Cost considerations are an important part of planning services for clients. To assist case workers, the system automatically estimates the cost of a service when it is scheduled for a client. Once a case worker decides on an appropriate provider, the estimated cost is updated based on the provider specific rates.
The following information, if specified by a case worker when scheduling the service, is used to calculate the estimated cost:
- Start Date of the service
- End Date of the service
- Number of units that the client is authorized to
receive
- Frequency of delivery of the service to the client
- Rate that will be paid to the provider for each unit of
service
The rate used in the estimated cost calculation can be one of the following:
- Custom rate - if a custom rate has been specified for the
service this rate is used.
- Authorized rate - if a case worker specifies a rate to be paid
to a provider this rate is used.
- Contract service rate - where the service authorization does
not specify a service rate, the contract service rate is
used.
- Provider service rate - where no service rate is specified for
any of the above, the provider service rate is used.
- Service rate - where no service rate is specified for any of
the above, the service rate set up as part of configuring a service
offering is used. The average of the minimum and maximum amount
specified is used.
Any flat-rate or utilization contracts that exist for the period specified for the service are automatically displayed. This helps a case worker to perform cost comparisons between all providers of the service.