Follow-up cadence

Outcome

Every claim, denial, exception, and inquiry has a follow-up date and reason. The team's queue surfaces what's due. Nothing drifts.

Prerequisites

Scope	What it lets you do
billing.claim.write	Set follow-up on claims
billing.denial.write	Set follow-up on denials
billing.receivable.write	Set follow-up on receivables / exceptions

Where follow-up dates live

Every workable entity has a followup_due field with date + reason. The unified queue (/queue or dashboard widget) aggregates across entities.

Setting one

The right rail of any detail page shows the field:

Field	Meaning
Due date	When to come back to this.
Reason	One-liner: "sent 276, awaiting 277", "requested chart, waiting for clinic".
Assignee	Default = current user; supervisor can reassign.

Recommended cadences

Entity	Default cadence
Submitted, no 277CA	5 days.
277CA accepted, no 835 (clearinghouse)	14 days.
277CA accepted, no 835 (direct payer)	30 days.
276 sent, no 277	3 days.
277 says P*	14 days.
Denial in OPEN	5 days.
Denial in APPEAL_PENDING	Per payer SLA (commonly 30-45 days).
Receivable exception	3 days.
Manual rebill submitted	14 days.

These are tenant-tunable; check your team's playbook.

The unified queue

/queue?assigned=me is your daily list:

Column	Meaning
Entity	Claim / denial / exception / member.
Subject	Short description.
Due	Date; overdue rows highlight red.
Reason	What you said last time.

Filter by entity type to focus a session.

Bulk reassign

When you go on vacation, or a clerk leaves:

1. Filter the queue to the outgoing user.

2. Bulk select, Reassign. Pick the new owner.

3. Optional: bulk push the due date (+5d, +1w) to give the new owner room.

Cadence anti-patterns

Anti-pattern	Why it hurts
"+30 days" everywhere	The queue stops working — everything is due far in the future.
Vague reasons ("check on this")	Future-you has no context; you re-do the diagnosis.
Only setting on big claims	Small claims age too; the math compounds.
Skipping when uncertain	If you don't know what's next, write "need decision: appeal vs write-off" and ask a supervisor.

Validation

Check	Expected
Setting follow-up updates the queue immediately	Yes.
Overdue items highlight red	Yes; worklist + queue both.
Bulk reassign captures audit row per item	Yes.
Closing the underlying entity clears its queue row	Yes.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Queue is empty despite having follow-ups	Filter excludes the assignee	Reset filters.
Follow-up date doesn't save	Form validation requires reason	Add a reason.
Bulk reassign skipped some rows	Some entities locked / closed	Summary tells you N/M; redo on residue.
Queue mixes entity types in confusing order	Default sort is by due date	Add a secondary sort by entity.

Where to next

• 6.4 — Claim status inquiry (276/277) — the highest-leverage follow-up tool.
• 8.1 — Billing dashboards — the team-level view.