Dynamic payment plans amount discrepency

[saskia]

Our clients have a common scenario where the pricing on the procedure for what the patient owes is incorrect. This mean when we send the request to create the dynamic plan for the lower (correct) amount, the values we're saying to create the plan for are entirely ignored. How should we address this so that the payment plan that the patient agrees to is correctly reflected in OD?

Thanks!

[SLeon]

Could you please elaborate on the following points for us to be able to answer your question?

pricing on the procedure for what the patient owes is incorrect

• Are these created in OD or via the API?
• Are these Completed procedures?
• How is the "what the patient owes" incorrect and how are you making this determination?

This mean when we send the request to create the dynamic plan for the lower (correct) amount, the values we're saying to create the plan for are entirely ignored.

• Is the Dynamic Payment Plan (DPP) created in OD or via the API?
• Are you included all the relevant procedures in the payload?
• "the values we're saying to create the plan" Are you referring to the amount to be paid by the patient each time (PayAmt)?
• Which fields in the payload, specifically, are being ignored?

[saskia]

• Are these created in OD or via the AP: Procedures were created in OD, we pulled in the values using the procedure log API
• Are these Completed procedures?: I'm not entirely sure for the production example, but the test that I ran on my demo instance are all completed and reproduces the same issue
• How is the "what the patient owes" incorrect and how are you making this determination?: The practice does this, I've heard this from several practices that the value that is shown on the procedure log items is often incorrect because it doesn't take expected insurance payments and other things into account. The practice makes this determination.
• Is the Dynamic Payment Payment Plan created in OD or via the API?: Via the API
• Are you included all the relevant procedures in the payload?: Yes
• "the values we're saying to create the plan" Are you referring to the amount to be paid by the patient each time (PayAmt): Correct - we pass the amount that the payment plan is actually for. The patient signs in our system for payment as we're the ones taking payment
• Which fields in the payload, specifically, are being ignored?: Here's an example of what we sent (from our logs):

  Code: Select all

   `Request: {"PatNum":18527,"principalAmount":"2854.00","NumberOfPayments":3,"DownPayment":"1142.00","ChargeFrequency":"Monthly","Note":"Note for Payment Plan","DatePayPlanStart":"2024-02-08","procNums":[961699,961700]}`

The response from our logs:

Code: Select all

`Response: {"PayPlanNum":5042,"PatNum":18527,"Guarantor":18527,"PayPlanDate":"2024-01-08","APR":0.0,"Note":"01/08/2024 - Date of Agreement: 01/08/2024, Total Amount: 3150.00, APR: 0, Total Cost of Loan: 3150.00, Note for Payment Plan","PlanNum":0,"CompletedAmt":0.0,"InsSubNum":0,"PaySchedule":"Monthly","NumberOfPayments":0,"PayAmt":669.34,"DownPayment":1142.0,"IsClosed":"false","PlanCategory":0,"planCategory":"","IsDynamic":"true","ChargeFrequency":"Monthly","DatePayPlanStart":"2024-02-08","IsLocked":"false","DateInterestStart":"0001-01-01","DynamicPayPlanTPOption":"AwaitComplete","principalAmount":3150.0}`

We've set the princialAmount to 2854.00 but it gets updated to 3150.00

I hope that clarifies what's going on. Thanks!

[SLeon]

Thank you very much for this information.

You are specifying a "principalAmount" value in your payload. You cannot set this value in the PayPlans POST Dynamic endpoint in the API. You also cannot specify a total loan amount for DPPs in Open Dental. Quoting our web manual, with additional underlining.

Total Principal Amount: The total amount of the payment plan, excluding interest. Calculates based on the attached production.

The procedures and/or adjustments you attach to the DPP will determine its total amount. Also from our manual:

Additional insurance payments or adjustments applied towards any of the attached production items after the plan was created will automatically update future pay plan charges...

This will allow money paid (later) by insurance to reduce the overall cost of the DPP. The dental office (or you via the API) can also address discrepancies with the procedures when they are "incorrect" or make adjustments to the account prior to creating the DPP.

Hope this helps.