Using Ortho Contracts

The Ortho Contract feature was created for dentists who perform some orthodontic procedures, but who are not orthodontic specialists.

Ortho contracts are not a replacement for the payment plan feature in PracticeWorks.

Ortho contracts differ from payment plans in the following ways:

Ortho Contracts	Payment Plans
No limit to number of contracts for a Responsible Party	Limited to one per Responsible Party
Total amount of contract is charged to production over the life of contract, according to the schedule	All charges made up front; Responsible Party follows schedule to pay off balance.
Can handle continuation-of-treatment insurance claims required for orthodontic treatment	Have no interaction with insurance

During the life of the ortho contract, the Office Expert automatically charges out the Responsible Party and insurance amounts, and generates continuation-of-treatment claims according to their respective schedules.

Be sure to review the Office Expert's contract-related items regularly, to determine if contract-related claims need to be printed. Electronic claims are submitted automatically.

An ortho contract includes the following items:

The Responsible Party tab, for the portion of the total ortho treatment fee that the Responsible Party is expected to pay.
The insurance charge-to-production schedules, for charging out to production the portion that insurance is expected to pay.
The insurance claims schedules, for generating the initial and continuation-of-treatment claims to be submitted during the life of the treatment.