Verification of Benefits

The Verification of Benefits (VOB) feature allows instantaneous patient insurance eligibility verification checks and provides basic benefits information. You can run three types of VOB requests: Phone, Instant, and Outside VOB.

Outside VOB

The Outside VOB feature is useful for facilities that utilize a third-party VOB company to handle all phone verification requests with the insurance company. This feature will allow you to send an encrypted email directly from the Kipu CRM containing the prospect’s insurance policy information to outside recipients.

Creating Facility Contacts

1. Navigate to CRM > Organization > Facilities.
   
2. Select your desired Facility Record to open the access panel.
   
3. Then click on the facility name to open the facility information.
   
4. Next, select contacts in the quick access panel.
   
5. Click on the Add Contact button.
   
6. Fill in the required contact information name, contact role, email, and effective date. Select yes for the show in VOB recipient list. To add a phone number, click on the add phone subtab.
   
   Important: Once you have successfully added the new billing contact, they should be visible in the VOB contact list for Outside VOB.

Requesting Outside VOB

To request an Outside VOB the client must have an active insurance policy connected. 

1. Navigate to CRM > Pipeline, then Select/Search for your client.
   
   
2. From the access panel, select the client's name.
   
3. From the clients record, select Insurance List from the quick access panel.
   
4. Select the action menu, and choose Outside VOB.
   
5. Once the Outside VOB option has been selected, the following distribution modal will appear.
6. Complete the following steps in this modal.
   • Facility Contact: There must be a contact associated with the Insurance prior to requesting Outside VOB.
   • Add Facility Contact(s): Creates an eligible contact to receive the Insurance information once requested.
   • Send Email: Click on the Send Email button to send.
7. If there are no facility contacts, enter a contact's name and email address in the corresponding fields, select Add Recipient, then Send Email.

Outside VOB Emails

Once the Outside VOB request has been sent to your desired facility contact, the recipient will receive two emails from [e-mail].

1. The first email will contain the password to unlock the encrypted note file.
2. The second email will contain the encrypted note file with the prospect's insurance policy information required to verify the benefits with the insurance company.
3. Once the Outside VOB request has been completed by the 3rd party VOB company, they will send back a completed PDF document containing the details of the VOB. Once that document has been received by the team, you can upload the document onto the patient’s record to make it available for transfer to the EMR.
4. To add this document to the patient's record, navigate to the patient record, then click on the ellipses in the top corner and select Manage Uploads.
   
   
5. There are two ways to upload the file. You can either drag and drop the file into the manage uploads box or click on the drag-and-drop box text to add the available files from your computer.

Phone VOB

The Phone VOB will allow a team member or manager to request verification from the client's chart. This process requires a completed assessment of the client's benefits that have been approved by a manager.

Phone VOB Request

1. Navigate to the Patient Record then select Insurance List.
   
2. Click on the action menu and select phone VOB from the list.
   
3. Once the Phone VOB has been selected, a toaster notification will pop up informing you that the VOB has been queued. 

VOB 2.0 

1. Select CRM > Verification of Benefits > VOB 2.0.
   
2. Inside the VOB Queue search for the client or click on Create Date to filter in ascending order by date creation to see the most recently created request.
3. Clicking on the desired request will open an access panel with the following subtabs and steps.

Adding Assessments to the Requested VOB

Once you have requested a phone VOB, a team member or manager will be notified via email that the VOB has been requested. Then they must add the assessment to the client's file.

1. From the Information tab, select Add Assessment and choose the correct assessment from the list.
2. Click on the Add button.
3. The VOB form will populate in the assessment section of the panel. Proceed by clicking the Answer button to work on the VOB form.
4. Once you begin to fill out the form, there will be a status bar in the Information tab that provides a percentage of completion based on the number of questions on the form. You can also enter any additional notes on the request as shown in the image below. 
5. We highly recommend that you subscribe to the following email notifications.

• Notify when VOB phone is Requested
• Notify when VOB assigned
• Notify when VOB Needs Approval
• VOB Closed or Delayed (All Users)
• VOB Closed or Delayed (Only Requestor)

Closing Out VOB

ADD ENTRY - Once the VOB assessment has been completed. the Agent has the option to Print the assessment, then update the status to needs approval. The approving entity will be notified, that a VOB requires their attention. The status can be updated to Closed Complete or Closed Incomplete with a corresponding reason.

Once the Phone VOB request has been closed, it moves to the closed VOBs view of the grid. 

Accessing Historical Records

Historical Phone VOB requests can be referenced within each corresponding patient record.

Search for your desired patient by utilizing the global search bar > Select your desired record to access | Alternatively, users can select the name of the patient directly on the VOB 2.0 focus panel to quickly navigate to the patient's record

Select the Phone VOB History section located on the left-hand side of the record

This area will display all historical phone vob requests that have been recorded for the patient.

Instant VOB

The instant VOB feature will run a check for a rough approximation of the client's benefits through the Clearing House. Because of the nature of the instant check, the client's insurance information must all be up to date. 

NOTE: Before running an Instant VOB, the following field are required for Instant VOB Patient Name, Date of Birth, Member ID, Tenant Payor, Subscriber Name, and Date of Birth.

1. Use the global search to access the patient record.
   
   
2. Next, click on insurance list in the sidebar.
   
3. From the Insurance List, click on the action menu and choose Instant VOB from the list.
   
4. This will take you into the Instant VOB catalog which will allow you to access specific files to download.
5. Selecting one of the files will open the Instant VOB data which can be useful for downloading and sending out as a patient referral, or reattaching to the client's chart and sending over the document when transferring the patient to the EMR for treatment.
6. 

   Important: If the information entered does not match the clearing house data, or if the information is outdated, you will receive the following error message.