Managing a Patient's Auto-Order Plan

An auto-order plan lives on the patient, against a single product. Each plan has its own interval, quantity and delivery method, so one patient can have a monthly refill of one product and a quarterly refill of another.

Setting one up

Open the product on the patient and use the AutoOrder section:

• Interval: - how often to reorder, from Every 1 day to Every 365 days. None means no auto-order; it is also what an unfinished plan looks like.
• Qty: - how many to send each time. This is not the same as the quantity dispensed today.
• Method: - Pickup or Ship. Whichever you choose here is what the refill is charged for, so a shipped plan is charged shipping every cycle.
• Start:, Next: and End: - when the plan begins, when the next refill is due, and when it stops. Leave End: empty and the plan runs indefinitely.

Both Interval: and Qty: have to be set for anything to happen. A plan with an interval and a quantity of zero looks configured on screen and will never generate an order.

Put the dosing on the plan

This is the step most easily missed. Refill lines take their directions from the plan, not from the product and not from the last dispense. If the plan has no dosing, the refill goes out with no directions on it - a bottle with a label and no instructions.

Set the dosing at the same time you set the interval, and check it again if a provider changes the dose later. Changing the dose on a new dispense does not change what the plan sends next month.

Seeing every plan at once

The Auto Orders button on the ProductPro admin page opens Patient Auto Orders, which has two views:

• By Date - everything due, in date order. This is the one to look at in the morning and before a holiday.
• By Patient - one patient's plans together, which is what you want on the phone.

Each row shows the Product Code and Product Name, the Interval (Days), Quantity and Method, the Start and Next dates, and - usefully - On Hand and On Order. Those last two are the early warning: a plan due next week for a product you have none of is a problem you can still fix this week.

Delivery shows as a PICKUP, SHIP or PREMIUM badge. No orders found means nothing is due in that view, not that the feature is off.

Changing a plan

• To pause it, push Next: out to the date you want it to resume. The plan stays intact and the patient keeps their history.
• To stop it, set Interval: to None, or set an End: date. Either stops future orders; neither touches orders already created.
• To change the quantity or the dose, edit the plan itself. The next refill picks up the change; one already generated does not.
• To skip one refill, move Next: forward by one interval. Cancelling an order that has already been created does not move the plan on, and it will simply come round again.

When patients set their own up

Patients ordering through the portal choose between three options, and it helps to know which one they picked:

• One-time Purchase - Pay today, no commitment. No plan is created.
• Subscribe & Save - Pay today + set up auto-refill. They are charged now and a plan starts one interval later. This is the option that carries the welcome discount.
• Auto-Order Only - No charge today. Nothing is billed until the job runs that evening.

They also choose Refill every and Delivery. Their plans appear in Patient Auto Orders alongside the ones you created, and you can edit them the same way.

Watching the whole book

The Subscription Health report under Products shows active auto-orders, estimated monthly recurring revenue, and which plans are about to lapse. Lapsing plans are worth a call - a patient whose subscription quietly ended usually did not decide to stop.