đ§Ș Limited Beta Billing at Engagement is in limited beta and is turned off by default. Contact Hint Support to have it enabled for your practice. |
Overview
Billing at Engagement lets you charge members a different rate depending on whether they have actively engaged with your practice. It is built for employer-sponsored DPC plans, where members are often enrolled long before they have had a visit or any interaction with their clinician.
Each plan can be configured with a non-engaged rate alongside its standard rates. Members who have not yet engaged are billed at the non-engaged rate (often $0â$5 per member), and they move to the standard plan rates once they reach a status of Currently Engaged.
With this feature, your practice can:
Keep sponsor invoices aligned with actual utilization instead of headcount
Quote and enroll at your standard rates while billing non-engaged members at a lower rate
Track engagement automatically from charge activity, or update engagement dates in bulk by upload
Let engagement recorded at an affiliate practice flow up to the network
Before You Begin
Three things need to be in place before engagement-based billing takes effect.
1. Billing at Engagement enabled for your practice
đ Required Setup Contact Hint Support to enable Billing at Engagement. For networks, it is enabled on the network practice. |
2. An engagement threshold set for your practice
The engagement threshold defines how long a member stays engaged after an engagement event. Most practices set it to 12 months.
đ Required Setup Go to Admin â Providers & Patients â Patients and set your engagement threshold in months. â See our guide: Engagement Tracking |
3. A plan that supports a non-engaged rate
The non-engaged rate can be configured on DPC plans using either age-based or group-tier (fixed) pricing. It is not available on sponsor fixed-fee plans or MCE plans.
How Engagement Status Works
Every patient has an engagement status that is tracked automatically. A patient's status moves to Currently Engaged in one of two ways:
An ancillary charge is added to their invoice. Any non-membership charge (such as a visit, procedure, or lab) updates the patientâs last engagement date automatically.
The last engagement date is updated via upload. You can update engagement dates in bulk using a file upload, which is useful when engagement happens outside of Hint (for example, when affiliates track visits separately).
đĄ Scheduling Alone Does Not Count Scheduling a visit does not change engagement status on its own. There must either be a charge tied to the visit, or the engagement date must be updated via upload. |
You can view a patient's engagement status under Memberships & Billing, in the Engagement section of their chart.
The Engagement Threshold
Once engaged, a patient remains âCurrently Engagedâ for a set period of time, called the engagement threshold. This is configured at the practice level under Admin â Providers & Patients â Patients, and is most commonly set to 12 months.
If the patientâs last engagement date passes the threshold without a new engagement event, their status changes to âPreviously Engagedâ and they return to the non-engaged rate on the next billing cycle. A new engagement event (a charge or upload) moves them back to âCurrently Engaged.â
Setting Up the Non-Engaged Rate
The non-engaged rate is configured per plan, alongside the plan's standard rates.
Step 1. Add a non-engaged rate to a plan
Go to the plan you want to edit and open its Edit form.
Turn on the Non-engaged rate toggle, below the plan's existing rate fields.
Enter an amount for each billing period the plan allows. Amounts are derived from your default billing period, and you can override any individual period.
Save the plan.
Step 2. Keep the rate when you reprice
The non-engaged rate is available on the pricing versions (repricing) form for both age-based and group-tier pricing. When you create a new pricing version on a plan that already has a non-engaged rate, the field comes pre-filled from the current version and saves with the new version.
How Billing Works
Non-engaged members are billed at the non-engaged rate
When a member becomes engaged, they begin paying the standard plan rate on the next billing cycle
Last Engaged Date | Date the status is updated | Invoice |
August 10th | August 15th | August invoice in draft; billed engaged rate for August |
August 10th | August 15th | August invoice already issued, September invoice in draft. Billed the engaged rate for September |
August 10th | August 15th | July invoice in draft; Billed the non-engaged rate for July; Billed the engaged rate on the August invoice |
If a memberâs status flips back to âPreviously Engaged,â they return to the non-engaged rate on the next billing cycle
Enrolled members are considered active members regardless of engagement status
Draft Invoices Stay in Sync
When a patient's engagement date changes â from billing activity, an affiliate sync, a patient upload, the partner API, or a direct edit â any draft invoice for that member's sponsor is recomputed so the line reflects their new status.
Only draft invoices are recomputed. Issued invoices are never changed.
Members with a special rate or a per-member fixed rate, and memberships with a fixed price, are unaffected.
Engagement expiring purely by the passage of time does not reprice an existing draft mid-cycle. It corrects on the next billing cycle.
đĄ Patients Already Blocked From Syncing Affiliate patients whose sync is failing for another reason â an unmapped plan or an unaffiliated clinician â do not receive engagement updates, the same as with other synced patient attributes. |
What's Included in Beta
Here is what is supported today:
A non-engaged rate on DPC plans with age-based or group-tier pricing, configurable per billing period
The non-engaged rate carried forward through pricing versions when you reprice
Bidirectional engagement date syncing between affiliate practices and the network
Draft sponsor invoices recomputed when an engagement date changes
Inline affiliate plan management from the affiliate's Terms & Conditions tab
Not supported yet
Sponsor fixed-fee plans and MCE plans
The new-plan wizard during practice setup â add the rate from the plan's Edit form instead
Repricing an existing draft when engagement expires purely by the passage of time
We will update this article as new capabilities are released. Your feedback during beta helps us prioritize what matters most to your practice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What counts as engagement?
A: Any non-membership charge â a visit, procedure, or lab â updates the patient's last engagement date automatically. You can also set the last engagement date in bulk through the patient uploader. Scheduling a visit on its own does not count.
Q: When does a rate change actually hit the invoice?
A: On the next billing cycle. There are no mid-cycle rebills. If a draft invoice for the upcoming cycle already exists, it is recomputed when the engagement date changes.
Q: Will patients or prospects see the non-engaged rate in quotes, online sign-up, and patient portal shopping?
A: No. The non-engaged rate is used only for billing. Every quote, the plan catalog, the cart, and signup pages show your standard rates.
Q: How does this interact with family and group pricing?
A: Non-engaged members are always billed the individual non-engaged rate, no matter the family size. The engaged members in that family are grouped on their own for tier determination, and any family or group discount applies only to their total.
Q: What happens to a member with a special rate?
A: Manual prices take precedence. A member with a special rate or a per-member fixed rate is billed their manual price, and a membership with a fixed price bills exactly as it does today.
Q: Are non-engaged members still active members?
A: Yes. Enrolled members are active members regardless of engagement status. Engagement affects the rate only.
Q: Can I set a $0 non-engaged rate?
A: Yes. Practices commonly set the non-engaged rate between $0 and $5 per member.
Q: What happens if I turn the toggle off later?
A: The rate is removed on save, and members return to standard rates on the next billing cycle. Nothing is left behind.
Q: I'm in beta â how do I share feedback?
A: Please reach out to your Hint contact or use the feedback channel shared with you at the start of the beta. We are actively iterating, and your input directly shapes what we build next.
Related Articles
Billing at Engagement is in limited beta and is not enabled by default. Contact Hint Support to check availability for your practice.
Need help? Contact Hint Support