment is already held by as many appointments as it allows | Warning |
| Holiday | The location is closed that day for a holiday | Warning |
| Outside location hours | The appointment falls outside the location's business hours | Warning |
| Provider time off | The provider has time off at that time | Warning |
| Outside provider availability | The appointment falls outside the provider's weekly hours at that location | Warning |
| Busy on the provider's calendar | The provider's connected calendar has a busy event at that time | Warning |
| Outside patient availability | The patient has availability for that location and date and the appointment falls outside it | Warning |
| No telehealth consent | A telehealth appointment's patient has no telehealth consent on file for that date (see Telehealth) | Warning |
| Group over capacity | A group has more patients than its appointment type allows | Block |
| Authorization missing | The payer requires an authorization and no approved one covers the appointment's date | Warning (authorization override) |
| Authorization expired | The approval that would cover the appointment ended before its date | Warning (authorization override) |
| Authorization used up | The appointment would go past the units, hours, visits or dollars an authorization line approved for its period, counting appointments already booked | Warning, or a block the authorization override passes when the line blocks that measure |
| Authorization daily limit | The line allows its codes once per day (or once per day per provider), or the day would pass its hours per day | Warning (authorization override) |
| Authorization appointment length | A code's minutes are shorter or longer than the line allows per appointment | Warning (authorization override) |
| Authorization weekly cap | The week would book more hours of the line's codes than its weekly cap | Warning (authorization override) |
| Hours the family accepts | The period would book more hours of the line's codes than the family accepted | Warning (authorization override) |
| Provider or place on the authorization | The line allows only another provider, approves another place of service, or the primary provider is not among the authorization's approved providers | Warning (authorization override) |
| Payer blackout date | The primary payer does not pay for services on the date (one of its blackout dates, or a weekend or clinic holiday by its rules), unless the authorization allows blackout dates | Block (authorization override) |
| Eligibility not checked | The primary coverage has no eligibility check from the last 30 days | Warning |
| Eligibility inactive or a problem | The latest eligibility check came back inactive for the date, or returned an error | Warning |
| License expired | A provider's license for the service state does not cover the appointment's date | Block (admin override) |
| No license for the state | A provider has no license on file for the service state | Warning |
| State credential required | The service state requires a credential the provider lacks there, or holds but not on that date (a state-required credential such as a technician registration) | Block (admin override) |
| Provider not enrolled | The patient's payer requires provider enrollment and the provider billing the visit is not enrolled on that date | Warning |
| Credentials for the codes | The appointment type's codes have credential groups and the provider billing the visit holds none of them on that date (the payer's own groups count when it has a code rule) | Warning |
| No legal guardian | The patient is a minor (by the location's state) with no legal guardian among their contacts | Warning; blocks confirming |
| Restriction rule | A restriction rule covers the date, time, place, patient, provider and type; the message names the rule | Warning, or a block the rule sets |
| Technicians needed | A code needs more technicians than the booking lists (see Code rules) | Warning |
| Code booking limits | A code is booked for fewer or more minutes than its booking limits allow, or a code allowed once a day is already booked that day for the patient (or for the provider); the patient's payer's code rule replaces the code's own limits | Warning |
Back-to-back appointments do not clash: one that ends at 10:00 and one that starts at 10:00 are fine. Cancelled, rescheduled and voided appointments, and patients marked no-show, no longer hold their time.
The authorization, eligibility and enrollment checks look at the patient's primary coverage on the appointment's date. Patients without insurance, or on self-pay, skip them, and payers that do not take electronic eligibility checks skip the eligibility checks. A clinic without the Eligibility checks add-on gets no eligibility warnings. The authorization checks follow the payer's rules: a payer that does not require authorization for the service never warns. An appointment type with Requires authorization check turned off skips them, and so do blocks. Each booked appointment counts against the authorization it draws on, so the patient's chart shows how many visits are scheduled and used. Completed visits count as used; cancelled, rescheduled, late-cancelled and no-show visits never count.
An appointment type open to any discipline can list default codes of several disciplines. When you do not pick codes for the appointment, the checks use only the defaults of the disciplines on the booking, the same codes its visits will bill. In a co-treatment, each provider is checked against their own discipline's codes. A code you pick that no provider on the booking bills is still checked for every provider. Authorizations and scheduling limits count an appointment on its type's defaults the same way: only the codes of its own disciplines add scheduled units or booked hours, and they share the appointment's whole length.
The service state is the state of the patient's service address when the appointment is at one, the patient's home address for a telehealth appointment, and otherwise the location's state.
Blocks such as lunch or meetings and all-day appointments skip the hours, availability and license checks. An appointment type with Checks for conflicts turned off skips the double-booking and capacity checks, both for itself and for the appointments it overlaps.
Rules checked#
Under the findings, Rules checked lists every check the booking ran and what each answered (Passed, Warning or Blocked), so you can see which rule fired. Click it to open the list. A recurring series shows its conflicts by date instead.
What the authorization has left#
When the patient has an authorization that covers the appointment, an Authorization section appears at the bottom of the appointment window, below any findings. For each authorization it shows:
- The authorization number, or a red Provisional badge while the payer has not approved it yet, and the date it ends.
- Each line's codes with the units, hours or visits left. this period means the line's own period, such as the week or the month; a line for the whole authorization shows what is left in total.
- For a line with a weekly cap, this week with the hours booked this week out of the cap. It turns amber once the week is over the cap.
The numbers count every appointment already booked, so you can see the room left before you save. On a booking with several patients, each authorization is labeled with its patient.
Preparation, cleanup and travel#
Appointment types can hold preparation and cleanup time, and locations can ask for travel time. NeatPractice adds them up between each pair of a provider's appointments: the cleanup of the earlier one, the preparation of the later one, and the travel time when the two happen at different locations, or at a patient's home or school and somewhere else. When the gap is shorter, the booking warns and says how much time there is and how much is needed. Moving an appointment checks the ones before and after it.
Telehealth appointments need no travel. Overlapping appointments are reported as double-booked instead. These warnings follow Checks for conflicts like the double-booking checks.
Book past a warning#
When the checks find something, a Booking checks section appears at the bottom of the appointment window.
- If your role can override booking checks, an Override reason field appears. Enter why the booking should go ahead (for example, "Family can only come at this time this week") and save. NeatPractice keeps the reason with the appointment, together with who overrode which checks and when.
- If your role cannot override them, or a check is a block, the save button stays off. Change the time, provider, room or patients, or ask someone who can override.
Overriding booking checks needs its own permission, which owners and clinic admins have by default. The authorization warnings need the separate authorization override permission, and an expired license can only be overridden with the schedule configuration permission. A license override on the provider's Credentials tab in Setup also clears the license check on the dates it covers.
Confirming a minor#
NeatPractice needs a legal guardian on file before a minor's appointment is confirmed. Booking a minor without one shows a warning; clicking Confirm is refused until you add a guardian on the patient's Contacts.
Moving on the calendar#
When you drag, resize or move an appointment with the keyboard on the calendar, NeatPractice checks the new time first. A block or a warning you cannot override sends the appointment back with the reason. A warning you can override opens Move Anyway?: enter an override reason and click Move Appointment, or cancel to leave the appointment where it was. When your clinic requires change notes, the same window asks for the note.
Time off over booked visits#
When you add or change time off for a provider who already has appointments in that time, NeatPractice tells you how many booked appointments fall in it so you can reschedule them.