Setting Up Hint Connect Members

If your practice receives members through Hint Connect, you track and bill them under employers in SigmaMD. Setting it up takes four things: an employer for each company, a membership plan, a coverage policy, and the members themselves.

The steps below are our recommendations, based on how practices already working with Hint Connect set things up.

Before You Start

Your Hint Connect agreement for each company. Check the per-member monthly rates, which members are covered (employees only, or dependents too, and their ages), which services are included, and the payment terms.
Your Hint account manager. You'll add them as each employer's primary contact, so have their name, email, and phone number ready.
The member roster. Hint tells you which members of each company have chosen your practice.

Step 1: Add an Employer for Each Company

Go to Billing › Employers and click Employer.
For the company name, enter Hint Connect – followed by the company's name, for example Hint Connect – Acme Corp.
Fill in the Address.
Under Company Administrators, add your Hint account manager as the Primary contact. The primary contact needs a name, an email, and a phone number.

We recommend:

Use one employer per company. Each company in Hint Connect usually has its own rates, covered services, and member list. A separate employer gives each one its own invoice and its own coverage rules, and keeps your reports clear.
Start every name with "Hint Connect – ". All your Hint Connect employers then sit together in your employer list and are easy to tell apart from employers you contract with directly.

Step 2: Choose the Contract and Invoicing Settings

We recommend:

Membership billing: In advance. It can't be changed once the contract exists.
Invoice issue date: the 1st of the month.
Due date: match the payment terms in your Hint Connect agreement.
Autopay: off.
New patient start date: Variable. See When Memberships Start.
New invoice is issued: turn this on if your Hint account manager wants each invoice by email.

Click Save.

For more on these settings, see How to Add a New Employer and Managing Employers – Payment Setup, Contract PDF, and Invoicing Rules.

Step 3: Create the Membership Plan

Open the company's Hint Connect employer.
On the Memberships card, click Create plan. The employer is filled in for you.
Enter a Plan name, for example (Hint Connect) Acme Corp.

Seats. Employer plans follow three rules, and the plan won't save until they're met:

The first seat must be named Primary.
The Primary seat allows 1 member.
The Primary seat must be required in every seat rule.

We recommend three seats:

Primary: 18 and older, allows 1.
Adult 2: 18 and older, for a spouse or other adult dependent.
Child: 0 to 17. Set its Aging seat to Adult 2, so a child moves to the adult seat automatically when they turn 18.

Set each seat's Monthly price to the per-member rate in your Hint Connect agreement. For example, if the agreement pays $85 per adult and $55 per child, set Primary and Adult 2 to 85.00 and Child to 55.00. SigmaMD then invoices the employer each month for every enrolled member, on the Invoice issue date you chose in Step 2.

We recommend leaving the enrollment fee off. Practices working with Hint Connect don't charge one.

Check the age limits. Set each seat's Min age and Max age from the company's eligibility rules in your agreement, not from a default. A member can only be enrolled if their age fits a seat. A dependent seat that starts at 12, for example, leaves no place for younger children. If your agreement covers dependents up to 25, extend the Child seat to 25.

For more on plan settings, see Steps to Create an Employer Membership.

Step 4: Add a Coverage Policy

If your Hint Connect agreement includes services beyond the membership itself, such as labs or procedures, create a coverage policy for the employer that covers them. Covered charges are then billed to the employer instead of the member. Add the policy to the plan under Coverage policies.

We recommend one coverage policy per employer, so each company's covered services match its own agreement.

See Creating a Coverage Policy for Employer Memberships.

Step 5: Add Your Hint Connect Members

Most practices add Hint Connect members themselves, from the roster Hint sends them:

Open the member's chart, or create the patient if they're new.
Attach the company's Hint Connect plan, with the company's employer as the payer.
Choose the membership's start date.

See How to Attach a Membership to a Patient.

If you'd rather have members sign up themselves, you can also create an employer enrollment link for the plan and share it. See Steps to Create an Employer Enrollment Link.

When Memberships Start

The employer's New patient start date setting decides when a member who signs up through an enrollment link starts:

Variable (recommended): the membership starts the day the member enrolls. If they enroll before the employer's contract starts, it starts on the contract start date instead. For example, with a contract starting November 1, a member who enrolls on October 20 starts November 1, and a member who enrolls on November 5 starts November 5.
Fixed day: the membership starts on the next occurrence of the day of the month you pick. With the 1st, a member who enrolls on November 5 starts December 1.

When your staff add a member from their chart, you pick the start date. It can't be before the employer's contract start, or more than 3 months in the past. With Fixed day, it must fall on that day of the month.

Sending Your Own Members to Hint Connect Clinics

This article covers members that Hint Connect sends to your practice. Sending members of an employer you contract with directly out to Hint Connect clinics, and adding those clinics' charges to the employer's invoice, is a separate integration. To turn it on for an employer, contact SigmaMD support.

Troubleshooting

A Member's Age Doesn't Fit Any Seat

Edit the plan and widen the seat's Min age or Max age to match the company's eligibility rules. See Step 3.

"Sorry, no enrollment options are available for this age group."

A member using an enrollment link sees this when their age doesn't fit any seat on the plan. Widen the seat's age range, or add the member from their chart instead.

A Member Shows as Not Yet Active

Their start date is after today, often because they were added before the employer's contract start date. The membership becomes active automatically on that date. See When Memberships Start.

A Child Didn't Move to the Adult Seat

Check that the Child seat's Aging seat is set to Adult 2, and that Adult 2 has no max age or one higher than the Child seat's.

Who to Contact

For your Hint Connect agreement, rates, payments, and which members are eligible, contact your Hint account manager.