Creating and presenting treatment plans for acceptance is at the core of your patient care. This post will cover common scenarios you’ll encounter when preparing a treatment plan and the recommended way to handle each situation in Open Dental.

The patient has multiple treatment plan options

If you are presenting several treatment options, create a saved treatment plan for each option.

1. Highlight the procedures for Option 1. Then click Save TP.
   
2. Do this again for the procedures on Option 2.
3. In this example, we renamed each option to see them at a glance.
   
   By presenting two saved plans, you can easily break down estimates and discuss the pros and cons of each option.
4. Once the patient has chosen their treatment option, follow the ‘Denied Treatment’ steps below to inactivate the denied option.
5. Optionally, double-click into each option again and rename them to see the accepted and denied treatment at a glance.
   

The patient has treatment performed over multiple appointments

When a patient is coming in for treatment to be performed over time, be sure to prioritize the procedures. This will subtotal the treatment for each priority, helping keep the estimates accurate and patient aware of any patient portion for each appointment.

Patient denied treatment

When a patient denies treatment, set the procedures to inactive using the following steps. This will remove it from the Chart Module and Active Treatment Plan views.

1. In the upper left, double-click the Active Treatment Plan.
   
2. Highlight the denied procedures, then click the right arrow. This will move the procedures to the Available Procedures column. Then click OK.
   
3. You will now have an Inactive treatment plan in the upper left.
   

Your Active Treatment Plan and Chart Module will not display the denied treatment. We recommend creating a commlog to log the conversation about the denied treatment.

If the patient later decides to go forward with the treatment, you can double-click back into the inactive treatment plan to reactivate it.

Extra TECH TIPS:

Here are some extra tips when working with treatment plans.

1. See future estimates

   Change the Estimates as of date when you want to see estimates for a future date. For example, if procedures were treatment planned in December, but the work will be done when the patient’s insurance renews in January.
   

2. Save signed Treatment Plans to PDF

   Automatically save signed Treatment Plans to the Images Module. Enable this preference in Setup > Treat’Plan.
   

3. Use estimates to understand a procedure breakdown

   Double-click a procedure, then double-click the estimate to see the breakdown.
   
   The breakdown will show the fee schedule fees, any downgrades, copays, deductibles, and more. This is a great tool for troubleshooting when you’re not sure why an estimate seems off.
   

Don’t miss our other post: FAQs Answered: Treatment Plan Module with even more tips including:

• Troubleshooting insurance estimates.
• Customizing how the treatment plan looks (customizing the Sheet).
• Troubleshooting the black box problem on printed treatment plans.
• Preauthorizations

If you need help troubleshooting issues with treatment plans, we’re happy to help – just reach out anytime.